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MEET THE SPEAKERS

Marks Maponyane

Marks Maponyane is a former football player and businessman born in Meadowlands, Soweto on 16 February 1962. Maponyane played professional football for 17 years and was awarded footballer of the year three times.  He played for Kaizer chiefs from 1981 to 1991 and also played for Orlando Pirates, Wits University and the now defunct Dynamos.

After he retired, Maponyane focused more on his motivational speaking which he had begun while still a football player and also entered the cooperate world  as a  sales executive for  Adidas and later, Reebok. He works as a sports commentator for the South African Broadcasting Cooperation (SABC) and owns a  clothing and a cooperate gifts Company, Maponyane & Associates cc.

Linda Vargas

LINDA VARGAS’s experience is extensive. She is an author, lecturer, pioneer in multicultural relations, motivational speaker, dancer, dance teacher, international dance examiner, choreographer and producer.

Linda has been a university lecturer for 11 years. She lectured languages at the University of KZN https://www.ukzn.ac.za/ and Cultural Diversity at Durban University of Technology https://www.dut.ac.za/  She holds a Masters Degree in Education (full dissertation, cum laud) as well as B.A. Honours in Drama.  As part of her M Ed research, Linda devised a course of dance for primary school learners which addressed issues of diversity in the multicultural classroom. Please see the link for Linda’s publication “Flamenco Dance in Primary education” http://ersc.nmmu.ac.za. She subsequently conducted numerous professional development workshops for NAPTOSA https://www.nac.org.za/ to assist school teachers to teach dance in a way that encourages social cohesion and holistic learning in the multicultural classroom.

Linda is the founder of STAMP which aims to encourage people from a diversity of backgrounds and cultures to engage with one another in a way that encourages social cohesion and transformation. During her many years of research in schools in South Africa, Linda encountered some of the educational, social, and health challenges that many teachers are facing in the multicultural classroom. As an outcome of her extensive research, Linda devised STAMP dance to help address some of the educational and social challenges in multicultural education. Linda has been devising, teaching and modifying STAMP dance in schools since 2008. http://www.grgs.co.za

While lecturing Cultural Diversity at DUT, she felt inspired to write a book to help her students understand the nature quality and quantity of mental conditioning so many of us carry. To this end she wrote her book Did you Pack your bag: a checklist for mental baggage which can be purchased from Amazon.

Linda has had an extensive career as a professional dancer. Her dance qualifications include the L.I.S.T.D. (Imperial Society of teachers of Dance-London) and Enrico Cecchetti Final Diploma (I.S.T.D.-London), P.D.B (Spanish Dance Soc). Linda is one of the co-founders of the international flamenco dance organization Alianza Flamenca and served as a member of its Board of Directors for 25 years. Linda served on panel of International Examiners for S.D.S https://www.spanishdancesociety.org/ and Alianza Flamenca  as well as their Syllabus Committee. https://www.alianzaflamenca.com/

She founded the Linda Vargas Flamenco Dance Company and is the director. Linda and Company have presented numerous dance productions in collaboration with thePlayhouse Companyhttps://playhousecompany.com/ as well as at independent organisations and theatres. Linda has performed for SABCTV, the Spanish Embassy in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and has been invited to perform as guest artist both nationally and internationally. www.facebook.com/LindaVargasFlamenco. Linda has choreographed and performed in a variety of dance productions for NAPAC, PACT and CAPAB, including opera productions, La Traviata, Amal, Faust, Salome and Carmen.

 Linda and Company have also performed with world renown musicians at the UKZN Jazz Centre https://music.ukzn.ac.za/facilities/centre-for-jazz-and-popular-music. The Linda Vargas Company  celebrated its rich contribution to dance in South Africa in their 35th Anniversary Gala production held at the Sneddon Theatre in July 2018.https://www.sneddontheatre.co.za

Prof Azwidohwi Philip Kutame

Prof Kutame is a professional teacher and Social Science researcher focussing on educational issues including teacher mental health promotion, assessment and evaluation for professional development.

  • Graduated in the following degrees:
    • Phil at Stellenbosch University, investigating the methodologies of conducting sensitive research in education.
    • Master of Education at UCT, researched on Sources of teacher stress,
    • Ed at UCT, and
    • A. Degree though UNISA.
  • Spent forty-eight years teaching (at high school (Basic Education) and Higher Education Institution).
  • Retired in 2016, but still active at the University of Zululand, involved in research, Community Engagement and support programmes in schools in the Four KZN Education Districts: Ilembe, Umkhanyakude, Zululand and King Cetswayo.
  • Research areas: Assessment; Teacher mental health and its effects on the promotion of quality of teaching and learning; Leadership and Management in Education, and evaluation of the role of community engagement in promoting the quality of life of teachers in rural areas.
  • Community Engagement research: Engaged in research projects investigating overall school performance and curriculum management in rural schools. Working with schools in Four KZN Districts.
  • Was a treasurer and a member of the South African School Sports for more than two terms.
  • Served as a member of the Professional Educators’ Union till about two years after leaving Basic Education and was Provincial Chairperson for more than One term, and a member of the NAPTOSA Education Committee.
  • Was a member of the Principal’s Association till leaving Basic Education to Higher Education in 2006.
  • Received three prestigious awards during period of active employment: the Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Awards: Research, Teaching and Community Engagement Excellence Awards. Also received numerous research awards. Supervised to completion 40 Doctoral and 44 Masters graduates. Attended and presented papers at conferences in many countries (including USA (Hawaii, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Massachusetts), Malta, Spain, Italy, UK, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany…) and in some SADEC Countries including Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique.

Prof Mncedisi Maphalala

Prof Mncedisi Maphalala is a Director: of the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at the Durban University of Technology and a former Dean in the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand.

He holds a D.Ed in curriculum studies from the University of Zululand.  His career in Higher Education spans over 17 years as a Research Professor (North-West University), Professor at the University of Zululand and UNISA and Institutional researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand. He has also previously worked for the KZN Department of Education (as a teacher, HOD and Deputy Principal); between May and August 2015, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of North Dakota (USA).   Prof Maphalala is an established researcher who holds an NRF C2 rating. He has edited books and special journal issues and published a number of book chapters and research articles in peer-reviewed journals. Prof Maphalala has presented research papers at various local and international conferences. As a postgraduate supervisor and mentor, Prof Maphalala has supervised to completion several Masters and doctoral candidates. He has conducted a number of large-scale commissioned research projects by external organisations such as the South African Institute of Distance Education (SAIDE), Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), and Council on Higher Education (CHE). He has served on the Umalusi Research Forum, a sub-committee of the Umalusi Council, for a four-year term. His research interests are teacher education, self-directed learning, blended learning, Scholarship of Teaching & Learning and Curriculum studies.

Lynette Beer

Lynette is a popular motivator and public speaker who appears nationally and internationally.

Graeme Codrington

Graeme is an internationally recognized futurist, specializing in the future of work. He helps organizations understand the forces that will shape our lives in the next ten years, and how we can respond in order to confidently stay ahead of change.

For the past two decades Graeme has worked with some of the world’s most recognized brands, travelling to over 80 countries in total, and speaking to around 100,000 people every year. He is the author of 5 best-selling books, and on faculty at 5 top global business schools.

Dr Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh

Dr Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh is a Lecturer in the Department of International Relations at Wits University. 

He holds a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford. His first book Democracy and Delusion: 10 Myths in South African Politics (2017) won the City Press-Tafelberg Nonfiction Award. The book was accompanied by a rap album of the same name. His second book The New Apartheid (2021) was one of the bestselling books in South Africa that year. He is the host of the prime time current affairs show ‘Unfiltered’ on SABC News. 

Dr Gcina Mhlophe

Dr Gcina Mhlophe is an author storyteller and founding director of Gcinamasiko Arts & Heritage Trust. Her works have been translated into many languages, including all official South African languages, kiSwahili, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and even Braille.

She has directed her theatre plays in USA, UK and Greenland, her most widely known and studied theatre text being “Have You Seen Zandile?”. Her poetry has been reinterpreted into dance and classical music. Seven Universities both in South Africa and internationally have awarded her with honorary doctorates. Dr Mhlophe’s awards include SAMA for her CD called “Stories of Africa”, OBBIE Award and Joseph Jefferson Awards in USA, Fringe First in Edinburgh Festival, Multi Choice AFRICA Legend Storyteller Award, USIBA Cultural legend, SA Children’s Laureate Award and more recently the SAFTA Lifetime Achievement award for her acting and contribution to film in South Africa. As a South African storytelling luminary, her birthday on the 24th October is now recognised as National Storytelling Day in South Africa, since 2019 where it was inaugurated at her very own adopted performance space – The Storytelling Tree, in Durban (RSA).

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DURBAN INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE

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