Our Thought Leader today was Prof Jonathan Jansen, Distinguished Professor of Education at Stellenbosch University and also President of the South African Academy of Science. He spoke to us about the value of the NPO sector in SA.

This week UCT Students distributed almost 800 pepper spray units and have raised over R100 000 through an online crowd funding campaign on BackaBuddy. Zoar Lewis (21), UCT student and co-founder of the online campaign against GBV spoke to us.

Prof Anne Fitchett -Associate Professor - School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Wits University spoke about the importance of Green Roofs in SA. Green roofs are usually installed on flat roofs with vegetation planted in a growing medium on top of waterproofing, root barrier and cuspate sheeting.

Siphiwe Sithole is the founder of African Marmalade, an organic farming enterprise based in Krugersdorp in Gauteng’s West Rand. She spoke to us about leaving a corporate marketing job to start the organic farming enterprise business.

Our petrol head Nico Smit took on renowned food editor Hilary Biller in the JetSet Bake-off competition.

Franco the cake man, chairperson of Cake Decorators Guild and Siphiwe Sithole were the judges.

Griffin Shea, owner of Bridge Books spoke about the unique bookstore in downtown Johannesburg which supports African writers by finding as many ways of getting books into the hands of as many readers as possible.

Margi Biggs, the convenor of the Wine & Food Tourism Conference, Spoke about the conference where more than 15 top-level experts will be sharing the stage at the Wine & Food Tourism Conference at Spier on 18 September.

This year’s Wine & Food Tourism Conference, will feature South Africa’s most respected trends analyst, Dion Chang, as headline speaker.

Charl de Beer, CEO and Founder of Fanute Hospitality Solutions spoke about Fanute is a sustainability solutions company, in its innovative thinking the organisation provides valuable services to the market, and in just a small way, helps to save the planet.

We spoke to Justin Yarrow, the founder of ICT youth empowerment NGO, CodeMakers. He spoke about SuperScientist, an initiative where South African scientists are being immortalised as superheroes as a way to inspire youth to take an interest in the field of science.

Our Guest Presenter today was Lebo Mashile award-winning poet, author, presenter, actress, and producer. Mashile is a South African household name who is most recognisable for her lyrical and gutsy poems. She spoke to us about her career, gender-based violence in SA and her new theatre production: Venus vs Modernity: The Life of Saartjie Baartman.

Her chosen guests were Keitu Gwangwa, the CEO of the Windybrow theatre and Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng Vice-chairperson of the Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition and founder of Nalane Associates.