Thabo Leshilo, who will take up his appointment on June 1, has served as Editor in-Chief of the Sowetan and Sunday World, Editor of the Pretoria News, Editor of the Business Times and Public Editor for all eight newspapers in the former Avusa group.

“We are excited to have someone of Thabo’s extraordinary public stature to direct our communications strategy and operation,” said Dr Mamphela  Ramphele, leader of Agang.

“With Campaign Director Nkosinathi Solomon, he will bring vast skills and experience to Agang.”

Mr Leshilo comes to Agang from two top-level positions in international public relations companies, after 22 years of experience in South African journalism.

He has also held the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in the United States. He joins Agang from Public Relations company, FleishmanHillard South Africa, where he was a media strategist and director. Before joining FleishmanHillard last year, he was CEO of Magna Carta Public Relations.

Mr Leshilo is a past winner of the coveted Sanlam Business Journalist of the Year Award – in the small business section. He is credited with the successful relaunch of Sowetan, which had suffered a huge loss in circulation.

He left the newspaper in August 2008 to take up the Nieman Fellowship, where he concentrated on leadership studies and new media. He has served on the board of SA Press Association, Autism South Africa and is a board member of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism. He is also been the convenor of the judging panel for the South African Breweries Sports Journalist of the Year competition.

Mr Leshilo has a Bachelor of Administration degree from the University of Limpopo, with majors in International Relations and Public Administration.

Agang announced the appointment of Mr Solomon, a leading South African banking executive, earlier this week. He is currently employed by ABSA as Chief Operations Officer: Life Assurance Business.

Announcing his appointment, Dr Ramphele said “We’re excited at the quality of people we are attracting.”

The post Thabo Leshilo – New Communications Director appeared first on Agang South Africa.

The first motivation on the petition is that:

1. Every citizen can vote for a person who will represent their local area in the national and provincial government and every citizen can hold that individual accountable for their actions

You can see the infographic below or download it here to see the number of people who did not vote in the 2009 elections, the voting process as it stands, and how it would work if you – the citizen – was able to choose the individual you wanted to represent you, and the number of MPs who do not have any province listed as a contact point.

You can sign the petition at www.agangsa.org.za/petition or send SIGN to *120*44673#

The post Electoral Reform Infographic appeared first on Agang South Africa.

She told local radio stations that Agang’s focus is on putting the country first and changing the political culture. Agang believes the country belongs to young people, who have been marginalized by a political system that celebrates the past. We are focusing on the present and the future and young people will be at the forefront with their creativity and energy.

With that focus on young people she addressed a crowded lecture hall of students at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

“You are the generation that has to pick up where the students of 1976 started. Nearly two decades after apartheid, millions of South Africans are living like forgotten people. My generation didn’t fight and die in the struggle against apartheid for the country we have now. We are failing our children and grandchildren in the promise to build a better life for all.

“What angers me greatly is that many of these are a failing of governance. Here in the Eastern Cape I have witnessed how unaccountable governance has led to a hugely dysfunctional public health system. Without citizen action to stop the looting of public resources 8000 public servants in the Eastern Cape have been doing business with the Department of Health and rendering it bankrupt.”

Students asked a range of questions on issues from equal opportunity in education to fixing the economy, dealing with corruption to communicating with rural people.
      

A number of students wanted to hear more and travelled with Agang to Silvertown to add their support.

Called Silvertown because of the way the light catches the hundreds of zinc roofs. Within Silvertown, named the worst place to live in South Africa, 98% of the 508 dwellings still use the bucket system and 81% of them use paraffin as a source of energy. In 1996, there was no electricity in the village and 89% still have do not power.

Community members who met Dr. Ramphele as she walked from door to door through Silvertown accompanied her back to Zakhele for a town hall meeting.

There, community members joined a discussion on the key issues and challenges facing Zakhele and Zwide and surrounding areas. Volunteers and Silvertown residents were active in signing up more Agang volunteers and collecting signatures for the petition to Restore Power to the People.

The post Agang Listening in the Eastern Cape appeared first on Agang South Africa.

Cover star: Dr. Mamphela Ramphele – A humanitarian, activist and academic, Dr Mamphela Ramphele sets the bar for South African leaders very high indeed.

DESTINY - June edition

Agang leader, Mamphela Ramphele says her party is funded by South Africans. She was responding to questions from students at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.  Ramphele says young people should actively participate in changing the country. She also touched on the deteriorating state of education and health care amongst other issues.

SABC News – May 15, 2013

Agang leader arrives in Nelson Mandela Bay:  “We are going to do a walkabout in Silvertown and in Zwide, because everywhere I have been people living in those conditions say they live like forgotten people. Agang is about restoring the hope and dignity of people so that they wont live like forgotten people”‘ she said.

Algoa FM – May, 14, 2013

Agang banks on Solomon: Banking executive Nkosinathi Solomon has been appointed campaign director of the recently formed political party Agang.

TimesLive – May 14, 2013

Ramphele details action in Gold Fields BEE saga:  Rob Rose was off the mark when, in a recent column on these pages, he accused me of failing as chairperson of Gold Fields to practise the tenets of good corporate governance which I preach as the founder of Agang. And he was wrong when he said that I, in my response to the controversy over the Gold Fields black economic empowerment deal, failed to “take accountability and fix the problem”.  I do not believe that your readers can judge my actions fairly without taking into account the steps that I took as soon as the controversy erupted.

Sunday Times / Business Day – May 12/13, 2013

Agang leader Mamphela Ramphele has appointed leading  bank executive Nkosinathi Solomon as campaign director.  Solomon is currently ABSA’s Life Assurance Chief Operations Officer and is due to start at Agang next month. This is the party political platform’s first high level executive appointment since it was launched in February.

SABC News.com – May 13, 2013

Agang SA appoints Campaign Director: “More top-level staff appointments will be announced once they are finalised and candidates have negotiated notice with their current employers. We’re excited at the quality of people we are attracting,” Ramphele said. .. (Nkosinathi Solomon) is currently employed by ABSA as Chief Operations Officer: Life Assurance Business, and has also worked for BP, Chevron and the Anglo American Corporation.

The New Age - May 13, 2013

Banking executive Nkosinathi Solomon has been appointed campaign director for the party political platform, Agang, it said. Dr. Ramphele said Agang had had to be patient to bring on board a person of Solomon’s quality and it had been “worth the wait.

The Sowetan – May 13, 2013

The post In The News: May 13 – 19 appeared first on Agang South Africa.

People from all around Gauteng gathered in Braamfontein, Johannesburg for Agang’s first volunteer workshop on Saturday, May 11th. The room was full of about 200 volunteers, singing with one voice, organizing into groups and making plans for action. As one volunteer said, “It is critical, for us moving forward, not to allow a situation where a few individuals tell us what to do.”

The goal of the workshop was to talk about Agang’s aims to restore the promises of freedom and build the country of our dreams. Facilitators led discussions on ways that volunteers can engage their communities, and become proactive citizens in their area. To quote Dr. Mamphela Ramphele: “It is not in our interest to let the government fail because if it does, the citizens will also fail.”

Some of our Agang citizens who attended:

• “I never thought I would be involved in politics, but I said it’s high time I stopped being an arm-chair critic and be an active citizen”
• “Do what you can, with what you have, wherever you are, for the greater good”
• “Don’t make the mistake of undermining a human being on the basis of what they have in their hand.”

Volunteers left with a pack of information about Agang and details on key initiatives like the petition to Restore Power to the People. This can be signed at www.agangsa.org.za/petition, where you can download forms to print, or be sending SIGN to *120*44673#

The workshop was an opportunity for volunteers to learn more, ask questions, which included:

In relation to creating active citizens in an inactive environment– do you think the South African citizens are ready for change?

Agang: Fear is a factor that holds people back. For example, corruption is one of the biggest issues eating away at all of the possibilities and potential in our country. People are afraid of blowing the whistle on officials because they might lose their jobs, business opportunities and even personal safety against officials using power illegitimately. We should not run away from the fear, we should confront it. South African citizens are ready for chang as they are tired of the current system.

When will Agang be launched as a political party?

Currently we are busy with the first phase, which is the listening campaign, Dr Ramphele and the team are going around the country hearing people’s concerns, and these will inform our policies. We are hearing a common message from people who feel forgotten, who only see politicians once every five years when they need votes. The next phase is the launch of the party in the middle of the year.

A huge thank you to everyone who attended the workshop and we look forward to seeing more of our volunteers at events and further workshops soon!

You can sign up to be an Agang volunteer at www.agangsa.org.za/get-involved!

The post Gauteng Volunteer Workshop appeared first on Agang South Africa.

Announcing his appointment, with effect from June 1, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Agang’s leader said:

“We are thrilled that Nkosinathi is coming on board. He’s a top business executive who has overseen R1 billion budgets, run operations with staff complements of up to 2,500 people and has both local and overseas experience in the banking and oil sectors.

“Although we are currently operating with about 25 staff, interns and volunteers, Nkosinanthi’s is the first high-level executive appointment we’ve made since launching with a small team in February. We had to exercise patience to bring on board a person of his quality and experience – it has certainly been worth the wait.

“More top-level staff appointments will be announced once they are finalised and candidates have negotiated notice with their current employers. We’re excited at the quality of people we are attracting.”

Mr Solomon was initially trained as a chemical engineer at the University of Cape Town later earned an MBA from UCT’s Graduate School of Business. He has been a management fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge University and attended the Kellog School of Management, at North Western University in Chicago, completing a Marketing Leadership Program.

Since graduation, Mr Solomon has worked in the minerals extraction, oil and gas and banking sectors in South Africa, East Africa and the United Kingdom. He is currently employed by ABSA as Chief Operations Officer: Life Assurance Business, and has also worked for BP, Chevron and the Anglo American Corporation. As an executive in government-regulated industries, he has experience dealing with stakeholders such as government regulators, trade unions and NGOs.

The post Nkosinathi Solomon – New Campaign Director appeared first on Agang South Africa.

On this day in particular, I have been reflecting deeply on the anxiety many of you express about the prospects of our country and your desire to see your children live here and continue to bring up their own children here.

Also in my travels across our beautiful country, and in small and large meetings, you have shared your commitment to this country and your willingness to help build it into the country of our dreams.

On this special day I would like to salute those amongst you who, against all odds, have dedicated yourselves to nurture and support your children to be the best they can become! I particularly salute those of you who are single mums, those grandmothers who had to go back to parenting your orphaned grandchildren or adopted, or the young women who sacrificed their own youth to parent their siblings in child-headed households.

Our country, our motherland needs us in this hour of need to Restore the Hope that has been lost by those living like forgotten people in our villages, townships and suburbs. Our motherland needs us to work together to Restore the Dignity of all those living in grinding poverty, abusive homes, communities and workplaces.

We can build a country we can all be proud of! Women are the anchors of families, communities and societies the world over.  Let us work together to build a country we can proudly bequeath to our children and grandchildren!

It is in our hands. We can restore the dignity of our motherland and all her people! Let’s do it!

Your fellow mother, and grandmother,

Mamphela

The post A Mother’s Day Message appeared first on Agang South Africa.

Nineteen years after the end of white minority rule, discontent is mounting over a 25 percent unemployment rate and income inequality that ranks among the highest in the world. “This government has come to a point of no return,” Ramphele said. “They cannot change the system of governance because there is no political will to do so. In any other democracy they would have been asked to fall on their sword.”

Bloomberg - May 8, 2013

Agang leader Dr Mamphela Ramphele has called on young people from across the continent to hold their leaders accountable “for their promises and actions”, to eliminate the looting of state resources.She was speaking to a group of Global Shapers at a meeting of SHAPE Africa ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Cape Town.

Daily Dispatch – May 8, 2013

Citzen action needed to stop the looting: AgangSA leader says those responsible for stealing from the poor in ECape, and elsewhere, continue to escape punishment. Speech to SHAPE Africa, May 7: From Subject to Citizen: Take Your Place at the Table

PoliticsWeb – May 7, 2013

Active citzenry needed: People need to be active citizens, not passive “subjects” to be able to take control of their lives, Agang founder Mamphela Ramphele said on Tuesday. “When apartheid ended, we under-estimated what it would take to change from being the subjects of undemocratic governments, denied the right to make our own choices, to becoming citizens of a stable constitutional democracy.”

The New Age - May 7, 2013

The post In The News: May 6 – 12 appeared first on Agang South Africa.

MOBILE

• USSD - Send ”SIGN” to *120*44673
• SMS – “Sign” and your name, surname, ID number and email to 44673 (I HOPE)
• Mxit – Invite AgangSA on Mxit to add us as a contact and sign the petition on your mobile or new users can install Mxit by going to http://m.mixit.com
• biNu – search for Agang from the homescreen, or new users can install biNu from http://m.binu.com to connect and sign the petition on your mobile.

PAPER

• Download a pdf of the petition form from www.agangsa.org.za
• You can return it by printing, signing and sending it to PO Box 31817,
  Braamfontein, 2017.
• Email a copy of the form to yourself or someone else from www.agangsa.org.za/petition. Print it and get signatures from your community
• Go to any copy shop or printer registered with Paperight to print directly. See www.paperight.com/outlets for outlets or register a shop at www.paperight.com/register
• As a volunteer you can come to the office and drop the signed petition forms in
• Everyone who signs up in person should be given a pen and a pamphlet.

ONLINE  – Sign online at www.agangsa.org.za/petition

The post Petition: Ways to Sign appeared first on Agang South Africa.

As an Agang volunteer, it is important to be comfortable with what Agang stands for and why we are launching this petition. Spend some time reading the materials and be sure to regularly check agangsa.org.za, the Facebook page and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest news.

When you go out gathering signatures remember to explain:

• Signing this petition does not mean you are signing up to any one party or political belief
• Your ID number is needed to count that we have one signature from South African citizens only. It will be stored securely and will not be used for any other purpose
• You can find out more about Agang by going to agangsa.org.za or following us on Facebook and Twitter
• If they want to become a volunteer, make a note of who they are, and invite them to the next meeting you are involved in
• Send us an email at petition@agangsa.org.za with any questions

The post Petition: How to get signatures appeared first on Agang South Africa.