Dr Neo Morojele is the Deputy Director of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Unit of the Medical Research Council. She has experience in conducting substance abuse research in treatment, health, school, bar and community settings. She is currently involved in studies on alcohol and other drug use and HIV-related sexual risk behaviour. She also conducts research on adolescent substance use and foetal alcohol syndrome.
Dr Morojele received her first degree in Psychology at the University of Zimbabwe and then completed her postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom (University of London and University of Kent at Canterbury). She is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Substance Use, and an Associate Editor of the African Journal of Drug and Alcohol Studies.
Desmond Lesejane is the Deputy Director of Sonke Gender Justice Network with overall line responsibility for programmatic and operational issues. He is also an ordained minister and Dean in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern African where he is responsible for the supervision of fourteen ministers.
Desmond studied theology at the University of Natal and the University of South African where he obtained a Bth (Hons). He has worked in various positions for the South African Council churches at a strategic leadership level. He is also part of founding staff of the Moral Regeneration Movement. He served as the CEO of the Civil Society Secretariat that hosted the international civil society summit that ran parallel to the WSSD Summit held in Johannesburg.
Apart from having extensive leadership and management experience, he has facilitated processes in the social justice arena and has been part of major local and international civil society initiatives in this regard. This includes being of the People’s Budget Campaign and Jubilee 2000 campaigns, and participating in the World Council of Churches socioeconomic justice processes. As a theologian and social justice activist he has written and spoken widely on gender issues from the male perspective.
Agnes Shabalala is a seasoned social and behavioural sciences consultant with over ten years practical experience in HIV/AIDS, research, training, counselling and support. She has a passion for people’s well-being, empowerment and creation of systems to sustain education programmes. She conducted research, produced and co-produced several publications and made presentations at national and international conferences on a range of health topics.
Before she joined Soul City in 1997, she worked as an independent consultant, for UNAIDS/UNDP (Pretoria), where she conducted research on the establishment of project (GIPA) Greater Involvement for People Living with HIV/AIDS. She was also an associate in Sesame Street Research Program in Children’s Television Workshop, New York City.
She is currently employed as an Acting Research Manager, where she has managed a range of wellness programmes.
Dr Sue Goldstein is a medically qualified doctor who specialised in Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand. She worked in primary health care in Alexandra and Soweto for 10 years prior to specialising. She then became interested in health communication and health promotion and has worked as Community Education Manager at the Johannesburg City Council and at Soul City: Institute for Health and Development Communication since 1995. She has co-authored a book on Health Promotion in South Africa, and taught Health Promotion and research over many years as an honorary lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand and Pretoria. She has also been an external examiner for the University of the Cape Town.
Through working with Soul City Dr Goldstein has focused on the evaluation of the impact of Soul City and of health communication in general. She also has vast experience in communication around AIDS, having worked with both the Beyond Awareness campaigns and the Khomanani campaigns, as well as in communicating with children, though the development of the Soul Buddyz vehicle. As an individual she has always been concerned with social justice and was a founder editor of Critical Health as well as an active member of the NAMDA emergency medical services, an active member of the Progressive Primary Health Care Network and a board member of the PPASA. Dr Goldstein has presented papers at many National and International conferences.
Saint Madlala is the National President of the South Liquor Traders Association (SALTA), also the chairperson for Gauteng Liquor Traders Association statutory body that represent the liquor retail sector. He is also in the committee of the Liquor Charter in the industry of South Africa, representing the Liquor Caucus. He is the owner of a liquor wholesale distribution based in Soweto, Gauteng.
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