The judging panel of the 25th BASA Awards brings diverse skills and real world experiences to the table as we emerge from COVID with fresh perspectives on the value of collaboration. Chaired once again by Khanyi Mamba, please meet the panel of judges for this year’s Awards.
Khanyi Mamba (BASA Awards Panel Chairperson)
Khanyi Mamba is the Marketing Communications Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at Cambridge International, an international education organisation. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the company’s marketing, events and public relations activities across 28 countries in the region. Khanyi has more than 16 years’ experience in marketing and public relations and has previously held marketing and communication roles at DHL Express, Pirelli Tyre, and Sun International. She currently serves as a BASA Board member.
Lerato Matsoso
Lerato Matsoso is the Stakeholder Relations Manager for CAPASSO and a media expert. She is the former entertainment and lifestyle editor of the Daily Sun and Sunday Sun newspapers where she worked for 12 years. Having served as a judge on different local and international awards for years ranging from music, television and the arts her knowledge and passion for the entertainment industry keeps growing. Lerato was named as one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans in 2014 among other achievements. Lerato also doubles up as the entertainment expert and commentator and has previously engaged on platforms including Ukhozi FM, YFM, Moja Love’s TMI, SABC 1’s Real Goboza, as well as for eTV’s Sunrise breakfast programme, where she presented a round-up of entertainment news. She has been on different panels tackling issues in and around the entertainment and creative industry including being on panels for Google, Moshito and the South African Music Awards. An activist, she prides herself in uplifting communities in and around her, including her initiative, The Love Care Packs, which distributes toiletries to girl and boy high school learners annually.
Nadia Virasamy
As the CEO of 44 year old Moving into Dance, Nadia Virasamy has been nominated among the top three finalists for the Conscious Companies Awards in 2019, the top five for the Standard Bank Rising Star Awards (2015), among the top three finalists for the Business Women’s Associations Regional Awards in the category of social entrepreneurship (2015) and was named among the Top 100 Difference Makers in South Africa (2016). She is a passionate go-getter, with a range of accomplishments and no fear of a challenge, longing for the call of the unchartered and unexplored. Exhibiting great social skills, her skills set comes with an embellishment of humanity and conscience. Working in the NPO sector for the last 17 years has made her resilient to the challenges that may come with organisational flux.
Luana Malan
Luana Malan serves under the Strategy and Corporate Affairs Division at the Industrial Development Corporation in her capacity as a CSI Specialist, driving social impact projects. She has 13 years of experience in the Socio-Economic Development sector across diverse portfolios including; Entrepreneurship, Agriculture, Arts and Culture, Active Citizenship etc. She takes pride in connecting, strategising and collaborating with people to achieve meaningful interventions that enable economic inclusion, deliver the intended impact and unlock human potential. She obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Regent Business School; Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Pretoria, Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS); Postgraduate Project Management from the University of South Africa (UNISA) School of Business Leadership and Development Studies (UNISA), A B.A Political Science Degree from Rhodes University. She is a Professional Fellow for her participation in the Michigan State University: Strengthening Leadership Capacity and Professional Skills: a women’s economic empowerment programme for Tanzania and South Africa coordinated by the U.S. Department of State. At her leisure, Luana is planting and harvesting seeds or adding to her reflections in her unpublished poems.
Russel Abrahams
Russel Abrahms is the founder of Yay Abe; an award-winning illustration community. Ranking as one of the top three illustrators on the Loeries Middle East and Africa list in 2019, Russell has worked with brands and companies such as Woolworths, Adidas, Bombay Sapphire, United Nations, Airbnb, Apple Music and most recently H&M. This creative talent was born and bred in Cape Town. A graphic design graduate from CPUT (Cape Peninsula University of Technology) and a participant in the 2014 Design Indaba Emerging Creatives Programme, Abrahams is intent on conveying narratives and messages through his illustrations and mural art. His work is inspired by a mélange of local people and cultures, characterised by bold colour, a unique graphic style and playful nature. Abrahams is known to work in a very local style with vibrant colours stemming from the society in which he lives. Abrahams cut his teeth in agencies where he learned how to navigate the art world as a young businessman and entrepreneur of colour. In 2017, he founded YAY ABE and dribbling past gatekeepers and jumping over hurdles, Yay Abe slowly gained momentum within the illustration scene in Cape Town and then the rest of SA.
Phumza Renqe
Phumza is a marketing professional with over 16 years experience working in various advertising, marketing and corporate social investment roles for companies including Diageo Plc and Ogilvy Cape Town. She is now the Group Marketing Manager for the Distell based in Cape Town. She has a huge passion for finding creative ways to enable brands to engage meaningfully with consumers, particularly on societal issues and to date she’s had the good fortune of working on a number of noteworthy cause marketing campaigns like Carling Black Label`s No Excuse GBV campaign and Distell`s artist-led Body of Evidence GBV+F campaign. Phumza believes in the power of marketing as a discipline and a tool that is valuable not only to build brands but also to spark conversation and do good, something that she is very happy she is able to do at Distell, where the arts is a pillar in their group marketing strategy.
Faatimah Mohamed-Luke
Faatimah Mohamed-Luke is a visual artist and designer based in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2003, she graduated from Cape Town University of Technology with a diploma in Fashion and began her creative journey as a founding partner of SA designer brand adam&eve. Within the fashion design industry, she has honed her artistic and entrepreneurial skills, having participated in fashion weeks and exhibitions globally for over a decade. She also completed a multidisciplinary design course focused on graphic, interior, industrial, textile and jewellery design disciplines. Six years ago, she resigned from the fashion industry to focus on art and interior design. Her aim is to reintroduce the art form of tessellation in a thoroughly modern way, utilising plastic building blocks to create large scale artworks. She enjoys challenging the views of materiality and what constitutes an artistic medium, while elevating the humble child’s toy into a nostalgic visual feast. Faatimah’s chosen medium allows for a playfulness and accessibility within her artworks. Her need to foster accessibility and inclusion has led to numerous public installations, one of which has won her a Bronze Loerie award. She hopes to constantly blur the line between art and design as she evolves and grows on her journey through various creative avenues.
