GROUND

BREAKERS
&
THOUGHT
LEADERS
Where others have seen obstacles,
theyve seen openings. Where doubt
and caution have censured, theyve
made a plan. Shifting accepted ways
of doing things, theyve provided
the blueprints for those that follow.
These are the original minds that
have responded to the ever-present
human need for reinvention.
MARY SIBANDE
LIFE AS ART
Resplendent in a blue Victorian dress, crisp
white doek and apron: here she is a lady at the
ball; here, a general leading an army to war,
and here, a queen on her stallion. Meet Sophie,
the sculptural alter ego conjured by artist
Mary Sibande from breglass casts of her own
body. Born into a line of domestic workers that
stretches back three generations, Sibande
grew up in the small town of Barberton,
Mpumalanga. She is now part of a new
generation of black artists who live and work
in a building on the gritty eastern fringes of
21st-century metropolitan Joburg. From
this vantage point of relative freedom and
autonomy, she pays homage to her forebears
by giving free rein to their imagined desires.
Sophie, described by academic Alex Dodd as
an act of associative hijacking, has featured
in several exhibitions across America and
Europe, including the Venice Biennale and
Paris Photo in 2011, and won Sibande a 2013
Standard Bank Young Artist award, as well
as residencies in six countries (including at
the Smithsonian in Washington DC). This year
her work has been seen in Denmark, Runion,
the US and the Edinburgh Festival. In her
latest series, The Purple Shall Govern,
Sibande/Sophie has turned inward. A jungle
of purple seaweedy rhizomes swamp her body
the intestines, an inspection of the mess
within, she says. Deconstructing the familiar
ideas built into her own work, questioning
what Sophie had dreamt of, Sibande is holding
a mirror to the construction of identity and
power relations in post-apartheid SA.
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NEIL TUROK
QUANTUM REVOLUTIONARY
Summarising cosmologist Neil Turoks work is about as easy as explaining the instanton
solutions he developed with Stephen Hawking back in 1998 to describe the birth of
an inationary universe. And yet his award-winning book, The Universe Within, was a
bestseller. He describes it as my attempt to show that our understanding of the universe
connects deeply to our shared humanity to who we are and who we can be. According
to Turok, the digital revolution has created a deluge of information that feels alien to
us as natural living creatures. But on the sunny side, he argues, we are on the cusp of
a major transformation: the Quantum Revolution. To this end, Turok, currently director
of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario, Canada, is a part of one
of the most signicant efforts internationally to create a quantum computer: the weird
and innitely more powerful potential replacement for digital technology. To face this
brave new world, he calls for opening access to the vast, untapped pools of intellectual
talent in the developing world. Back in 2003 Turok founded the African Institute for
Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town, with a roll-out of four other schools across the
Africa so far, it has 470 alumni and over 200 PhDs, including that of Daphne Singo,
daughter of a Limpopo domestic worker, who recently earned her PhD in nuclear physics.
STUART FORREST
ANIMATION ACE
Most of us could achieve anything if we had a complete commitment to one goal and
enough time to see it through, Stuart Forrest told Finweek. That statement perfectly
describes the world of movie animation, with its excruciatingly long production periods.
Back in 2001, Forrest wanted to work for the SA company that had landed a contract to
create animation for Takalani Sesame and the American original, Sesame Street; and he
was indeed hired as a junior animator at Triggersh Animation. Now Forrest is co-owner
and CEO of the company, which is making waves in the competitive international
animation arena and bringing a more authentic view of Africa to the big screen. It
started in 2012 with Adventures in Zambezia, SAs rst-ever 3D animated feature. It took
a lot of work (each frame can take up to 19 hours to create) and many investors but it
was worth it when Sony Pictures bought into the Triggersh vision. The lm was released
in 40 countries in 25 different languages. Hot on its heels came Khumba, dubbed into
27 languages, which was a New York Times Critics Pick, won two Panda Awards and was
selected for the Toronto Film Festival. Both projects attracted A-list actors (including
Samuel L. Jackson and Liam Neeson) to do the voices. Next up: a story about a sea
monster, set on the West Coast. We (and the rest of the planet) cant wait.
SIYA XUSA
FUELLING THE FUTURE
The minor planet 23182 Siyaxusa circles the solar system
in the main asteroid belt near Jupiter. It was named by
the MIT Lincoln Laboratory after Siyabulela Xusa.
Xusas own trajectory from an Eastern Cape township
to the custodian of a celestial body and the orbit of NASA
and Harvard began in 1994. He was ve. He chased the
roar of a Cessna plane dropping election pamphlets over
Mthatha the sight of that technological marvel ignited
in me a curiosity for science and a passion for using
technology to engineer an African renaissance.
Experiments in his mothers kitchen culminated in the
launch of a home-built rocket, the Phoenix. It reached
a nal height of over 1km and earned him the junior SA
amateur high-powered altitude record. The rocket was
propelled by Xuzas invention a cheaper, safer type of
rocket fuel, the subject of a project titled Fuelling Africas
Quest to Space. It won him a trip to the Nobel Prize
ceremony in Sweden and, later, a scholarship to Harvards
School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, as well as
being the youngest member of Africa 2.0, a collection
of the continents brightest minds committed to seeking
sustainable solutions to challenges faced by Africans.
Xusa is currently researching sustainable portable power
storage. I may not be able to predict what the future holds,
but Im excited about how my engineering education will
enable me to achieve my aspirations for Africa, he says.
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LEE BERGER
A RARE FIND
Prof Lee Berger likes to dig up the past not skeletons in closets but fossils in
caves. In 2008 he found an almost 2-million-year-old skeleton of an unknown
species of early human ancestor, which he called Australopithecus sediba, in
the Cradle of Humankind. It was one of the most complete skeletons ever and
a landmark in our quest to understand humanitys origins. In November last
year, Berger again made headlines with the Rising Star Expedition it has so far
catalogued over 1 200 high-quality hominin fossil elements, representing at
least a dozen individuals; an unprecedented discovery. But its Bergers
all-access policy for any palaeo-anthropologist who asks to see the fossils that
is truly worth noting. When the potential fame and glory is enormous, but
resources few, the behind-the-scenes competition can be brutal; researchers
have been known to sit on remains for decades. Not Berger. Rising Star had
real-time coverage on social media, and established an academy to teach
exploration sciences to the next generation. Bergers work has appeared in
Time, Scientic American, Science and Discover Magazine, and he helped
found the Palaeo-Anthropological Scientic Trust, the largest in Africa. Less
known is a humanitarian award Berger received in 1987, for throwing his
camera down while working for a US TV station and jumping into a river
to save a drowning woman. Like the ancient skeletons hes uncovered,
Bergers generosity and curiosity is an example of our evolving humanity.
MBONGENI
NGEMA
AFRICA ON SHOW
Mbongeni Ngemas new work, The Zulu
his return to the stage as an actor
after 32 years (and performed at the
Edinburgh Festival this year) was
inspired by his great-grandmothers
tales of old Zululand. South Africa is
lled with stories and we need to invest
in making sure they are told, he says.
There is a great market internationally
for them, too. One of our greatest
playwrights and composers, Ngema
knows this to be true. In 1981 he
co-wrote the globally acclaimed Woza
Albert!. Next, both Asinamali (1987) and
Sarana! (1988) were nominated for
Tony Awards (six in total), had lengthy
runs on Broadway and toured Europe,
the US, Japan and Australia. His vocal
arrangements on Disneys The Lion King
soundtrack won him a Grammy, and in
1998 he got his place on the Walk of
Fame in New Yorks theatre district. In
October last year Ngema announced
plans for a satellite channel, Zulu TV, to
extend the platform for storytelling in
sub-Saharan Africa. Hes a controversial
gure substantial government funding
has led to accusations of his later work
being propaganda, and his personal life
has been, well, complicated yet theres
no denying his contribution to Africas
cultural output. As Christopher John,
director of The Zulu, says: He has
opened the door for people to tell
their own stories.
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GROUND BREAKERS & THOUGHT LEADERS
At age 13 Stuart Ntlathi invented the worlds rst recycled
microwave-griller combo, and formed a club of four
like-minded peers in a community that largely considered
maths and science a no-go career route for black kids.
Thirteen years later that same club is the North West-based
Stuart Ntlathi Science, Engineering & Technology (SNSET)
Institute. It has won local and international awards, and
offers training programmes for more than 30 000 learners,
grooming our next generation of tech entrepreneurs. Some
of its patented inventions include a portable shoe polisher,
a 14-in-1 microwave and an auto cooling umbrella. In his
teens, Ntlathi also established a science fair in Klerksdorp
(close to the rural township where he grew up), which has
become the International Innovation Indaba. In 2012 it
awarded bursaries to all 100 of its delegates tasked with
building models of sustainable transformation, and won
Ntlathi the Community Builder of the Year award. Ntlathi,
who himself added the Sir in front of his name (Is it
necessary to wait for the Queen?) is on a mission to give
young people a platform to be part of the developing world
or, as he calls it, The Innity Dream. His goal is to establish
an Innity Park, a launching pad for science-based business
and academic development in Africa. And heres something
else to stretch the imagination: Sir Stuart is scheduled to
go into space on the rst Virgin Galactic mission with Sir
Richard Branson next year. To Innity and beyond!
GAIL KELLY
A FINANCIAL FORCE OF NATURE
When Gail Kelly arrived
at an interview for the
position of senior HR
executive at Nedcor Bank,
she had one toddler at
preschool and infant
triplets (one was with
grandma, one handed to
the interviewers PA and
the third sleeping on her
lap). Kelly not only got
the job but convinced her
future boss to hold the
full-time position open
for her for seven months,
until her babies were a
year old. It must have been
clear to the interviewer
what is evident to the
world today Gail Kelly,
now CEO of Australias
Westpac Bank, and one
of Asia-Pacics most
powerful businesswomen,
can get things done.
Kellys rapid rise has
become corporate lore.
She started as a teller at
Nedbank in Pretoria in
1980, but her customer-
focused approach and
persuasive skills
fast-tracked her career
though HR and line
management. In 1997 she
emigrated to Australia,
and a decade later was
leading its second largest
bank. One of only seven
female chief executives of
Australias top 200
market-listed companies,
and the rst to run one
of the Big Four banks, by
2012 Kelly had women
lling 40% of Westpacs
top managerial positions
(two years ahead of
target). Kelly is also
a female empowerment
ambassador for CARE,
embodying the advice she
gave to a rural Cambodian
girl: Develop a clear
vision of what you would
like to achieve, be bold
and courageous in
following your dreams,
study hard and dont be
afraid to ask for help.
SIR STUART NTLATHI
SPIRIT OF INVENTION
CPUT NANO-
SATELLITE TEAM
IN AN ORBIT OF THEIR OWN
A team of budding scientists at Cape Peninsula University
of Technology (CPUT) has reason to cheer at least four
times a day, when a satellite they built passes above Cape
Town. It made history when it was launched in November
last year in Russia; ZACUBE-1, their creation, is one of about
200 nano-satellites (a 10cm cube), and SAs rst, orbiting
Earth. For the 40 students who started work on the project
in 2011, funded by the French SA Institute of Technology,
the cube is their rst-born child. Director of the satellite
programme, Robert van Zyl, shared the sentiment when the
gadget made its rst contact from space: When you hear
that beep, you know your baby is alive. The device, ofcially
named TshepisoSat, orbits at an altitude of 600km,
collecting data on weather in space so scientists can study
solar storms and their effect on technologies on Earth.
After Nelson Mandelas death, it transmitted his clan name,
Madiba, every 30 seconds from space in tribute. During the
three-year development of ZACUBE-1, the team hosted the
rst International African CubeSat Workshop, won rst
prize in the International Mission Idea Contest in 2012,
and established the Africa Space Innovation Centre that
exports nano-sat systems to global customers. And theyre
already working on a sibling ZACUBE-2, of course.
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Nina Simones Where You Gonna Run To sets the pace for
an action-packed chase through a cityscape where all
the diversions of life are hyper-real. The TV ad campaign
message is simple: the temptation to change strategy in
pursuit of something more enticing puts long-term goals
in jeopardy. Smart advertising, rigorous research and the
consistent application of a belief in investing heavily in
companies whose share prices are less than their intrinsic
value has made Allan Gray SAs top privately owned fund
management company, and Allan Gray our wealthiest
man. Many are surprised to learn there is actually
a person called Allan Gray. Born in East London; studied
at Harvard; lives in Bermuda. But few photos of him exist.
He doesnt give interviews. And rich lists are precisely
the kind of distraction he abhors. In 2011 Gray, who has
donated more than R1 billion over 33 years to education
and other causes in South Africa, received the 2011
Inyathelo Award for Lifetime Philanthropy. The Allan
Gray Orbis Foundation, started with $130 million from
Grays own account to fund scholarships for poor
students, was given a mandate to develop high-impact
entrepreneurs. And Gray and wife Gill personally pay
for the education of children of Allan Gray staff who earn
a salary less than a specied threshold. Gray is a man
deeply invested in SAs future, and one who knows all
about long-term returns.
MICHAELLA JANSE VAN VUUREN
3D PRINTING PIONEER
A horse marionette, made up of countless interlocking parts, moves in a dreamlike
combination of childhood fantasy and practical engineering. Michaella Janse van Vuuren
has shown whats possible when art meets technology: her Winged Horse was made
using 3D printing. On a large scale, the process is being used to make specialised parts
for the aviation industry and custom biomedical prostheses such as hip joints. Useful,
but not sexy. With a PhD in electrical engineering, she began using the technology while
doing a post-doctorate in medical applications. But her artistic side had knocked on the
door and come in and she is demonstrating another dimension of the technology. Ive
been able to give substance to my imagination, with no limit to realising even the most
elaborate image, she says. Van Vuurens rst design, a chrysanthemum table centrepiece,
was made back in 2009 when most people did not know what 3D printing was. Last year
she founded Agents of the 3D Revolution, a series of expos and seminars by leaders in
this cutting-edge eld, to educate people about the third Industrial Revolution. Her
work has featured at the 3D Printshows in London, Paris and New York where, this
year, she debuted the rst-ever 3D fashion pieces (Garden of Eden-inspired shoes,
a corset and bracelet). Her other work, including the horse, is currently on view at the
London Science Museum. Its a good thing for Art she opened that door.
ALLAN GRAY
BIG MONEY MAKER AND DONATER
GIFT NGOEPE
IN ANOTHER LEAGUE
Until his arrival in America at age 18, Mpho Gift Ngoepe
had lived his entire life in the clubhouse of amateur
baseball team the Randburg Mets, in Joburg, where his
single mother cooked, cleaned and ran the tuck shop. Its
no surprise he started playing the game at age 3, and by
age 10 was representing SA at the Junior World Champs
in Brazil, in Mexico at 15 and Cuba the following year.
In 2007, at a three-week baseball academy in Italy with
50 other kids from around the world, his raw talent was
noted and he was offered a Minor League spot with the
Pittsburgh Pirates a city and team hed never heard of.
He is one of the few Africans, and the rst black South
African, to sign a professional contract in the States. It
hasnt been easy hes been on a major learning curve;
has had to adjust to the USs highly competitive baseball
culture, and the different nationalities within his team
(hes even learnt Spanish). But Ngoepe is known for the
huge energy and positive spirit he brings to the game. Hes
got his eye on the prize: to become the rst South African
to play in the Major League. Im a person who always
believes in himself. And I trust in people to believe in me.
1 4 1 00 WOR L D C L AS S S OUT H AF R I C ANS
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GROUND BREAKERS & THOUGHT LEADERS
Her third novel, The Shining Girls, has been a smash hit, a global bestseller, available in
25 countries. Its generated major media buzz Time magazine called it astonishing;
Stephen King hailed its clever story and smart prose and Leo DiCaprio plans to turn
it into a TV series. It earned Beukes a UK Strand Magazine Critics Award and the British
Fantasy August Derleth Best Horror Award this year. It hardly gets much bigger than that.
It was a good year for SAs coolest famous author; her Fairest: The Hidden Kingdom
(created with artist Inaki Miranda) also debuted at No.2 on The New York Times graphic
novel bestseller list in August. In between a four-continent book tour for Shining Girls,
promoting African literature through her guest blog series The Spark, and organising
a charity art show that raised R100 000 for Rape Crisis, she nished writing Broken
Monsters, a detective thriller set in Detroit, which has been getting rave reviews
(including, again, from superfan Stephen King, who couldnt put it down). Shes also
been adapting her 2010 award-winning sci- novel Zoo City into a lm that goes into
production soon Beukes has admitted to stalking Idris Elba to get him to read the script.
Read last years prole on citypress.co.za
LAUREN BEUKES
FICTION SUPERHERO
RENCHIA DROGANIS
THE AFRICAN TOUCH
With Africology, Renchia Droganis has brewed, bottled
and branded the ancient wisdom and healing powers
of Africa for a global market. Droganiss own story has
all the elements of archetype: a single mother of four
dreams of a better life for her children, studies reiki and
aromatherapy, and starts stirring cauldrons of marula,
aloe and rooibos on her kitchen stove. A Magaliesburg
hotel places an order and before you can say African
potato wrap, she has a production line hundreds of
products strong. Passionate about our planet and
opposed to animal testing, Droganis steered away
from fast-and-cheap quick-x remedies, circumvented
chemical labs and earned herself a loyal following and
a unique selling point: using only ingredients present in
or produced by nature, not articial or synthetic in any
way. Africology, which won a World Luxury Spa Award
in 2013, is available in spas across Africa and Europe,
with distribution deals spanning from Russia and
America to Turkey and Dubai. A supporter of Fair Trade,
Droganis established the Africology Education Fund to
develop the income potential of poor communities (the
marula oil she uses, for example, is sourced from such
a project). She also started the Africology Water Sharing
Initiative to provide rainwater collection tanks to villages.
Shes simply giving back to the soil, and the people, that
have so abundantly provided. G
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NICO DEKKER
CREATING SOUTH AFRICAS HOLLYWOOD
Hes a former journalist
who has turned what was
once a desolate wasteland
off the N1 into a state-of-
the-art, cutting-edge,
world-class lm studio:
17 000m
2
of indoor
production facilities,
including ve hectares of
back lots and four stages
(with two more in the
pipeline). Here, off Baden
Powell Drive en route to
Cape Town airport, a 13th
century French village can
turn into medieval Florence
and then Caribbean Nassau
Island of 1720. Warner
Brothers, 20th Century
Fox, BBC, Working Title
and Universal Pictures
have all come knocking.
Large-scale productions
include Safe House, Long
Walk to Freedom, Mad
Max: Fury Road and the
new pirate TV series Black
Sails (for which a special
deep-sea tank was built).
But more than the physical
studio itself, Dekker has
changed foreign lm
makers perception of SA
from merely a location
destination to hi-tech
manufacturing hub, with
several describing it as
more advanced than
anything that exists in the
world. The Dept of Trade
& Industry puts production
spend since 2010 in excess
of R1.7 billion, and job
creation at about 35 000.
Dekker likes to couch it
in more socialist terms,
calling the studios a lm
factory hosting an army
of artists, carpenters,
architects His ultimate
vision is to develop
interactive gaming at the
studio. The movie world
and the gaming world are
already touching. In future
they will merge. When
they do, Dekker wants to
be in the running. As far as
hes concerned, its lights,
camera, action and game on!
PRUE LEITH
A CULINARY CLASSIC
Long hours, crazy pace, stress, cuts, burns and abuse being a chef is not for the
faint-hearted. But SA-born Prue Leith is no wilting wallower. With a nose for cooking
and a head for business, she turned her catering company started from a bedsit in
Barons Court, London into a culinary empire: Prue Leiths Good Food Ltd employed
500 people and included her Michelin-starred restaurant in Notting Hill, Leiths School
of Food & Wine in Kensington, Leiths Management (for big catering contracts like
the Orient Express train), Leiths Events & Parties, and licenced products all with a
turnover of around 15 million at the time she sold up in 1995. (In 1997, a branch of the
renowned Prue Leiths Chefs Academy opened in Pretoria.) Leith has been a judge on
the BBCs Great British Menu since the TV series launched in 2006, and was awarded
a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 2010. She holds numerous
directorships and chairs, and has sat on more FTSE100 company boards than any other
woman, plus shes written 12 cookbooks, weekly food columns and a memoir. She sold
her business almost 20 years ago and has been writing novels (ve already) but, she says,
Leiths Cookery Bible still sells better than any of them. Reputations are hard to lose.
BEA TOLLMAN
HOTELIER OF CHOICE
First came The Nugget. Stanley Tollman handled the front
of the hotel, while his wife Bea dealt with the kitchen.
Next the Hyde Park Hotel; boasting three restaurants and
SAs rst discotheque, it was the place to stay in the 70s
if you wanted to share the lift with, say, George Peppard
or Marlene Dietrich. Then, The Tollman Towers, housed
in Africas tallest building at the time and the rst African
hotel to make the list of Worlds Best Hotels. By now Bea
was running a lot more than the kitchen. Today the Red
Carnation Hotel Collection consists of 16 top hotels
from SA to Palm Beach, Geneva, Guernsey and Londons
chi-chiest neighbourhoods to the latest, an Irish castle.
Behind it all is Bea Tollman (Mrs T to her staff ), a
diamond-clad, scrupulously turned-out businesswoman
whose credo no request too large, no detail too small
has made Red Carnation hotels a milestone of luxury in
the hospitality industry and won her countless awards,
including European Hotelier of the Year in 2012. While
Tollman designs and redesigns her efdom, down to the
bouillon fringing on the puffed pillows, she still receives
24-hour reports from her properties and speaks with at
least three managers at each hotel daily. After 60 years on
the industry frontline, Bea Tollman is not just an iconic
hotelier but the true custodian of her guests experience.
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GROUND BREAKERS & THOUGHT LEADERS
Hes an architect who is rapidly gaining a reputation as
an urban thinker of note, in essence helping to plan what
our future world will be like. Its good to know that he
believes great architecture gets people mingling rather
than alienating us. Im someone who asks why not?
and what if? he wants his buildings and public spaces
to make a difference to society. Hes given presentations
far and wide in Beijing, Rio, London, Milan, Shanghai
and New York; is an adjunct professor at Columbia
University in the US, and has been a member of the
WEFs Global Agenda Council for Design and the team
that won the World Design Capital 2014 bid for Cape
Town. He helped conceptualise the rst world congress
on architecture held in sub-Saharan Africa in Durban
this August, has just graduated as a Desmond Tutu
Leadership Fellow from Oxford, and examples of his
work have been included in the global Phaidon Atlas
Project of exceptional buildings. His rm is presently
building the Royal Palace in Lesotho, and he is part of the
team expanding Cape Towns International Convention
Centre. But perhaps Makekas most visionary work of
all is creating MoDILA (Museum of Design, Innovation,
Leadership and Art), a design discussion platform its
more than a think tank, he says: We dont just think, we
think to do that champions African ideas.
Read last years prole on citypress.co.za
PRECIOUS MOLOI-MOTSEPE
& LUCILLA BOOYZEN
STRUTTING OUR STUFF
Anyone who knows a bit about SA fashion will have noticed an ongoing rivalry of
Fashion Weeks over the last decade or so. But competition breeds excellence, and the
two very different women at the helm of these industry showcases are equally passionate
and brilliant at what they do: convincing the world that African fashion is the business.
Ex-model Lucilla Booyzen rst recognised the need for a more coherent industry,
starting SA Fashion Week in 1997, and since then has launched several pioneering
add-ons, such as working with retail chains to sell designer ranges in store, and the
Buyers Lounge, networking central for designers to meet potential customers. She has,
arguably, turned local designers into household names. Ex-doctor Precious Moloi-Motsepes
African Fashion International started Cape Town Fashion Week in 2003, Joburg Fashion
Week in 2004 (both for SA designers) and the continent-inclusive Fashion Week
Africa in 2009, which have steadily gained traction. Since 2007, when AFI sent four local
designers to shine at Paris Fashion Week, and then a Pan-African delegation to New York
in 2009 (spearheaded by the iconic Grace Jones), our talent has been seen on the most
important catwalks in the world. Whatever the differences, both women have, over many
years and long hours and through tireless promotion, helped turned promising novices
into fashion stars and built up the industrys credibility and protability.
ALAYNE REESBERG
ORGANISER EXTRAORDINAIRE
She was part of the team that negotiated the withdrawal
of Cuban troops from Angola in the late 80s. Shes worked
in Washington DC, New York and London with some
of the worlds biggest companies while managing Bill
Gatess annual Microsoft CEO Summits. Closer to home
she was the producer for the Fortune/Time/CNN Global
Forum tasked with integrating a business agenda into
the 2010 FIFA World Cup. If theres anything Alayne
Reesberg has learnt, its to keep a cool head under re,
and to deliver on very high expectations. World Design
Capital Cape Town 2014 may prove her biggest challenge
yet. As chief executive of the implementing agency,
Reesberg has the attention of a global market looking to
Cape Town, asking, What have you got? This is not just
another exhibition of upcycled couches or lamps made
from recycled bottle tops. The vision is to encourage the
use of design to further the social, economic and cultural
development of the worlds cities. Raising private equity,
meeting the citys demands, curating over 1 253 projects,
providing a platform for the 460 ofcially recognised
projects as well as community-initiated design projects
from each of the citys 111 wards thats one high-rise job
description. But Reesberg loops everything back to her
personal denition of design: Simply thinking before
doing. Design that is in service of transforming lives,
placing the user at the centre of the question. In this
sense, we are all designing our own lives, she says.
MOKENA MAKEKA
BUILDING A LEGACY
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