About Sibongile
Sibongile (Bongi) Mkhabela, a social worker by profession and a passionate social activist by orientation currently spearheads the newly formed independent Barloworld Empowerment Foundation in the capacity of Chief Executive Director.
This independent Foundation has defined its mission to ignite self-belief and unleash resilient communities in Africa. The foundation focuses on developing women and youth by empowering them in the fields of entrepreneurship, education in all its forms, protection of the environment and social development.
Storytelling is one of the anchors of the Foundation and a vehicle for the shifting of the power dynamic to enable the communities it serves to lead the process of change and take ownership of the outcomes.
Ms. Mkhabela is notably the former Chief Executive Officer of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF) as well as the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust (NMCH Trust).
Her first steps as an activist were intuitive rather than political; as a child she recognized and questioned the banal and common indignities that shaped black lives. The young Bongi joined the student resistance as a leader in the Soweto Students Representative Council (SSRC) and the South African Students Movement General Secretary. She was part of the driving force behind the nation-wide June 16, 1976 student revolt which was a turning point in South Africa’s the anti apartheid struggle. Bongi was charged with 10 other students for sedition in what became known as the “Soweto 11” Trial.
As the only female student charged, she was nicknamed ‘the rose among the thorns’ and imprisoned for two years at a female prison in Kroonstad, in the Free State Province. Six years after the 1976 protests she was finally released in 1982. Time spent in the women’s prison only resolved her commitment to fighting for the dignity of black lives and strengthening the position of African women.
After her release Bongi was served with several banning orders, laws limiting who she could be in contact with and restricting her movements to Zola Township. She made her hometown the epicentre of her activism. Under the auspices of the South African Council of Churches,
Bongi was trained by The Legal Resources Centre as a para-legal and founded the Zola Advice Office offering practical, social, and legal advice and assistance to people living under the rule of an oppressive state.
Most recently, she was awarded The Order of Luthuli (Silver) by the President of South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, on 27 April 2018. The award is in recognition of her fight against apartheid, her continued work in social justice and for her excellent contribution to the well-being of South Africa’s children. She has also awarded an honorary doctorate in Philosophy by the Nelson Mandela University.
In her tenure as CEO of the Nelson Mandela Children’s fund, Bongi moulded an African organization for social justice, and a critical player in issues affecting children, their families, and communities. The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund founded by Nelson Mandela has a footprint that extends beyond the borders of South Africa and encompasses Southern Africa.
Embracing Nelson Mandela’s mission to change how society treats the African child, in the last decade Sibongile Mkhabela has been on a journey to ensure that the county’s children have access to world-class tertiary healthcare and institutions devoted to their care. She led the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust, R1 Billion ($100m) capital campaign behind the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital. Only the second of its kind in Southern Africa, the Children’s Hospital now provides state-of-the-art tertiary paediatric care and aims to improve the quality of paediatric research and training in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It is in this context that she built a relationship with the French government and its people. During her tenure at NMCF, the French government hosted South Africa’s children and invited them to address a sitting of parliament. The French government was one of the lead donors and partners during the research phase of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital.
Bongi presents a unique development perspective that incorporates grassroots action working with the Advice Offices and other grassroots initiatives as well as work with organizations with a national and global agenda.
Part of that experience saw her work in senior positions at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); serve the first democratically elected government as the Director responsible for programming in the Office of the President with specific reference to civil society-government partnerships as well as overseeing the implementation of The UN Children’s Charter.
A graduate from the University of Zululand, Bongi is also a Joel L. Fleishman Civil Society Policy Fellow at Duke University in North Carolina, USA. She also completed her postgraduate Business Management studies with the University of the Witwatersrand Business School in Johannesburg. In 2017, Mkhabela was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in Italy – a residency offering space to reflect and write about her experiences and the future of social justice movements.
Bongi serves on various boards, including the USA based Global Philanthropy Alliance and she is former Chairperson and current Trustee of Black Sash. She continues to serve on the board of Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital. Bongi recently accepted an invitation to serve on the Firelight Board, California, USA.
Her novel Open Earth and Black Roses recounts the ordinary and extraordinary tales of black families in Apartheid South Africa and she tells her personal experience as a young woman imprisoned, restless and resisting social injustice.
