Puku achieves its mission with the dedicated efforts of a small but mighty team.
Born in Zimbabwe and educated in Zimbabwe, Senegal and the Netherlands, Elinor Sisulu is the author of the award-winning books The Day Gogo Went to Vote (1997) and the biography Walter and Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime (2003).
Elinor has been a judge of several literary competitions, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Etisalat Prize for Literature. She has served on many arts, literature and human rights boards, including the National Arts Festival board.
She is a founder member and current Executive Director of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation. In 2016 she was awarded an honorary PhD by the University of Pretoria for her work in human rights and reading promotion. In September 2020 she was appointed Chevalier de L’Ordre des Artes et des Lettres by the French government in recognition of her work with Puku. Under her leadership, Puku has been awarded the 2021 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize. She was the recipient of the 2023 Chairperson’s Literary Award from the South African Literary Awards.
Lorato has more than 10 years’ experience in publishing, writing and story development in children’s literature. Lorato started her career at a children’s library in her home town of Kuruman, Northern Cape. Since then, she has been a Project Coordinator at the Centre for the Book in Cape Town, a Publishing Programme Manager at Room to Read South Africa, an editor and Project Manager for Setswana, Schools Publishing at Oxford University Press, and a South Africa/Lesotho/Zambia Country Coordinator for the African Storybook Initiative. She is also a published multilingual author of children’s books, writing in both Setswana and English.
Lorato Trok is an early literacy consultant and expert in developing reading for pleasure books for young children, especially in African languages. A qualified teacher and librarian, she started her career as a librarian at Robert Moffat Library in her home town of Kuruman, Northern Cape. In her 20 years of experience Lorato has done work for almost all of South Africa’s early literacy organisations. These include the Centre for the Book where she developed and managed the award winning (IBBY 2004) First Words in Print project, Nal’ibali, Room to Read and African Storybook Project.
Lorato has facilitated multilingual writing workshops in South Africa, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Kenya for teachers, learners, writers and librarians. She has written several books for children and teenagers, including biographies of the athlete Rosina Sedibane Modiba and the ornithologist Saul Sithole.
Lorato has served on the board of IBBY SA and is a member of PanSALB’s Setswana Language Board. Lorato has served as Puku’s Specialist Multilingual editor for many years, in both a full time and a volunteer capacity. She has led Puku’s initiative to support Ouma Katrina Esau’s struggle to save the endangered N/uu language by publishing the first children’s book in N/uu.
Rosie has worked in the creative industries for many years, gathering a wealth of experience in the non-profit and commercial terrains; with a strong focus on development in different sectors in later years. Her local, national, continental and international network has been built through diverse and unique activities. She currently operates as a freelancer in the creative industries sector, providing project management and administration services to a broad array of clients.
Melvin Kaabwe (Digital Management)
Melvin served as a Puku Board member for over five years until his resignation in 2019. He has maintained contact with Puku as a volunteer, especially with regard to Metadata issues.
Melvin is an eLearning enthusiast and an #eBook evangelist. After his BSc majoring in Computer Science and Hydrology, he gained experience in developing Digital Strategy, e-commerce, social media platform management for Customer Services, mobile commerce technology, general management of retail operations, software product development and strategy development for technology deployment. Notable projects that he has led include Academic eBook development within Naspers Media24, e-reader apps for learners, mobile hardware device interfaces, designs, concepts and interaction platform strategy, online Retail development, business process creation, product introduction to market, layouts and design as well as marketing for an internet (online) bookshop with a Call Center Customer Care facility for Van Schaik Bookstore. Melvin headed Customer Care team and Customer relationship management (CRM) via the Group Call Centre, the Mobile Rewards app, student mobile virtual network (MVNO) and other applications for Van Schaik.
He previously had roles in Higher Education at University of Natal as and Admissions Officer for the Science Faculty, Banking at Nedcor and retail operations at Edcon.
He has experience in ebook penetration, product Innovation, process management, social & youth media engagement strategy, Labor and HR dispute resolution, niche marketing, credit granting for personal and business loans, digital strategy, urban marketing, youth marketing, social media management.
He has served as president of the South African Booksellers Association (SABA) from 2019 – 2021 and is a permanent Exco member. He is a member of PASA Anti-Piracy Sub-Committee, Dept of Basic Education LTSM (Learner Teacher Support Material) Forum, Dept of Arts and Culture Book Policy Task Team and South Africa’s National Metadata Working Group so he is the ideal person to lead the Puku project team for the development of the ONIX portal.
Hetile Dlamini (Solutions Architect)
Hetile Dlamini holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and Media Studies from UNISA along with various certifications from Salesforce and Tableau. After a 10 year long career in Real Estate she moved into the social sector by volunteering for various grassroots organisations. This ultimately led to her taking on a full-time role as a Communications Coordinator for IkamvaYouth, an NGO aimed at helping youth disrupt the cycle of poverty through education.
In 2016 she pivoted into the Technology For Good sector, supporting civil society organisations by developing cloud-based systems to help them measure and communicate their impact. She now works as a Success Engineer offering organisations post-implementation architectural support and strengthening system adoption.
In 2022 Hetile started supporting Puku with its Salesforce architecture, offering training and advice, and is now an active part of the team supporting the organisations overall digital strategy and transformation.
Gift Chiloane (Intern)
Gift Chiloane was born in Johannesburg and experience as a learnership coordinator, early childhood development ECD and facilitation for Imagine Youth skills development centers. Work as a branding and administration for Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and other Organizations, currently an Intern at the Puku Children literature Foundation.
In the process to studies business Management and Digital Marketing with Google.
Puku Board and Team Profiles
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BOARD MEMBER |
PROFILE |
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Fazila Montsi Chairperson |
Former practising advocate who lectured in law at the National University of Lesotho as well as the University of Western Cape. She qualified with a Masters in International and Comparative Law from the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels Belgium. Fazila is a founder member and Chairperson of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation since 2009. Fazila is committed to securing new investments in the field of children’s literature in South Africa and beyond. |
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Lesibana Rafapa |
Professor Rafapa was head of the English Department at the University of Venda before moving to his current position of Chair of the Department of English Studies at UNISA. A prolific writer, editor and translator, he has worked for the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) on projects to promote marginalised languages and children’s literature in African languages. Lesibana Rafapa is a founder member of Puku and has served on its board since 2009. |
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Bontle Senne |
Bontle Senne graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Commerce (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) from the University of Cape Town. She worked as Sales Marketing and Communications Coordinator for T-Systems, She was Puku Managing Director from 2012 to 2013 before moving to McKinsey as Management Consultant. |
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Meena Parbhoo |
Meena is the financial manager at Charity Aid Foundation. She has extensive practical experience in budgeting, income and expenditure control, management accounting, financial and internal auditing, cash flow management, management of information, material and human skills. She has a record of introducing cost cutting measures and accounting systems and she also has a broad spectrum of experience in financial accounting, administration, planning and procurement. Meena has served on the Puku board since 2019. |
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Nthabiseng Sibanda |
Nthabi Sibanda heads the Data Strategy & Transformation capability in the Data & Information Management Division at Standard Bank. Her role includes defining and mapping the data strategy for business, incubating strategic data projects and driving a data-led culture to transform the organization. She played a pioneering role in the South African children’s literature landscape when she founded Puo Educational Products to publish books that reflect Africa’s heritage and to build libraries in low resourced schools across South Africa. Through this work she delivered books and training to schools with the aim of cultivating a reading culture whilst also building self-confidence through African content. Her work at Puo earned her the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Sub-Saharan Finalist, a Mbokodo Awards Winner and an EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women Program Fellow. She joined the Puku board in 2023. |
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Charles Siboto |
Charles Siboto is a blogger, writer, editor and proof-reader with many years of experience in the publishing industry. He has implemented publicity and marketing plans for children’s books and project managed books from manuscript to print. He is a trained teacher who has also worked as a librarian. |
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Puku TEAM |
PROFILE |
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Elinor Sisulu Executive Director and Board Member |
Born in Zimbabwe and educated in Zimbabwe, Senegal and the Netherlands, Elinor Sisulu is the author of the award-winning books The Day Gogo Went to Vote (1997) and the biography Walter and Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime (2003). Elinor has been a judge of several literary competitions, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Etisalat Prize for Literature. She has served on many arts, literature and human rights boards, including the National Arts Festival board. She is a founder member and current Executive Director of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation. In 2016 she was awarded an honorary PhD by the University of Pretoria for her work in human rights and reading promotion. In September 2020 she was appointed Chevalier de L’Ordre des Artes et des Lettres by the French government in recognition of her work with Puku. Under her leadership, Puku has been awarded the 2021 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize. She was the recipient of the 2023 Chairperson’s Literary Award from the South African Literary Awards. |
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Rosie Katz |
Rosie Katz has worked in the creative industries for many years, gathering a wealth of experience in the non-profit and commercial terrains; with a strong focus on development in different sectors. Her local, national, continental and international network has been built through diverse and unique activities. She currently operates as a freelancer in the creative industries, providing project management and administration services to a broad array of clients. These include the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hugh Masekela Foundation. Rosie was an organiser for National Book Week for many years. She has helped manage Puku programmes since 2015 as a part-time programme manager and sometimes as a volunteer, depending on availability of funds. |
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Nomvuyo Mzamane |
Nomvuyo Lerato Mzamane, an educator, school start-up specialist, and a children’s multimedia edutainment professional. Nomvuyo is multilingual and holds several degrees and qualifications. Her multifaceted career spans three decades across over twenty countries. She has been a Senior Multimedia Executive in a number of countries, helping to drive private, public and community sector Information, Education, Communication (IEC) campaigns and sustained Social and Behaviour Change Communications (SBCC) that directly impacted the young. She has also worked with digital apps, radio, print, outreach, social media, animation, television and other platforms on a wide variety of children’s content including as Educational Producer for Takalani Sesame. Nomvuyo has been involved with Puku for many years as a Education and Multimedia specialist, serving as an independent contractor or volunteer, depending on availability of funds. She recently completed the conceptualisation of South Africa’s inaugural 2023 children’s literature awards for UNISA. She is currently working on several books for children including Our Baobabs, a nonfiction book about baobab trees. |
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Lorato Trok |
Lorato Trok is an early literacy consultant and expert in developing reading for pleasure books for young children, especially in African languages. A qualified teacher and librarian, she started her career as a librarian at Robert Moffat Library in her home town of Kuruman, Northern Cape. In her 20 years of experience Lorato has done work for almost all of South Africa’s early literacy organisations. These include the Centre for the Book where she developed and managed the award winning (IBBY 2004) First Words in Print project, Nal’ibali, Room to Read and African Storybook Project. Lorato has facilitated multilingual writing workshops in South Africa, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Kenya for teachers, learners, writers and librarians. She has written several books for children and teenagers, including biographies of the athlete Rosina Sedibane Modiba and the ornithologist Saul Sithole. Lorato has served on the board of IBBY SA and is a member of PanSALB’s Setswana Language Board. Lorato has served as Puku’s Specialist Multilingual editor for many years, in both a full time and a volunteer capacity. She has led Puku’s initiative to support Ouma Katrina Esau’s struggle to save the endangered N/uu language by publishing the first children’s book in N/uu. |
Digital Project Team |
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Melvin Kaabwe |
Melvin served as a Puku Board member for over five years until his resignation in 2019. He has maintained contact with Puku as a volunteer, especially with regard to Metadata issues. Melvin is an eLearning enthusiast and an #eBook evangelist. After his BSc majoring in Computer Science and Hydrology, he gained experience in developing Digital Strategy, e-commerce, social media platform management for Customer Services, mobile commerce technology, general management of retail operations, software product development and strategy development for technology deployment. Notable projects that he has led include Academic eBook development within Naspers/Media24, e-reader apps for learners, mobile hardware device interfaces, designs, concepts and interaction platform strategy, online Retail development, business process creation, product introduction to market, layouts and design as well as marketing for an internet (online) bookshop with a Call Center Customer Care facility for Van Schaik Bookstore. Melvin headed Customer Care team and Customer relationship management (CRM) via the Group Call Centre, the Mobile Rewards app, student mobile virtual network (MVNO) and other applications for Van Schaik. He previously had roles in Higher Education at University of Natal as and Admissions Officer for the Science Faculty, Banking at Nedcor and retail operations at Edcon. He has experience in ebook penetration, product Innovation, process management, social & youth media engagement strategy, Labor and HR dispute resolution, niche marketing, credit granting for personal and business loans, digital strategy, urban marketing, youth marketing, social media management. He has served as president of the South African Booksellers Association (SABA) from 2019 – 2021 and is a permanent Exco member. He is a member of PASA Anti-Piracy Sub-Committee, Dept of Basic Education LTSM (Learner Teacher Support Material) Forum, Dept of Arts and Culture Book Policy Task Team and South Africa’s National Metadata Working Group so he is the ideal person to lead the Puku project team for the development of the ONIX portal. |
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Siya Masuku Websites: |
Soweto-born Siya Masuku ran a 113% successful online crowdfunding campaign in July and August 2016 to launch his own publishing platform, Siyafunda Online. His passion has led him to create the alphabet book, Siyafunda: isiZulu (2016), which has colourful images of lino printed animals. It is available with English translations in print and digital formats. Siya studied Graphic Design at University of Johannesburg.
Siya collaborated with Book Dash to illustrate children’s books; UDaisy Omangalisayo (2015) and Isitsha Samakhekhe Masiwe (2016). Siya is Puku Children’s Literature Foundation’s Digital Administrator. At Puku’s 2019 My Language, My Heritage creative writing workshop, Siya co-authored Mosidi as an illustrator and designer of the picture book. Mosidi was published by Siyafunda Online in 2020. Ethnikids for Wimpy invited Siya as an illustrator for Naughty Nogwaja (2020).
A recipient of the David Koloane Arts Writing Award (2017), Siya writes reviews on arts and has authored self-published graphic novels, uNjabulo: emkhathini (2018), uLanga (2019), KwaNhliziyo-Ngise (2019), Inhlansi 1 (2022) and Cumbelele! (2023). The short animation, KwaNhliziyo-Ngise Motion-Comic (2020), is a product of Siyafunda Online and Dipopaai Studios produced in 2020. Siya is Vice Chairperson on IBBY South Africa and writes, researches and illustrates for Rising Voices. Siya is on the council of Glabal Voices, an international, multilingual community of writers, translators, and human rights activists. Together, we leverage the power of the internet to tell stories that build understanding across borders.
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Hetile Dlamini |
Hetile Dlamini holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and Media Studies from UNISA along with various certifications from Salesforce and Tableau. After a 10 year long career in Real Estate she moved into the social sector by volunteering for various grassroots organisations. This ultimately led to her taking on a full-time role as a Communications Coordinator for IkamvaYouth, an NGO aimed at helping youth disrupt the cycle of poverty through education. In 2016 she pivoted into the Technology For Good sector, supporting civil society organisations by developing cloud-based systems to help them measure and communicate their impact. She now works as a Success Engineer offering organisations post-implementation architectural support and strengthening system adoption. Hetile is the brand strategist for Electribe Productions and its podcast Unpopular Opinion. In 2022 Hetile started supporting Puku with its Salesforce architecture, offering training and advice, and is now an active part of the team supporting the organisations overall digital strategy and transformation. |
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Fiona Beal |
Fiona Beal was born in Zambia and raised in Zimbabwe. She is a graduate of the University of Kwazulu-Natal where she obtained a BA degree followed by a postgraduate teaching diploma. She has taught nearly all the grades during her teaching experience. In 2009 Fiona was a winner of the Microsoft Innovative Teacher competition in South Africa. She was a finalist in the ISPA Super teacher competition in South Africa in 2018 and 2019. Fiona is recognised as a Google Certified Innovator and was one of 50 educators world-wide selected to attend the Google Teacher Academy in New York in 2012. She was also selected as one of 50 educators world-wide to attend Microsoft Partners in Learning Institute in Seattle in 2011. She has been recognised as a Global Microsoft innovative Educator Expert for the last eight years. Fiona has worked as a web editor for Puku since 2019, in both paid and volunteer capacities, depending on availability of funds. |
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Gift Chiloane |
Gift Chiloane was born in Johannesburg and experience as a learnership coordinator, early childhood development ECD and facilitation for Imagine Youth skills development centers. Work as a branding and administration for Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and other Organizations, currently an Intern at the Puku Children literature Foundation. In the process to studies business Management and Digital Marketing with Google. |
Anna Nkomo
Dr Sibhekinkosi Anna Nkomo is a lecturer in the Foundation Phase Division in the School of
Education, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is an early literacy specialist
and an advocate of quality education, particularly with respect to children in disadvantaged
communities as a way of addressing the existing educational inequalities through implementing
reading interventions. Her research interests broadly include literacy, emergent literacy
development in third spaces, bi/multilingual education, multiculturalism, multi-literacies and
multi-modality, as she views language and literacy as a social practice. She has published
several research articles, book chapters and research reports in these research areas. She has a
best publication award (2018) from the Reading and Writing journal for her research article
titled Grade 3 learners’ imagined identities as readers revealed through their drawings. She is
also a recipient of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Southern African Scholarship and a member
of the South African Human Rights Commission Section 11 committee on the Right to Read
and Write.
In addition to the above, Puku has a large network of advisors who make time in their busy lives to participate in Puku activities. These include the following:
Dr Gcina Mhlophe – iconic storyteller, writer and reading promotion activist.
Dr Sindiwe Magona – multi-talented novelist, biographer and children’s book author
Professor Mpho Ngoepe, Head of School of Arts and Humanities at UNISA
Professor Stanley Madonsela, Head of Department of African Languages at UNISA
Dr Xolisa Guzula, lecturer in Language and Literacy Studies with a focus on multilingual and multiliteracies education at the University of Cape Town.
Bongani Godide, storyteller and reading promotion activist
Nat Ramabulana, actor
Mabutho ‘Kid’ Sithole, actor and founder of ILIFA (Indigenous Languages Initiative for advancement
Professor Dion Nkomo, Associate Professor of African Language Studies and Interim Chair of the NRF SARChI: Intellectualisation of African Languages, Multilingualism and Education at the School of Languages and Literatures at Rhodes University.
Sisesakhe Ntlabezo, Programme Manager, Makhanda Circle of Unity
Akhona Mfani – storyteller, praise poet, musician and cultural activist, Makhanda
Dr Nokuthula Msimang – children’s book writer, biographer and former journalist.
Zanele Ngcongo (Former Office Manager)
Zanele is a social entrepreneur within the children’s literature and literacy space, involved in community development based projects that focus on introducing and promoting the culture of reading. Her professional experience and aptitude is within various industries including Human Resources, Recruitment, Mining and Secretary. Some of the responsibilities held consisted of corporate advisory and management services for employee ownership community Trusts, dealing with a Board of Trustees, designing annual budgets and strategic planning.
