The Team
Patron
PROFESSOR THULISILE MADONSELA - PATRON
Professor Thuli (Thulisile) Madonsela is a professor of law occupying the Law Trust Research Chair in Social Justice at Stellenbosch University. She is also a member of the African Academy of Sciences and founder of the Thuma Foundation for Democracy Leadership and Literacy a Member of the African Academy of Sciences, a 2017 Harvard Advanced Leadership Fellow and a One Young World Counsellor. The former Public Protector of South Africa and full-time Law Commissioner, Professor Madonsela was one of the drafters of the South African Constitution and a co architect and drafter of several constitutionally-mandated laws, including the Equality Act, Employment Equity Act and Promotion of Administrative Justice Act. She has an extensive background in applied constitutional and administrative law principles mainly based on her public service years and her investigation of improper conduct in state affairs as Public Protector. She helped draft several international human rights instruments and country reports. She currently teaches Constitutional Law, Social Justice Law, Administrative Law, and Constitutional Governance and Ethical Leadership and has written and published extensively on these matters. An advocate of the High Court of South Africa, Professor Madonsela holds eight honorary law doctorates in addition to her normal law degrees and over 70 awards including the German Africa Award, A French Knighthood and Time 100 Most Influential People in The World (2014). Professor Madonsela is a mother of two, an avid mountaineer who has summited Mt Kilimanjaro twice under the #Trek4Mandela campaign and for the Social Justice M-Plan and regularly hikes for the #Action4Inclusion campaign, a quest to end student debt.
Board of Directors
JANE SIMMONDS - EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND FOUNDER
Jane Simmonds is a public health activist and social innovator committed to building stronger, more connected communities. As the Founder and Executive Director of goGOGOgo, a non-profit company working with grandmothers as agents of change, she is instrumental in researching, developing and implementing programmes that support grandmother-led households. These include projects in digital literacy, health education and intergenerational learning. Jane's work recognises the vital role that grandmothers play in the lives of children and youth across South Africa. She holds a Master's of Public Health from the University of the Witwatersrand, and with a background in education, she brings together expertise in education, research and community development.
Her work is backed by a strong research career at the South African Medical Research Council, where she led national social behaviour change communication initiatives and co-investigated studies on health promotion, vaccine hesitancy, cardiovascular disease treatment, HIV programmes as well as hypertension screening and COVID 19 vaccine roll-out in grant queues. Jane is a published author in journals including BMC Public Health and the South African Medical Journal. Her research insights are channelled directly into goGOGOgo's programmes, closing the 'grey divide' and working with grandmothers to build the skills, knowledge and tools to support their communities and the young people in their care.
TEMBINKOSI BONAKELE - CHAIRPERSON
Mr Bonakele holds a BJuris and LLB, as well as an MBA. An admitted attorney, Mr Bonakele started at the Competition Commission in 2004 and held the position of Commissioner from 2013 to 2022. He holds positions at a number of academic institutions including WITS Law School, Nelson Mandela University, Athens University and University College, London. He has published widely in academic journals, newspapers and business magazines and co-edited a book on competition law. He is also a member of the 2020 Cohort of the Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity.
PROFESSOR LISA MICKLESFIELD - DIRECTOR
Professor Micklesfield is a Research Professor and Deputy Director in the SA-MRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand and leads the Adulthood and Ageing research programme. She completed her PhD in 2004 followed by a post-doctoral fellowship (2004-2007) at the University of Cape Town focusing on early life and current determinants of bone health in children of different ethnicities. She received a research fellowship at the University of the Witwatersrand and was appointed as a Senior Researcher in DPHRU in 2011, promoted to Reader in April 2017 and Research Professor in April 2022. Her research addresses four major themes: (i) Epidemiology of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in African cohorts; (ii) Measurement of physical activity and other risk factors for NCDs; (iii) Aetiological understanding of mechanisms of NCDs; and (iv) Health messaging and impact. She has published 163 papers in peer-reviewed journals and co-authored 3 chapters.
PHUMLA RADEBE - DIRECTOR AND HEAD OF REMUNERATION AND HR COMMITTEE
FERGUS MCLEAD - DIRECTOR AND HEAD OF AUDIT & RISK COMMITTEE
BANDILE MATHANDELA - DIRECTOR
PROFESSOR PRECIOUS MATSOSO - DIRECTOR
Precious Matsoso is the former Director-General of the South African National Department of Health. She was the World Health Organisation Director of Public Health Innovation and Intellectual Property. She was the Head of the medicines regulatory authority of South Africa for six years. She has served on various advisory bodies both nationally and internationally and was Chair of the WHO Executive Board. She served as a member of the UN High-Level Panel on Access to Health Technologies, Chairperson of the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme. She was the member of the Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems. She was the Co-Chair of WHO Digital Health Advisory Group. She was appointed as the member of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. She is currently the Director of the Health Regulatory Science Platform, a division of the Wits Health Consortium and an Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of the Witwatersrand. She is the Cochair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body for the development of a legal instrument, a Pandemic Convention, or Treaty. She is appointed Adjunct Professor at Sunway University, Malaysia.
Our Team
HLUMELO GXOTIWE - PROJECT COORDINATOR
Hlumelo is a Project Coordinator at goGOGOgo, where he works with the core team to support, manage and strengthen the organisation’s various community-based programmes. Hlumelo is a facilitator for goGOGOgo’s digital literacy project, iGOGO, which aims to enhance access to ICT resources and e-learning platforms in grandparent-led households. Recently, he has become the project lead for Masidlale GOGO, a design thinking workshop aimed at building intergenerational bonds between grandmothers and grandchildren, and exploring their relationships to their local environments.
NKANYISO KHUMALO - PROJECT MANAGER / COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST
Nkanyiso Khumalo is a Project Manager and Community Development Specialist with a strong background in education and a passion for delivering impactful programmes in education, youth development, senior citizen support, and caregiver empowerment. He holds a BA in Psychology, a Postgraduate Diploma in Public and Development Management, a BA Honours, and a Master’s degree in African Languages and Linguistics, providing a multidisciplinary foundation for his community-based work.
He has experience in programme coordination, stakeholder engagement, and grassroots implementation, with a focus on strengthening under-resourced communities, particularly grandparents-led households and early childhood development. Nkanyiso currently leads goGOGOgo’s work in Phase 2 of the Kuyakhanya Pilot Project, overseeing the recruitment and support of Community Play Facilitators, delivery of play-based learning activities, and community and stakeholder engagement. He also contributes to project development, partnerships, and capacity-building, driven by a commitment to sustainable and inclusive community transformation.
KAY ROMAN - EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT / INCOME4GOGOS PROJECT MANAGER
Kay Roman is a Project Manager and community programme facilitator with a strong focus on accessibility, digital inclusion and income-generating initiatives for underserved communities. With a BA in Linguistics and experience across project management, research and programme coordination in both NGO and creative sectors, she takes a multidisciplinary approach to designing and running programmes that support gogos to build sustainable livelihoods and bridge the grey divide. At goGOGOgo, Kay manages the Income4GOGOs initiative, facilitates iGOGO digital literacy workshops and leads the ArtEater research pilot in Eldorado Park.
SAM KHOZA - GOGOCARE PROJECT MANAGER
Sam Khoza is a public health professional and project manager with over ten years of experience in HIV and TB programming, monitoring and evaluation, and stakeholder engagement. With a background spanning NGO, government and international health sectors, he brings a rigorous and relationship-driven approach to designing M&E frameworks and managing complex, multi-stakeholder programmes. His time at I-TECH within the National Department of Health sharpened his ability to work across institutional levels — from community implementation to high-level engagement with funders including USAID, CDC, Global Health and the National Department of Health. At goGOGOgo, Sam manages the GOGOcare initiative, overseeing project coordination, M&E development and health programme delivery.