Dr Sam Motsuenyane is the Patron of the Foundation.

He is one of the founders of the largest and best-known African business organisation, The National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (“NAFCOC”) in 1964. Dr Sam Motsuenyane played a significant role in the development of Black business in the country. He was in the leadership of NAFCOC that conceived the birth of the African Bank (“the Bank”).  Dr Sam Motsuenyane lead the initiative by NAFCOC to establish African Bank. Through their perseverance and passion to be economically self-sufficient, they were able to mobilise black communities to contribute toward the R1 million that was required to capitalise the Bank for it to open its 1st branch in Ga-Rankuwa in 1975.

He retired from NAFCOC in the 1992 and joined parliament where he was appointed leader of the house of senate and later the 1st Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1996 to 2000. He was also accredited as an Ambassador to Oman, Yemen, Kuwait and Bahrain. After retirement, Dr Motsuenyane initiated a Citrus Farm project that has 145 (“one hundred and forty-five”) plot owners organised under the name “Winterveld United Farmers Association”, which he also founded in 2002.

Paul Ntshabele is an Agronomist, Agribusiness and Land Reform leader.  His passion is Food Security.  He has held various leadership roles at the University of Pretoria as an Executive Council member of the faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. Minister of Student Guardian (nathouse), Executive Council member of Kollegetehuis residence, Minister of Internal and External Affairs at Kollegetehuis, Chairperson of Kollegetehuis Club house, member of the Golden Key Honorary International,  AISEC (Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales), he was selected to be on the Tuks Top Junior and Senior Prestigious Leadership Programme and was part of SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise).

Paul is a United State Department of Agriculture Cochran fellow. He was selected to participate in a World Bank Fink Mark Trust SADAC Access To Rural Finance Programme and has a certificate of A Programme in Agricultural and Rural Finance from Continued Education at the University of Pretoria. He completed a Signa/Agbiz Transforming Leadership in Agribusiness workshop. He is a member of the Institute of Directors (IoDSA). He is also member of the Southern African Society of Horticultural Science and the Land Rehabilitation Society of Southern Africa and The Land Rehabilitation Society of Southern Africa (LaRSSA).

Paul does pro bono work with smallholder farmers throughout the country and volunteers in various agricultural platforms. He voluntarily served on the Department of Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry’s national task team for smallholder producers. Through the years he has been an invited speaker and presented at various agricultural/agribusiness conferences/symposiums on issues affecting emerging farmers and food security.

His work experience includes working as an Examiner Assistant for the Department of Education of North West. Working as a Science Communicator at the University of Pretoria SCIENZA and later Manager Sudentee Kultuur (STUKU) and of Sports at the same institution.
He has experience throughout the entire Agricultural value chain. He has worked as an Agronomist, Fruit and Vegetable Procurement Officer, Lab Quality Control Technician, Extension Officer, Emerging Market Manager, Product Development Specialist and Business Development for multinational Agribusiness such as McCain, Sakata Seeds and Shoprite Group. He has also worked as consultant to the Japanese government.

He is a shareholder and director of numerous Agribusinesses. Paul is currently the Founder and Executive Director of PSJ Group Pty Ltd which is a diversified Agricultural holdings company, Co- founder of Land Rehabilitation Company (Pty) Ltd in partnership with the University of Pretoria and The National House of Traditional Leaders working to set up Agricultural projects nationally to productively use tribal land that is lying fellow and Co-founder of AgriMintech (Pty) Ltd which is a climate smart green company working with Eskom to beneficiate coal ash waste to produce a soil substrate condition product that increases the fertility and productivity of degraded land.  He is a co-founder of CMR2 www.cmr2.org (Centre of Mined Land Rehabilitation – Coal Mined Land Rehabilitation Research & Training Centre of Excellence).

He is a co-founder together with Ndaba Mandela of “A Million Food Gardens for Mandela Day” which is sponsored by British American Tobacco. He is an independent expert advisor on the Bokamoso Ba Rona Sibanye Stillwater 30 000 ha Agricultural project.  He serves as an Advisory independent on the Dipuno Investment Committee (Dipuno Enterprise and Supplier Development Fund is a Tiger Brands Foundation Fund).  Paul is a founding member of the newly launched South African Agricultural Development Agency (AGDA) lead by Roelf Meyer. He studied Agronomy at the University of Pretoria, Project Management at UNISA, Zero Hunger Policy: Emerging Farm Management at University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.

Mr Themba Mathibe is a Chief Executive Officer of the Dr Sam Motsuenyane Foundation and a mentee of Dr Sam Motsuenyane.

Prior to joining the foundation, he has been involved in the transport industry since 2008. He is the founding President of the National Transport Owners Association and has led the association from 2018 until late 2020. In that time, he managed to bring partners to the association, that included BABCOCK, Supplier Development Initiatives (SDI), Royal Bafokeng Enterprise Development (RBED) and NAFCOC NW.

He is a qualified Project Manager with the UNISA School of Business Leadership (SBL).

Lucas Ndala was born and bred in Winterveldt and he is a qualified Chartered Accountant. He served his articles with Deloitte and then went to work for Mettle in structured finance. He then joined Barclays Africa as a credit analyst and then moving on to Royal Bafokeng Holdings as an investment manager. He was then promoted to Group Financial Director and also had a short stint as the acting CEO. He then joined MOGS, a subsidiary of RBH, as the CEO. Lucas currently for works for Telkom group as the Group Executive: Office of the Group CEO and prior this this role, he was the COO for Openserve as position he held for almost 4 years. Lucas joined Telkom Group as the CFO for Openserve in 2015.

He also served on a number of boards as a non-executive director and some of the boards that he served on includes RBPlat, Fraser Alexander, Metair, DHL Express, Senwes, MB Technologies, Tarsus, SA Coal Mine Holdings.

I am the Vice-Chairman of the Dr. S. Motsuenyane rural development foundation.I am a retired academic. When I retired in July 2006, I had been the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Tecchnikon Northen Gauteng. For ten years and the final 4 years of my employment I was the Seniour Vice Principal academic at the Tshwane University of Technology. TUT.Serving on the foundation gives me great satisfaction because I consider it as my contribution to community development.

Sadi’s professional community development experience of over 30 years started in 1988 as a Professional Officer in the Development and Planning Coordination Unit of the former Bophuthatswana government.  She taught development studies at the University of Bophuthatswana (Now North West); served in various positions from community development practitioner to manager in the following institutions: Agricor; the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in the Building Technology Division and the Technology for Development Programme.  At the CSIR, Sadi produced a guideline for construction of earth block homes; together with her team, she received a CSIR award for the development of an innovative poverty alleviation model in 2000 and she also received a National Science and Technology Award (2000) and was the first woman ever to receive this award. Sadi also served as a Director for Rural Livelihoods at the Agricultural Research Council responsible for supporting resource poor farmers to achieve their agricultural development and farming objectives.

Sadi subsequently joined the Department of Social Development where she served for 13 years from 2004 to 2017 as the Chief Director for Community Development and Sustainable Livelihoods. She provided strategic direction in strategic planning and reporting, financial management, human resource management, risk management, community development practice, sustainable livelihoods, women empowerment and household food and nutrition security.  Among many of her achievements, she facilitated the development of various strategic documents including the Community Development Practice Policy; Guidelines for Training of CBOs on Sustainable Livelihoods; Sustainable Livelihoods Toolkit for Community Development Practitioners in South Africa in 2009 which gradually sensitized her about the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach.

Sadi was instrumental in facilitating the institutionalization of the ABCD approach in government, specifically in the Departments of Social Development, Public Service and Local Government.  She facilitated a significant number of ABCD training workshops for Community Development Workers and Practitioners employed in government and in the NPO sector and for empowerment of women leaders. She also attended a significant number of national and international seminars and conferences both as a participants and presenter.

Sadi attended and completed the Social Entrepreneurship Certificate course at the Gordon Institute for Business Science (GIBS) of the University of Pretoria in 2014.  She established the Programme Management Unit to unleash the economic potential of cooperatives.  This was achieved through the mentorship and coaching of cooperatives done in partnership with the National Development Agency, the Department of Small Business Development and Cooperatives and its entities, mainly SEDA supported by GTZ.  This PMU ensured compliance of the Department of Social Development with the Preferential Procurement Framework Guidelines of 2017 which enforces that at least 30% of goods and services procured should be from local producers.  She is advocating for the popularization of the “public spending for public benefit” concept to ensure that the public sector uses its purchasing power to deliver local economic development.

Sadi attended and presented at various international, regional and national conferences, most of which in the past six years were ABCD related.  She has also attended various community development refresher and certificate courses to enhance her knowledge and expertise.  She has worked in partnership with various NGOs and Public entities to drive the course of community driven development and entrepreneurship.  Sadi holds a Master’s Degree in Public and Development Management from the University of Stellenbosch.

Sadi retired from government service end of December, 2017 but remains actively involved in her studies and community development work.  Post retirement, she was the co-facilitator of the 1st International ABCD Imbizo held in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in February 2018 which was attended by more than 23 countries.  In 2018, she was the appointed as the Coady Chair of Social Justice by the Coady International Institute, St Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada.  During her tenure as the Coady Chair for Social Justice, she spent two months at the Institute presenting lectures to students and the public on social justice challenges and opportunities. She is a member of the Coady International Institute’s Advisory Board since 2016 and a Trustee of the Dr Sam Motsuenyane Rural Development Foundation from 2018 to date.  In 2019, she was the Community Development Adjunct Lecturer at Monash University South Africa in the Faculty of Social and Health Sciences and also a Moderator of 3rd year Development Studies exams in Development Planning and Project Management for University of Limpopo.

Tim Modise has worked in the broadcast media for over thirty years. He has worked for various radio & TV stations of the SABC, M-Net, Primedia, BBC & PowerFM across different formats from music, current affairs & talk shows. He was inducted in the Radio Hall of Fame in 2011.

Although grounded in the music formatted stations for 5 years of his early broadcasting career, Modise transitioned to talk format when he introduced public education talk in 1988. He later introduced politically oriented talk, participating extensively in the coverage of transition from ‘apartheid’ to the new ‘constitutional democracy’, reporting and commenting on the unbanning of the ANC and other liberation movements, the release of political prisoners, the uprisings, and subsequent negotiations that ushered in the South Africa of today. He provided voter education on his programmes, hosted the debates leading to the elections of 1994 which he also covered on both radio and TV. His highlight was as panelist on the Mandela/de Klerk debate which was broadcast to a global audience of 800 million. He has interviewed all South African Presidents since 1990.

Tim Modise has also worked as political analyst for AMB Securities & HSBC , columnist for City Press newspaper, was appointed founding chairman of Proudly South African by President Mbeki, briefly worked as Chief Communications Officer of 2010 World Cup and later became CEO of Sizwe IT, a technology company.

He continues to cover South African public affairs in various capacities including on his eNCA programmes. He is involved in education & health sectors in his home community of Garankuwa as patron of the Tim Modise Primary School. He is former member of Sefako Makgatho University & board of George Mukhari Hospital. He has received numerous awards for community development, communication, broadcasting. He received the first Reconciliation Away from the Institute of Justice & Reconciliation and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu as well as The International Human Rights Award from the Jaime Brunet Foundation, University of Navarro in Spain. He was inducted in the Radio Hall of Fame in 2011. He is a public speaker who has also given keynote speeches at graduation ceremonies of universities of Cape Town, Tshwane, UNISA & Wits. He has moderated/ facilitated a variety of conferences & MC’d major events including Cape Town Jazz, Mandela 85 Birthday Ubuntu Awards & the Loerie Awards with Fran Drescher & Louis Gossett Jr. He obtained Advanced Management Diploma (AMP) from Henley Business School, Marketing Certificate UNISA, Financial Management Diploma from Damelin.

He also promotes entrepreneurship with the research company Plus94 Research collaborating on their support platform called BizNexus.He most recently has built an app based broadcasting platform called NILE MEDIA for content producers everywhere.

Highlights

• Introduced talk format at the SABC on Radio Metro in late 1980s
• Worked with Editor of Sowetan newspaper Dr Aggrey Klaaste on the ‘Nation Building Project’
• Interviewed numerous leaders in the lead up to 1994 elections; including Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Mangosuthu Buthelezi the late Joe Slovo & Chris Hani.
• Conducted voter education with Matla Trust under Billy Modise
• Participated in the first Presidential debate 1994 of Dr Klerk/ Mandela with 800 million global audiences
• Hosted co-productions with the US National Public Radio & the BBC
• Besides South African leaders, interviewed French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Namibian President Nujoma, Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Grutlantd & Irish Prime Minister Mary Robertson.
• Interviewed a diverse range of personalities including Mirriam Makeba, Letta Mbulu, Brenda Fassie, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Caiphus Semenya, Hugh Masekela, Sipho Mabuse, Abdullah Ebrahim, Angela Bassett, Danny Glover, Al Jarreau, Lionel Richie, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dalai Lama, John Kani, Ray Phiri, Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Noam Chomsky, Arundathi Roy, John Pilger,Robert Fisk, et al
• Founding Chairman of the Proudly SA Campaign
• Communications Chief 2007-2008 of the 2010 World Cup
  ‘CEO of IT Company Sizwe Africa for 4 years
• Covered all national elections since 1994 on both TV & Radio
• Participated in hosting the Dalai Lama in SA
• Helped launch Power FM
• Previously Board member of Open Society Foundation, Love Life Campaign, Garankuwa Forum for Excellence l Sefako Makgatho University, Dr George Mukhari Hospital and now the Dr Sam Motsuenyane Foundation.
• Has extensive networks in the arts, education, politics, business and the media.
• Currently involved in building an accessible, cheaper media platform for content creators in South Africa.

Awards

• SABC Broadcaster of the Year 1991
• Inaugural Reconciliation Award from Institute of Justice & Reconciliation conferred by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• Communicator of the Year- Tshwane University of Technology
• Rotary Club Paul Harris Award for Community Service
• Agisanang Primary School renamed Tim Modise
• GQ Magazine TV Personality of the Year
• Jaime Brunet International Human Rights- University of Navarro, Pamplona Spain
• Radio Hall of Fame 2011
• Tim Modise lives with his children in Kyalami, Johannesburg. Enjoys music, theatre, nature reserves and reading widely on current affairs and human development. He has a keen interest in technology innovations.

Mr Mokgohloa started farming in 2010 after attending a hydroponic farming course. He is the operations manager of Korema Farms in Winterveldt, producing English cucumbers and peppers. The operation runs a small herd of cattle on the plot. Mr Mokgohloa matriculated from Potchefstroom High School for Boys in 2005 and went on to work for five years at aircraft manufacturer Global Composite Solutions (GCS) at Wonderboom Airport. He acquired his PPL license at the BlueChip Aviation School in 2008 but has since parked the flying career while focusing on his farming business. He completed a course at Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) on management and operations.