The purpose and vision of the Foundation is to promote/advocate and facilitate an improved understanding and practice of sport and the application of Universal and Olympic values as tools for development and peace.
Marion is a former athlete, coach and teacher. She has a D.Phil. in Sports and Exercise Sciences from the University of Heidelberg, Germany and an LLB from the Law Faculty of the University of the Western Cape where she is an Associate Professor. She has been involved in research, teaching and community engagement in sport, development and peace internationally for over 20 years and published widely in the field. She is an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa and certified in Sport Law and in Mediation. From 2005-2014 she has been one of the founders and Chairperson of the Western Cape Network for Community Peace and Development, consisting of 32 NGOs working in the area of sport and conflict transformation, youth leadership and community development. She is on the Ministerial Advisory Committee for Sport and Recreation and member of the Eminent People Group for Sport and Transformation for the Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa. In 2014 she was appointed by the President of the International Olympic Committee as expert on the Commission for Culture and Olympic Education and in 2015 as IOC member on the Olympic Education Commission.
Prof. Christo de Coning is a freelance academic, evaluation consultant and a development practitioner. He is both a Professor Extraordinaire at the School of Public Leadership, University of Stellenbosch (to December 2017) and a Professor Extraordinaire at the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, University of the Western Cape (October 2012-September 2015). He is presently a contract researcher at UWC on Sport and Development and a facilitator of M&E technical assistance projects and Certificate Courses at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Sport Science and Development (ICESSD) at UWC and an Evaluation Consultant and Advisor to National Treasury. He is a founding Director of the Institute for Sport and Development as well as the Foundation for Sport, Development and Peace. He specializes in public policy, strategy and implementation, M&E, as well as development management.
Heidi is an entrepreneur, successful property developer and a philanthropist. She is actively involved in development activities and current projects include the design and development of sustainable villages, transformative learning and teaching environments, prototype iSTEAM (Innovative Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Maths) Academies and various other city based urban planning initiatives to create holistic living environments with a strong emphasis being placed on meeting the humanist, educational, social and environmental needs of disadvantaged communities.
She is also involved in social upliftment initiatives, is a co-founder of EDuQ8 AFRICA, a Cape Town based company established to tackle sub-Saharan Africa’s education crisis and founded the London based EDuQ8 INTERNATIONAL in order to attract leading educators to Africa.
Nariman Laattoe is a lecturer and holds an MPhil in Education (Adult Ed) degree from the University of Cape Town (UCT). She is currently the course convenor for core courses offered by Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Unit in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences at the University of the Western Cape, a unit which is responsible for teaching interdisciplinary community-oriented core courses, co-ordinates service-learning in both rural and urban communities and provides inter-professional learning opportunities for health science students at UWC. In addition Ms Laattoe is contracted to the Faculty of Education at UCT where she teaches Project Management, and Research Methods at various academic levels in the Department of Adult Education.
Nariman Laattoe is currently the Chair of the Western Cape Network for Community Peace and Development and her area of expertise is located within the field of community development, effective communication, facilitation skills, leadership development and primary health care.
Ntombise Mene is the Head of the Education and Training sub-unit at Sport and Recreation South Africa. She joined the Department as a Parliamentary Officer and has since occupied different positions, the longest being in the Recreation Directorate of the Department wherein Ms. Mene coordinated different recreation programmes and assisted in a survey on the provision of recreation by various stakeholders. Ms. Mene also co-authored the Indigenous Games Leader, and was a member of the Standard Generating Body for CATHSSETA and represented SRSA in the Sport Chamber. Ntombise Mene is currently the Secretariat to the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Recreation, an advisory body to the Minister of Sport and Recreation, on the implementation of recreation programmes. She also represents SRSA in the Technical Working Group for the Region 5 AU Sport Education Accreditation System.
Jan Koster is an experienced institutional development, capacity building, strategic planning and programme design specialist. He has provided management and technical support and advice to local and international public sector and private sector institutions, non-government organizations, development finance institutions and to international donors. He successfully led the negotiations, the design and implementation of some of the important multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary capacity building programmes and projects in the South African public service. From 2007- 2013 he was the Programme Manager of the very successful Infrastructure Delivery Improvement Programme (IDIP) which is based in the South African National Treasury. Jan worked with non-government and non-profit organizations in Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. He successfully combines the high quality of his technical work with an approach that promotes the transfer of experience and the buy-in and the support of key stakeholders to ensure long-term sustainability.
Dr. Anver Desai started his teaching career in 1982 and is presently the Principal of a primary school in Athlone. He holds a PhD from the University in the Western Cape and specialized in policy-agenda setting of physical education (PE) and school sport (SS). He has a wealth of practical experience and he has been very involved in school sport at national, regional and local levels as well as sport development at schools. His Masters dissertation focused on Transformation and Reform in Sport, Western Province Cricket Association. In 2006 he received the Golden Key Fellowship for academic excellence and was awarded the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship (SYLFF) and in 2009 he attended Jawaharlal Nehru University New Dehli India to conduct research. Being a Senior Management Team member in an educational environment placed him in a position to experience first-hand the challenges of ensuring that school sport are prioritized despite many other priorities. Dr. Desai has written a number of articles and post-doctoral research on Physical Education, School Sport, Curriculum, Education Policy and Transformation and constantly places PESS on the policy agenda. His knowledge and exposure to this transformation process is regarded as an invaluable asset to the Board.
Chimwemwe A.P.S. Msukwa holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Sport Science and Development (ICESSD), University of the Western Cape. He is the Chairperson of the Transformative Engagement Network (TEN) – a network established to build institutional relationships between the National University of Ireland Maynooth, University of Mzuzu in Malawi and two universities in Zambia – the Open University of Zambia and Mulungushi University to enhance capacity and enable local communities, academics and policy-makers effectively engage with each other to better respond to climate change and environmental problems relating to hunger and nutrition. He is a freelance development practitioner mostly focusing on designing of participatory development processes based on African culture, training development practitioners as well as facilitating social transformation processes. Focal sectors include: food security, development of farmer organisations and institutions, smallholder agricultural marketing; community based natural resource management, water hygiene and sanitation; primary health care, community conflict transformation and youth leadership development. He is also involved in designing of monitoring evaluation and learning frameworks and community based participatory monitoring and evaluation systems.
Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe is currently the CEO of the Desmond Tutu Tutudesk Campaign Centre (DTTCC). This organization aims to address the 95million desk shortage in sub-Saharan Africa, by providing 20 million Tutudesks to 20 million children by 2020. The Tutudesk is an environmentally friendly, light portable desk that children can use at school or at home, in regular classrooms or under tree. Thus impacting education & literacy and improving the lives of African children, their communities and countries and making Africa a more globally competitive continent through education. Ms Tutu-Gxashe has lived, worked and been educated in the UK, Swaziland, Botswana and the USA. She is passionate about education and public health, especially in the fight against HIV/AIDS. During her MPH studies at Emory University, Atlanta, she received several fellowships to enhance her academic programme at the Centers for Disease Control, Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, South East AIDS Training Center & the Dekalb County Board of Health. Much of her working life has been in clinical research both in the USA and in South Africa. She undertakes public speaking at universities, schools and community groups in the USA and South Africa. She serves on several Boards including the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, Africa’s Children’s Fund & Heifer International (South Africa).
Warren Lucas is the Foundation’s newest board member. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Sports and Exercise Sciences focusing on the effects of Physical Education on the development of physical literacy in the Western Cape. Warren is a Lecturer in the field of Sports Science and Sport for Development at the University of the Western Cape. He works closely with Non-Profit Organizations, such as the South African Gymnastics Federation, and assists with providing research findings regarding participation in gymnastics with the endeavour to create opportunities for children to join gymnastics and experience the physical, cognitive and socioemotional benefits that the sport of gymnastics has to offer at provincial and national levels. Warren also volunteers with patients who suffer from Huntington’s Disease (HD) with the Huntington’s Association of South Africa (HASA), in providing recreational and exercise therapy to patients with HD to improve gross and fine motor skills, overall balance, strength, flexibility, and coordination.
For the Foundation for Sport, Development, and Peace, Warren leads up the Youth Programme in partnership with Prof. Christo de Coning. The Youth Heritage Games has become one of the Foundation’s main projects which take place concurrently to the Annual Cape Town International Sport and Peace Conference. Warren is passionate about youth development with the aim of developing confidence and generic skills, especially those of collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking and aesthetic appreciation, through using sport as the medium to achieve this.