Dr Makaziwe Mandela was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and is the eldest daughter of Evelyn Mase and Nelson Mandela.
After attending high school in Swaziland, she went on to study for her BA degree in Social Work at Fort Hare University in the Eastern Cape, followed by her Honours Degree in Sociology at the University of Natal in Durban.
Dr Mandela is an inspiration to all, a passionate campaigner and speaker for diversity and inclusion, female empowerment, social justice, economic deprivation and education.
In 1984, Dr Makaziwe Mandela received a Fulbright Foreign Scholarship and a Fulbright Distinguished Fellowship Award to study at the University of Massachusetts in the US for a Masters in Sociology and a Doctorate in Anthropology.
She has had a full and varied career that has involved working in several countries and holds directorships with Nestle SA among others. She hasp resented numerous papers over the years, including on the role of women in a changing South Africa. She has been intricately involved in developing a substantial investment portfolio within Nozala, a women’s investment group, and using these funds in the economic upliftment and empowerment of women in the country.
She has worked for a number of academic institutions in South Africa and further afield. She spent a number of years working for The Development Bank of Southern Africa as Executive Manager of Corporate Services. Prior to that, she worked for Spoornet as General Manager in Human Resources. She has also held senior posts at the University of the Witwatersrand and for the Industrial Development Group with interests in mining and petroleum.
Dr Mandela previously sat on the Boards of Rand Water Services, Myriad Medical, Envirosev and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. She is also a consultant in training development and life skills at Self-Empowerment International.
She is currently the Chairperson of House of Mandela, a business that she started with her daughter Tukwini Mandela in 2010.
She is also a director of the House of Mandela Family Foundation that was set up in 2017 with the aim of improving the likelihoods of poor communities and globally advocate for social issues that affect African communities such as HIV and AIDS, education, agriculture, health, women empowerment and alternate energy.
Speaking on Nelson Mandela International Day (18th July 2021), Dr Mandela told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips that her father would want people to put their “heads together and fight this surge of racism until it ends.”
As a keynote speaker, Makaziwe expands upon her professional career and the legacy her surname brings to ensure essential topics are brought to corporate clients, including leadership, health and wellbeing and social justice. Not only known as the daughter of Nelson Mandela, she is now an inspirational campaigner and adviser in her own right.
– Female Empowerment
– Creativity
– The Future of Africa
– Leadership
– Social Justice and Conflict Resolution
– Collaborations vs Competition