The Mandela Rhodes Community will be hosting their 7th Annual Summit on 12-14 September 2014 at Stellenbosch University. The community is an alumni association of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation founded by their Patron Mr Nelson Mandela. The scholarship programme is geared towards developing and nurturing leadership excellence in Africa focusing on four pillars namely: Leadership, Education, Entrepreneurship and Reconciliation.

This year’s theme Innovation: Inspire the Next promises to evoke invention, creativity and novel ideas to challenge the status quo and includes formidable speakers such as Alayne Reesberg, CEO of the World Design Capital, Louise van Rhyn from Symphonia and Prof Eugene Cloete, Vice-Rector of Innovation and Research at Stellenbosch University. Our sponsors include Stellenbosch University, Allan Gray and Innovus.

The Summit brings together some of Africa’s greatest thought leaders and scholars who will spend three days engaging on some of the pertinent challenges faced on the continent and globally. Inspired by the pillars of reconciliation, education, entrepreneurship and leadership, the community members aim to develop a strong network of knowledge, skills and opportunities to innovatively tackle the challenges in their respective communities.

The programme includes a session with youth from the Kuyasa Empowerment project in Stellenbosch, workshops on innovation in education, entrepreneurship, leadership and reconciliation and innovation for community building. Jason Stewart from Have You Heard and Rashiq Fatar of Future Cape Town will be sharing their insights with the scholars, and Johnathan Smit of Innovus will host a session on innovation in research. The community will host a Public Lecture on Friday, 12 September 2014 at 18:00 at the Sasol Art Museum in Ryneveld Street and Prof Eugene Cloete will conclude the Summit by entrusting the community with tools for innovative thinking.

For further information and to RSVP for the public lecture, please contact: Abigail McDougall (e) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (m) 082 807 4701 or Kim Smith (e) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (m) 079 614 8939