Speakers - Activate Johannesburg
Mzilikazi wa Afrika, investigative journalist, Sunday Times and chair, Forum for African Investigative Reporters
Mzilikazi wa Afrika Photograph: Mzilikazi wa Afrika
Mzilikazi wa Afrika is multi-award winning journalist working for the Sunday Times investigations unit in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also the reigning chairperson of the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR), an investigative journalism organisation with members from 36 different African countries.
Mzilikazi is one of the doyens of South African investigative journalism with a career dating back to 1995 when he started as a freelance reporter for the Witbank News in Mpumalanga Province.
Justin Arenstein, consulting strategist, African Media Initiative
Bio to follow
Kojo Baffoe, editor, Destiny Man, entrepreneur, writer, MC & speaker
KOJO BAFFOE Photograph: Photographer: Shaun Mallett/KB
Editor of the men's business and lifestyle magazine, DESTINY Man, Kojo Baffoe is an editor, writer, poet and entrepreneur with origins in Ghana and Germany, raised in Lesotho, and based in Johannesburg. He has a B.Commerce (majors in Economics, Marketing & Business Administration) from University of Natal, and has been involved in a number of sectors, including Retail, Management Consulting, Publishing, Events, IT and Media (Television & Print).
John Mark Bwanika, founding partner and director, The Medical Concierge Group Limited
John Mark Bwanika Photograph: John Mark Bwanika
John Mark is a medical doctor with 4 years' experience in HIV clinical research.
At The Medical Concierge Group, he's capitalizing on the surge in internet and mobile phone use to provide easily accessible, affordable and quality health care to Ugandans.
Through social media and internet messaging platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, he's able to improve healthcare access to the largely youthful and technology savvy population.
With a team of doctors at a medical call centre; using Google mapping technology, the public gets information on location of different health facilities with the appropriate services they seek.
His team is also using GPS tracking technology to improve Uganda's emergency ambulance services.
Nikiwe Bikitsha, broadcast journalist and columnist
In almost 20 years of news journalism and broadcasting Nikiwe has covered the major political and economic events of the day. News organisations she has worked for include the 24 hour news station eNCA ,Talk radio 702 and the Mail and Guardian. Nikiwe has interviewed high profile leaders such as President Jacob Zuma, former president Thabo Mbeki, former US vice president Al Gore, and former UN chief Kofi Annan as well as UN head of women & former SA deputy president Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka.
Erik Charas, founding and managing director, Charas LDA
Erik Charas Photograph: Matthew Jordaan/World Economic Forum / Matthew Jordaan
Erik is an engineer and social entrepreneur with extensive background in private and public sectors in Mozambique and sub-Saharian Africa. He is the founder of Jornal @Verdade, the largest and most read Portuguese newspaper in Mozambique. It is the largest daily online news portal, making extensive use of mobile and social networks to engage and provide access to information to it's readers. Erik serves as a member of the African policy advisory board for ONE, the global organisation co-founded by rockstar Bono, to advocate on issues related to poverty and resource extraction transparency in Africa. Erik considers himself an African entrepreneur and an anti-poverty, pro- transparency social activist.
Adi Eyal, director, Code for South Africa
Adi is the ultimate data nerd - last night he dreamt about an uber algorithm to scrape the government gazette for routes of minibus taxis. Trained as a computer scientist he worked for the dark-side before he came to realisation that data can be used for good. Since then he has been exploring how to make your grandmother care about data and how it can improve her life, just that one little bit. He runs Code for South Africa, a non-profit organisation promoting informed decision-making through technology and open data.
Malik Fal, managing director, Omidyar Network Africa
Malik Fal Photograph: ON
Based in Johannesburg, Malik is the managing director of Omidyar Network Africa. With more than 15 years of experience in social entrepreneurship, business, and development, primarily in the African context, Malik brings a wealth of expertise to his role leading Omidyar Network's investment strategy and operations in Africa.
Malik joined Omidyar Network in early 2012, prior to which he served as managing director of Endeavor South Africa. From 2006 to 2009, Malik was the business director of Microsoft Africa, a role in which he led business planning, strategy, and marketing throughout the continent. Before Microsoft, Malik oversaw the Africa practice of the consultancy firm OTF Group (formerly part of The Monitor Group). He also spent six years at Pepsi-Cola International, managing operations across southern Africa, and several years as a consultant for The Monitor Group. Malik led multiple successful consulting engagements, including initiatives with the World Bank, USAID, the Bermuda tourism industry, and the presidency of Rwanda. His diverse career has given him a deep understanding of business strategy in emerging markets and the distinct roles of government, private sector institutions, and individuals in the pursuit of sustainable development.
Ferial Haffajee, editor-in-chief, City Press
Ferial Haffajee Photograph: Ferial Haffajee
Ferial Haffajee is editor-in-chief of City Press. Previously she held the same position at the Mail & Guardian. She is also an alumni of the Africa Leadership Initiative, a project of the Aspen Institute.
Ferial sits on the board of Gender Links which is geared to improving the media's coverage of development and gender empowerment.  She is a previous winner of the Shoprite-Checkers woman of the year award, The Media magazine's women in media award, a Sanlam financial journalism award and the Naspers group's most prestigious internal prize, the Phil Weber award. In 2008, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. 
Ferial has also worked at Financial Mail and at the SABC in both radio and television.
She sits on the boards of the International Press Institute and the World Editors Forum.  In addition, she chairs the SA National Editors Forum's ethics and diversity committee.
Anton Harber, professor, Wits University
Anton Harber Photograph: Picasa/Anton Harber
Anton Harber was a founder-editor of the South African Weekly Mail (now the Mail & Guardian). He is now Caxton Professor of Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand, chair of the Freedom of Expression Institute and writes a weekly column in Business Day. He is the author of Diepsloot (Jonathan Ball, 2011), winner of the Recht Malan Prize, The Gorilla in the Room (Mampoer Shorts, 2013). He co-edited the first two editions of The A–Z of South African Politics (Penguin, 1994/6), What is Left Unsaid: Reporting the South African HIV Epidemic (Jacana, 2010), and Troublemakers: The best of SA's investigative journalism (Jacana, 2010).
Emma Kaye, founder and CEO, Bozza
Emma Kaye Photograph: EK
Emma has been named one of the top 10 women in Science & Technology in Africa, has twice been voted as one of the top 50 women globally in mobile entertainment, elected one of South Africa's top business women and one of the 20 most powerful women in technology in Africa for 2013.
Emma's latest venture, Bozza, confirms that mobility has socio-economic significance in Africa. Bozza is the trusted marketplace to discover the next generation of African talent.
Stephen King, partner, Omidyar Network
Stephen King. Photograph: Stephen King
As partner at Omidyar Network, Stephen brings exceptional experience in applying media and technology to create positive social impact. Based in London, Stephen leads the global government transparency investment area. His portfolio includes FrontlineSMS, Global Voices, mySociety, Refugees United, The XYZ Show and Ushahidi.
Prior to Omidyar Network, Stephen served as the chief executive of the BBC World Service Trust, where he led a period of sustained growth that included building programmes in more than 40 countries in the developing world. Stephen helped establish the trust's international reputation as one of the largest and most successful organisations using media and communications to improve the lives of the world's poor and promote better governance and transparency worldwide.
Alon Lits, general manager, Uber
Alon Lits Photograph: Alon Lits
Alon Lits joined Uber as its first General Manager in Africa in August last year. Alon began his career in the leveraged finance division of Investec Bank Limited, where he provided debt and preference share financing solutions to public and private companies in South Africa, as well as Africa's largest private equity funds. Before joining Uber, Alon interned with the emerging market focused private equity fund - LeapFrog Investments - focusing on investment opportunities throughout Africa.
Alon is born and raised in South Africa and is passionate about South Africa and Africa. Alon holds and MBA from INSEAD and is also qualified as an Associate of the Faculty and Institute of Actuaries in the UK.
Thabang Mabuza, founder - chief resource officer, Ulwazi Resource Consulting (Pty) Ltd
Thabang Mabuza Photograph: Thabang Mabuza
Thabang Mabuza considers himself a Social Entrepreneur who is passion about creating spaces for young people to collaborate and cocreate. Formerly chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Children Fund youth club and a 2013 Brightest Young Mind and an ambassador for a network of Active Change Drivers, an external consultant for the World Economic Forum on Africa and Switzerland.
Naima Mclean, writer, poet, vocalist and actress
Naima Mclean Photograph: Naima Mclean
Born in New York city and raised in cities across Africa, Naima is performer at heart, as her degree in theatre and performing arts suggests. She has performed and sung throughout Europe and South Africa, and acted in numerous productions by internationally renowned South African directors.
Naima fuses soul, spoken word, hip hop, pop and a variety of other genres to create a distinct style she calls "Urban Soul". Her debut album, Things I Wish, was musically directed by RJ Benjamin, and saw its live debut at the 2011 Cape Town Jazz Festival. A personal highlight for Naima was being asked to open for internationally renowned RnB singer Joe Thomas on his tour to South Africa later that year.
Koketso Moeti, campaigner and blogger, Amandla
Koketso Moeti Photograph: Amandla
Koketso Moeti is a campaigner and blogger, with an interest in mobiles, social change, local government and socio-economic rights issues. She currently serves at the up and coming amandla.mobi which aims to build the first pan-African multi-lingual mobile citizen platform, turning every cellphone into a democracy building tool so that no matter your language or where you live, you can take action on issues you care about, organise your community and amplify impact in the real world. She also works at Local Government Action, focusing on digital communications and community engagement and is part of the Activate! Change Drivers network.
Lee Molefi, editor, Live Magazine South Africa
Lee Molefi Photograph: Livity
Lee is a Johannesburg-born writer, photographer & filmmaker whose owned two guitars over the course of his life. He's currently the editor of Live Mag SA's VIP Campaign and is thinking about getting a piano next. He aspires to the simpler things in life, like becoming a social commentator through his films & he enjoys critical thinking and discussing SA politics. He generally thinks people in horror flicks should just call the cops; believes in an impending African cultural revolution & would like to find the right meaning for the term "Shangaan Roulette". He is also a former Johannesburg editor of Live Magazine SA, a youth-orientated print & digital magazine.
Ranjeni Munusamy, associate editor, Daily Maverick
Ranjeni is a prominent commentator on South African politics. She has over 20 years experience in journalism and communications. She has worked at several South African publications as a political correspondent, including the Sunday Times, and as head of communications in the Ministry of Higher Education and Training. Ranjeni previously served as advisor and speechwriter to senior South African political leaders, as well as communications strategist and media trainer for South African political and labour organisations.
Bitange Ndemo, chair, Alliance for Affordable Internet
Bitange is the immediate former permanent secretary of Kenya's Ministry of Information and Communication. After his tenure with the Government, he went back to his job as a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi's Business School, where he teaches entrepreneurship, and research methods. Most of his research centers on small and medium enterprises in Kenya with an emphasis on social enterprise. Bitange holds a PhD in Industrial Economics from the University of Sheffield in the UK and an MBA and bachelor's degree in finance and accounting from the University of Minnesota. He is a honorary chair of the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) and an advisor to the Better than Cash Alliance, a global initiative to digitise payments.
Gustav Praekelt, founder, Praekelt Foundation
Gustav Praekelt Photograph: Praekelt
Gustav Praekelt is the founder of the Africa-based Praekelt Group - a leader in the creation of mobile platforms and services for the majority world.
His belief in the power of mobile phones to transform lives inspired him to establish the Praekelt Foundation in 2006 - A social business that develops scalable mobile solutions for social good, whose programmes have reached over 50 million people across 15 countries in Africa.
In 2013 he co-founded the JoziHub, a technology startup launchpad and co-creation space in the heart of Johannesburg dedicated to creating sustainable change in Africa.
Eric Obuh AKA Vocal Slender
Eric Obuh Photograph: Eric Obuh
Eric Obuh (popularly known as Vocal Slender) was the dumpsite scavenger/musician featured in the 2010 award winning BBC's Welcome to Lagos documentary where he hustled daily by selling scraps to make money so as to visit the recording studio to produce songs for his dancehall album.
In 2011, he founded Ghetto Love Empowerment Foundation – which gives material and psychological supports to the children and youths of the ghettos/slums in Lagos, Nigeria and more importantly challenging them with his story and journey to stardom.
He has been privileged to inspire many students and youths in schools, religious settings and conferences with his transformational story.
In April 2013, he was a recipient of the Google Africa Connected Prize for his amazing web success story. Eric uses social media platforms particularly YouTube and Google+ to share his music and videos to his numerous fans worldwide and in return raise awareness, attract support and gain more follower-ship about the plight of the underprivileged children in Ajegunle and other slums of Lagos.
Currently, Eric is waste-recycling ambassador for wecyclers - Nigeria's only recycling venture with a focus on community engagement.
Ory Okolloh, director of investments, Omidyar Network Africa
Omidyar Network Africa is a philanthropic investment firm. Prior to joining, Ory was Google's policy manager for sub-Saharan Africa. She was responsible for managing government relations and driving the implementation of policies that increased internet access and supported the growth of local online content. Ory is also the co-founder of Mzalendo, a website that tracks the performance of Kenyan Members of Parliament. She is a board member of the Africa Media Initiative, a member of the World Bank's Council of Eminent persons, an advisory board member of Code for All, and a member of the World Bank Service Delivery Indicator Committee.
Dickens Olewe, journalist, Star newspaper
Dickens Olewe Photograph: Dickens Olewe Dickens Olewe Dickens Olewe
Dickens Olewe is a journalist at the Star newspaper. He leads the Star's online team. Olewe led the launch of the Star's website in 2011, and subsequently set up and continues to manage the website's social media platforms. Olewe has been selected as a Knight Fellow at Stanford for the year 2014-15, his innovation proposal is to establish an African drone journalism corps, with newsroom-based teams using unmanned aerial vehicles across the continent to improve real-time reportage.Olewe has been running AfricanSkyCAM, a drone journalism project funded by the African News Innovation Challenge. He's lead projects to establish collaborative journalism and data journalism.
He's a member of the Hacks/Hackers Nairobi chapter. He has been invited to speak and participate in different conferences on citizen journalism, collaborative journalism and media trends.
Sugan Palanee, markets leader, Africa, EY, South Africa
Sugan Palanee, Head of Markets.Ernst & Young.Pix for the Financial Mail‚Äôs Ernst & Young Corporate Report by Jeremy Glyn on the 19/06/2013. Photograph: Jeremy Glyn/E&Y
Sugan is the Africa markets leader for EY and leads the firm's Black Economic Empowerment Strategic Services Division in South Africa. His clients include a number of listed organizations and various multinationals across the African continent. Sugan serves as an adviser to the South African Department of Trade and Industry on Black Economic Empowerment issues.
Khadija Patel, managing editor, South Africa Votes 2014
Khadija heads the South Africa Votes 2014 project, she is a writing fellow at the University of Witwatersrand's Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER) but still a journalist at heart.
Chris Roper, editor-in-chief, Mail & Guardian
Chris is the first editor-in-chief of a major South African newspaper to come from a digital background, and he works agnostically across several media platforms. He was founding portal manager of Vodacom World Online, portal manager for MWEB, South Africa's largest ISP, editor-in-chief at 24.com, South Africa's largest online publisher, and editor of the Mail & Guardian Online. He has worked for many print publications in various capacities, and most recently, he was a finalist in the 2013 Sikuvile Awards for the Columnists category (the first ever online-only finalist).
Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief, Guardian News & Media
Alan Rusbridger Photograph: VIVEK BENDRE/th
Alan Rusbridger has been editor of the Guardian since 1995. He oversaw the integration of the paper and digital operations and the Guardian is now the third largest English-speaking newspaper website in the world with 100 million unique browsers every month. During his editorship the paper has fought a number of high-profile battles over libel and press freedom, including cases involving Neil Hamilton, Jonathan Aitken, the Police Federation, Trafigura, freedom of information and Wikileaks.
The Guardian broke world exclusive stories by publishing NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden and was recently awarded the Pulitzer prize, the highest accolade in US journalism. In April the Guardian was named newspaper of the year and won the top digital prize at the British press awards.
Rusbridger and reporter Nick Davies received the UK's Media Society Award for their revelations and coverage of the phone hacking story in the Guardian. Rusbridger has been awarded the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism by Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Centre and received the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in the cause of press freedom from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Toby Shapshak, editor and publisher, Stuff
Toby Shapshak Photograph: TSd talk
Toby writes and speaks about innovation, and how it differs in Africa. He is the editor and publisher of Stuff magazine. He also co-hosts a TV show on CNBC Africa, and writes a weekly column for the Financial Mail. He believes Africa is a mobile-driven continent and has spoken at TED Global in June 2013 about how Africa is solving real problems for the rest of the world. He ran the Mail & Guardian website when it was the first news site in Africa, shadowed Nelson Mandela when he was president, and covered the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
David Smith, Africa correspondent, Guardian News & Media
David Smith Photograph: DS
David is the Africa correspondent of the Guardian and Observer newspapers in the UK. He has held that position since April 2009 and is based in Johannesburg. He travels across Africa covering news, politics, culture and sport, with assignments so far including the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, civil war in Ivory Coast and South Sudan, religious violence in Nigeria, Somalia and the Central African Republic and elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Zimbabwe. In South Africa he has reported on the football World Cup, Marikana mine massacre, death of Nelson Mandela and murder trial of Oscar Pistorius.
Loren Treisman, executive, Indigo Trust
Indigo Trust is a grant making foundation which supports technology-driven projects in Africa, with a particular focus on innovation, transparency and citizen empowerment. Loren holds a PhD from Cambridge University and has expertise in international development, governance, health and the use of new technologies to stimulate social change. She regularly writes in the international press including the Guardian, CNN and BBC and presents at international conferences.
Gavin Weale, CEO, Livity Africa
Gavin Weale Photograph: Gavin Weale
Gavin is an award-winning social entrepreneur and publisher from the UK. He has spent a large part of his career working alongside two of the UK's leading social entrepreneurs, Sam Conniff and Michelle Clothier at Livity UK, the London-based youth engagement specialists.
Originally from a journalism background, Gavin led the development of the Live Magazine project for Livity over ten years, transforming a small local youth zine into a nationwide print and digital media channel that is 100% created by young people. He led successful bids for major European Social Fund (2004) and Home Office Preventing Violent Extremism funding (2008), the latter leading to the opening of a second Live Magazine in east London aimed at engaging disaffected young Muslims.
Pontus Westberg, digital projects officer, UN-Habitat
Pontus Westberg Photograph: PW
Pontus is the digital projects officer at the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat. In this capacity he supports various digital initiatives, including coordinating the Block by Block project, in which UN-Habitat and Mojang use Minecraft to engage citizens in urban public space projects. He has worked with ICTs and digital media in Europe, Africa and Latin America for the last ten years. He holds an MA in Global Media and Communications from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and resides in Nairobi, Kenya. Twitter: @pontusw
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