Professor Charles Parry is the Director of the South African Medical Research Council’s Alcohol & Drug Abuse Research Unit (ADARU). He is also an Extraordinary Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Stellenbosch.

He received graduate training in South Africa (MSc) and the USA (MA, PhD) in clinical/community psychology and mathematical statistics and has published over 100 reports/articles and co-authored two books: Alcohol Policy & Public Health in South Africa (1998) and Alcohol and the Developing World: A public Health Perspective (2002). He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of Addiction; Substance Abuse: Treatment, Prevention & Policy; and the African Journal of Drug & Alcohol Studies.

He has advised local/provincial/national government on a variety of issues related to alcohol and drug policy: National Department of Health (on alcohol policy in general and specifically regarding restrictions on alcohol advertising), National Treasury (on alcohol excise taxes), Western Cape Department of Economic Affairs (on policy issues regarding the retail sales of alcohol), City of Cape Town (on its drug strategy), the Western Cape Department of Community Safety (on addressing the links between drugs and crime), and the Department of Social Development (on substance abuse policy implementation).

He was also one of the convenors of the alcohol component of the 2008 Safer South Africa initiative and was involved in the formulation of South Africa’s National Drug Master Plan in 1999 and its revision in 2005. Since 2006 he has been a member of the World Health Organization’s Expert Panel on Drug Dependence and Alcohol Problems.

 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.

Mbuyiselo Botha joined Sonke in July 2008 and is the organisation’s Senior Programmes Advisor. He worked extensively as the dissemination officer for the International Red Cross based in South Africa in the 80s. He was a founder member of the South African Men’s Forum and is currently the secretary general of the Forum where he deals with issues of advocacy, training and community based structure building. 

Mbuyiselo’s involvement with the forum has spanned from the dawn of democracy to date. He is also a member of the national steering committee for the planning of the annual activities for the 16 Days of activism against violence against women and children campaign. Mbuyiselo writes a weekly column called man to man talk for the national newspaper the Sunday Sun and is a frequent radio and television commentator on issues relating to the abuse of women and children in South Africa.

In 2007, during a women’s day celebration speech in Galeshewe near Kimberly, President Thabo Mbeki singled Mbuyiselo out for special praise and expressed his appreciation for Mbuyiselo’s work done with men for gender equality in South Africa. Mbuyiselo is a humorous, warm, people centered person.

Steve Hamilton has been working in South African schools, colleges and companies for over 17 years, and more recently in countries such as Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland fighting a steadily growing drug pandemic. During the course of his work he has received numerous awards from various service organizations, one of which was an ‘International citizen of the year’ award by Lions International. He is also regularly asked to appear on radio, television and media publications for his views on the topics of Drug, Alcohol abuse and AIDS. He has published a book “I want my life back” in its 6^th print run in SA, and was published in the USA in all 52 states in March 2004.  He has lectured psychiatrist, psychologists and other medical professionals, and has assisted many companies, in dealing with the abovementioned topics.

It became Steve’s personal crusade to help people fight the war against addiction. Steve portrays his life story on stage in the form of a psychodrama for schools and gives corporate presentations too. He re-enacts the tragedy of his own addiction, lasting some 20 years, making him accessible and “real” to his audience. The International Association of Lions Clubs gave Steve the Melvin Jones Fellowship award in 1997 for having devoted his life to the full-time fight against substance and sexual abuse in South Africa.

As Steve says in “I want my life back:”
“At the age of 15 I already had a criminal record, busted by the drug squad for possession of an illegal substance. You’d think I’d have learnt a lesson, wouldn’t you, but I’m still learning, even though I’m clean of street drugs now – well, just for today – and have a lot of clean time behind me. The hardest lesson of all for an addict is that the nightmare is never over and the powerful seduction of just one more high never ever goes away. The story in these pages is not a comfortable one. It doesn’t have an ending and I’m not even sure if it has a true beginning. Some of the time it may read like a bad dream.
It isn’t.
It’s my life you’re holding in your hands.
Don’t let it be yours.”