MEET NTSAKO MHLANGA

Ntsako Mhlanga is a South African born and raised social entrepreneur, qualified radio broadcaster, children’s right advocate and education activist. She grew up in Johannesburg with her parents and three siblings. She attended Rosebank Primary School and then proceeded to Jeppe High School for Girls where she was voted prefect in matric. Due to her uncontrollable interest in education, she used her holiday time to volunteer in the Gauteng Department of Education in grade 10 at the age of 15. Her work there comprised of advocating for children’s rights in schools, some of her work includes donating 40 000 bibles to schools, writing media statements and engaging with the MEC of Gauteng Education Mr Panyaza Lesufi about teaching and learning in classrooms. In 2015 she had the honour to present and programme direct the NTA. This entailed presenting on SABC 2 as it was later broadcast on the channel. In her matric year, 2016 Ntsako heard the call for leadership.

Jeppe Girls selected her to be a prefect, house captain and head of computer center. Her role with ICT in education started in grade 9 when she volunteered to assist grade 8s with computer skills. In August 2016, Ntsako was selected to present a report to the South African Human Rights Commission for the National Investigative Hearing into the Impact of Protest-related Action on the Right to a Basic Education in South Africa. She wrote, submitted and presented the report to the South African Human Rights commission representing the learners of South Africa. This hearing saw her advocate for learners. In April 2018, she travelled around South Africa to 111 top schools to do a documentary called Schools That Work. The documentary was done with the Department of Basic Education and it is about keying out the ingredients on how schools achieve academic excellence. The documentary was distributed to schools with poor academic performance.

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