Meet Our Staff
Shamillah WilsoN
Chief IgnitorShamillah is the Chief Ignitor for Project Ignition. She has more than 15 years experience in leadership development, management and human development. She is a social entrepreneur, a qualified Life and Business Coach, as well as a design thinking coach at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design Thinking at the University of Cape Town. She has worked for the educational sector (UCT), government, and for corporates nationally and internationally. She holds a BA (UCT) and has an MBA from University of Liverpool. She will complete her MPhil in Inclusive Innovation at UCT in 2017.
In 2015, she won the prestigious Inyathelo Women in Philanthropy Award and was awarded a Bertha Scholarship in 2016 to pursue her exploration in building financial and economic literacy among women and young people. Her leadership experiences include co-founding the Youth Against AIDS Network, Founding Chairperson of Sonke Gender Justice Network and being an Advisor to the Global Fund for Women and the African Women’s Development Fund for almost 10 years. She is inspired by challenges that life throws at her and is committed to unleashing the power of possibility in others. |
Zubaida Hattas
Operations and LogisticsZubaida is the Leadership for Life Program Coordinator. She has over 10 years experience and has worked for Skills Unlimited and several units at the University of Cape Town. Zubaida is well-known for her degree of organisation, including being able to juggle many different things at the same time, whilst maintaining not only her cool, but with a beautiful smile thrown in for good measure. She thrives in situations where she is able to use her own brand of creativity, combined with her fanatical attention to detail. Above all, Zubaida is a nurturer and Project Ignition is always in good hands when she is around.
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Gadija Sait
MoneyWyze Program CoordinatorGadija is the MoneyWyze Program Coordinator. She worked previously at St John’s and Catholic Welfare and Development. She is a passionate educator that believes in connecting with people. She is committed to making sure that everybody that enters her life, walks away positive and with the ability to make things happen for themselves. Facilitation is in her blood she loves sharing and gaining knowledge to empower herself and others.
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Muneeba Davids
journalistMuneeba is a passionate and inquisitive young journalist, driven by a deeper meaning to life. She considers herself a risk taker, who is determined to make a name for herself and slay in the Media Industry. She has a vibrant personality, great fashion sense and possess good social skills. She recently discovered that she loves Media, especially youth culture and is currently doing her degree in Journalism and Media Studies at Damlin College. In her spare time, she explores new places and engages with other young artists. At the moment, she is the social media manager and photographer for an organisation called Project Ignition.
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Lia Jabe
facilitator and coachLia is our vibrant facilitator and coach at Project Ignition. She is a 2013 Project Ignition graduate and a 2014 Live Wire. Lia is passionate about body transformation through sport and beauty management and is on her way to becoming a feisty entrepreneur, who thrives on challenges. She is currently enrolled with the Raymond Ackerman Academy where she is learning more about entrepreneurship.
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MEET OUR BOARD
Dr Prins Nevhutalu
Dr Prins Nevhutalu was born in Limpopo and has spent most of his career in the higher education sector. He studied Biochemistry at the University of Limpopo (formerly University of the North) and went on to lecture a variety of Health Science subjects when he graduated. He later resigned to join the University of Northern Illinois as a PhD student where his groundbreaking research on Bilharzia, a disease spread by parasites, was of particular interest to the United States military. He continued his post-doctoral studies at the University of San Francisco as part of a programme funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Upon his return to South Africa he re-joined the University of Limpopo and late took up a position at the National Research Foundation (NRF) where he conceptualised and developed the renowned NRF Thuthuka Programme, the NRF/ Royal Society Programme and the Scarce Skills Scholarship Programme. In 2006, he was appointed as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Partnerships at Tshwane University of Technology and in 2013, he accepted the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at the University of Zululand. In July 2013, he was announced as the Vice-Chancellor of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and assumed his position on 1 January 2014. |
Herman Tefo
Herman is the Founder of AR Media. He has been exposed to different professional roles, from being in the corporate space to starting and managing his own businesses. Dash Media a marketing and productions agency and Network Radio an online radio station. With a radio and marketing background of more than 14 years, Herman has worked for various radio formats such as community, commercial radio (Algoa FM and 94.5 KFM), and retail radio.
In the marketing space he serviced advertising agencies and worked on major retail brands such as Spur, Klipdrift, Sasko Flour, Dunns Clothing, Fruitree, Old Mutual to name a few. He was instrumental in developing operational and marketing strategies for GCIS Parliamentary Studios based in Cape Town, which serviced a number of government departments as well as the Presidency. He is an alumnus at UCT GSB (Graduate School of Business) where he studied AIM (Associate in Management), and has diplomas in Project management as well as Marketing and Business management. Currently he enjoys formally working in developing and inspiring the youth and young entrepreneurs, Herman is also a firm believer of sharing ideas, information and connecting with people to shift boundaries and challenge our thinking. |
Joseph Taboola
Joseph’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Economics and Statistics degree, and a BCom (Honours) Mathematical Statistics from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. With his love for numbers, he offers extra math lessons to scholars and has also tutored Statistics courses to 1st and 2nd year university students. In preparation for his Masters degree, he is enrolled for occasional postgraduate studies in Investment Finance at the University of Cape Town, where he also serves the East African Society (EAsoc UCT) as the society Vice President. Furthermore, Joseph is involved in the running of his family’s business, Taboola Holdings (Pty) Ltd, where he is Chief Business Strategist.
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Mandisa Kwandamirah
Mandisa is a communications specialist with experience in a variety of sectors such as hospitality, retail, development sector and shipping. She is passionate about people development, wellness and health. She believes in being an expression of love and compassion. On any given day she can be found enjoying my garden or reading a book with chocolate featuring or enjoying some salsa dancing or in a fabric shop buying African prints as she enjoys.
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Shanil Haricharan, PhD |
Nosipho Balfour |
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