Gender Equality

Based:  Johannesburg

Mbuyiselo Botha is a commissioner of the South African Commission for Gender Equality. He also sits on the commission’s finance and IT and communications committees.
Previously, Mr Botha spent eight years as the media and government liaison manager of Sonke Gender Justice, a non-profit organisation that advocates for gender equality and against domestic and sexual violence, and works to reduce the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS. Through his advocacy work, Mr Botha has been featured in and interviewed by numerous newspapers and radio and television stations, and is widely recognised for his work in South Africa and across the world. He co-hosts weekly talk shows on commercial and community radio stations, reaching millions of listeners each week.

During the 1980s, Mr Botha was the dissemination officer for the International Red Cross in South Africa, and was a founding member and secretary-general of the South African Men’s Forum, where he dealt with issues of advocacy, training and community-based structure-building. He currently serves on the boards of LifeLine Vereeniging; Gender Links; and the Institute for Social and Health Sciences at the University of South Africa. In 2007, during a Women’s Day celebration speech in Galeshewe near Kimberley, President Thabo Mbeki singled Mr Botha out for special praise and expressed appreciation for his work on gender equality in South Africa.