Palesa Kadi

Palesa Kadi commenced with her media industry experiences through student politics, as the Public Relations Officer of the University of the Western Cape SRC. In 1998 she was elected as the Treasurer General of the South African Students Press Union (SASPU), a national student organization that mobilized resources, trained and advocated for a free media and freedom of expression in tertiary institutions around South Africa. This included the establishment of campus radio stations and televisions, training of student journalist through the Institute for Advanced Journalism, Freedom of Expression Institute, SABC, and Johnnic Publishers now Times Media Group and community media NGOs.

Palesa Kadi has served industry as a professional. She is a former Shared Services Executive of the Film and Publication Board (FPB). She has served the board on matters of content and online regulation through classification, policy development and consumer awareness. At the FPB Ms Kadi was responsible for strategy development and implementation, performance information management, audit and risk, communications, consumer awareness, human resource management, stakeholder management, research and advocacy. She has also worked at municipal, provincial and national government on strategic management, policy development and economic development.

Ms Kadi obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Studies, BA Honours in Political Studies and Comparative Economic Systems, MA in Visual and Heritage Studies. In 2006 she was the first cohort of 20 young leaders in Africa under the African Leadership Institute convened at Mount Fleur, Stellenbosch and continued with Scenario Planning at Oxford University’s Edward Said Business School.   She is now an Archbishop Tutu Fellow under the African Leadership Institute. With an indepth interest in governance and regulation she pursued further training in Monitoring and Evaluation at the University of Witwatersrand’s School of Governance. She is part of Foresight for Development which utilizes forecasting by business leaders and organizations to develop long term business strategies and insights in areas of technology, innovation and other fields to shape Africa’s Development for vision 2050.

Kadi has served as a non – executive directors in various boards at Calabash Trust Board Member (2005 – 2007) A Community Tourism Initiative in Nelson Mandela Bay, Eastern Province Cricket Board member from 2005 – 2007.  Cricket South Africa, Alliance Francei Management Board Committee member 2005 – 2006.  A French Embassy project, Commonwealth Youth Program Regional Advisory Board member 2005 to 2008. The Commonwealth, Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) Board member, Chair of Audit and Risk, Public Entity of Department of Communications, Ministerial Appointment 2015 – 2017 April, National Heritage Council (NHC) Board Member, Chair of Corporate Services, Finance and Marketing Committee, 2015, National Council of Libraries and Information Services (NCLIS), Ministerial appointment- Department of Arts and Culture.