The conference is being organised by a new social dialogue group called TEDxAlexandra, which is part of a global brand based in the United States of America and spearheaded by Khulula Foundation’s Waahida Tolbert-Mbatha and her husband, Thulani, an Alex resident, has announced the speakers for its conference which seeks to address annoying social issues in the township.
The organisers of the conference, Daniel Adidwa and Xoliswa Moraka of TEDxAlexandra, said headlining the speakers would be Alexandra’s iconic philanthropist and community worker Linda Twala, who has since founded the Linda Twala Foundation which works hand-in-hand with Afrika Tikkun to address social issues in the township.
Twala is expected to speak on his role as a philanthropist and how others can successfully give back to their communities through passing the torch to the next generation. Twala is already doing this with a number of youth mentorship programmes at his Phuthaditjaba Community Centre in 17th Avenue. The house is a home for the aged, a creche for the young, a youth computer studies programme and after hours homework facility for primary and high school pupils and a fully-fledged gymnasium.
One of Twala’s youth members undergoing the mentorship programme is Xolani Kunene, a young philanthropist who was raised and groomed in Alexandra. His interest in community building began in 2008 when he worked for Make Us Models academy as a marketing director.
In this position he raised funds for the organisation to assist the youth of Alexandra in staying off the streets and developing their academic skills. Soon after that he started working for an organisation called Ashbey & Sharon as a public relations manager, where he assisted young people in preparing for successful careers in the modelling and entertainment industry. He will be one of the speakers too at the conference and currently assists Phuthaditjaba’s Leopards Committee, a group of youth being mentored by Twala. Kunene’s topic will be ‘Harnessing the Power of Youth to Drive Change’.
Thulani Mbatha, Waahida’s husband, who is a public-private mix advisor of the University Research Corporation LLC, will also address the conference, and so will other speakers from outside Alexandra.
