Investing In African Mining Indaba
 

Advisory Board

Our advisory board is a new initiative for Mining Indaba. They have been recruited specifically to help us improve our engagement with key stakeholders, better represent the voice of Africa when it comes to shaping the event’s content and various programmes and to advise us on navigating the changing political climate in South Africa.

The advisory board advises the Mining Indaba Managing Director through advisory board meetings taking place in Johannesburg each year, alongside weekly conference calls. The advisory board will be present at Mining Indaba, not only to advise us on site but also to assist in some aspects of the agenda, such as the opening of the conference days.

Advisory Board Chairman

Mpho Makwana

Mpho Makwana

Mpho is an accomplished business leader with diverse experiences spanning a period of more than 25 years in executive and C-Suite roles in the public and private sectors. He is currently Independent Non-Executive Chairman of JSE-listed ArcelorMittal South Africa Limited and also serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director on the boards of JSE listed companies such as Adcock Ingram Holdings Ltd (AIHLF.PK), Nedbank Group Ltd (NDBKF.PK), Nedbank Ltd and Sephaku Holdings Limited (SEPJ.J).

He further serves as Chairman of; Epitome Investments (Pty) Ltd, New Nishati Investments (Pty) Ltd, Information Technology Alliance (ITNA) (Pty) Ltd and the Boardroom Alliance (Pty) Ltd - a company which holds the sub-Saharan trading license for Executive Search firm Heidrick & Struggles. He is a Non-Executive Director of BioTherm Energy (PTY) Ltd; one of South Africa's foremost renewable energy companies.

He also volunteers as a Member of the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital Fund's Fund Raising Committee and is a Trustee on the Board of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. In April 2016 he was one 14 trustees appointed by HE The President of the Republic of SA to serve as a Trustee on the Board of Trustees of BRAND SA.

During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Mpho led the team that kept the lights on; firstly as Interim Chairman & CEO (3rdQ 2009) and secondly as Chairman, of Eskom Holdings Limited SOC from 10 June 2010 until his term as Director concluded on 27 June 2011, after serving on the board of that company for nine years.

Qualifications: Bachelor of Administration (B.Admin) University of Zululand, B.Admin (University of Pretoria), EDP, Kellogg School of Management and Post. Grad Diploma, Retailing Management, University of Stirling.


Board Members

Noluthando Primrose Gosa

Noluthando Primrose Gosa

Ms. Gosa is one of the founding Commissioners of democratic South Africa’s first National Planning Commission that was appointed by the President of the Republic to draft the country’s current economic blueprint, Vision 2030 as well as the National Development Plan.

Noluthando is an MBA (Marketing) graduate of the University of New Brunswick, Canada; a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from Canada’s Wilfrid Laurier University, as well a B. A. Communications Honours degree graduate from the University of Fort Hare. She has also had extensive training in Regulation from the City University of London, UK, the Adams Institute in UK, as well as the US Telecommunications Training Institute in Washington, DC.

She credits her MBA training to her entrepreneurial career having founded the Akhona Group of companies in 2003 with Akhona Properties (Real Estate Management). The group has now diversified to include interests in the energy and resources sectors. Prior to starting her own business she was an Investment Banker with Investec Bank.

Ms Gosa has extensive Board experience at both Executive and Independent Non Executive levels with companies like Broll Property Group, South African Broadcasting Corporation, AON Corporation, the National Empowerment Fund’s Investment Committee, Kellogg’s Brown and Root (KBR), as well as Investec Asset Management.

She has received numerous awards including the Black Management Forum Gauteng’s Achiever Award; The Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals Achiever Award, the first runner up to the Women’s Property Network’s Excellence Award, and she was nominated in the Most Powerful Women in Business and Government Awards. She has also been involved with numerous charities that focus on ensuring access to education for children from disadvantaged backgrounds including the Students’ Sponsorship Program.


Frans Msokoli Baleni

Frans Msokoli Baleni

Mr. Frans Msokoli Baleni serves as the Deputy Chairperson on the Board of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Mr. Baleni is a Member of the Council at the University of Johannesburg, Non-Executive Director with PetroSA, Chairman of the Board at ADC Cables, and board director with F11 Management Consulting. As a board member, Mr Baleni brings sound commercial, risk, governance and compliance skills together with his expertise in mining, health and safety, government relations, education and training, energy sector, stakeholder management and collective bargaining processes.

Mr Frans Baleni is the past General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, South Africa’s largest trade Union, a role he has held since 2006. He started his career in the mining industry in 1979 and a year later was elected a Shop Steward. In 1988, he became Branch Chairman at the Western Holdings Mine in Welkom. Frans then joined the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM’s) arm and held a variety of posts until his election in 2006 as General Secretary.

Past board memberships include Non-executive Director at Rand Mutual Assurance, Elijah Barayi Memorial Training Centre and Eskom; Chairman at JB Marks Bursary Trust Fund and Mineworkers Investment Trust.

Mr. Baleni holds a Certificate in Human Resources Management (UNISA) and Building on Talent Programme (Luasanne, Switzerland) (IMD). Mr. Baleni has a BA in Social Science Development Studies from University of Johannesburg (2006) and a Diploma in Political Science and Trade Unionism from Whitehall College, Dublin (1990).