Board of Directors
Meg Pahad
Chairperson of the Board of Directors
Lungile Thandeka Moleko
Professor Crain Soudien
Caryn Theresa Winter
Nontsikelelo 'Ntsiki' Adonisi
Justice Johann Kriegler
Dumisani Dlamini
Dorette Visser Parsons
Meg Pahad
Chairperson of the Board of Directors
Meg Pahad has worked mainly in education and is a freelance editor. She joined the Board of Project Literacy in April 2005 and became its Chair in 2012. She is convinced that Project Literacy and Run Home to Read together provide a unique multi-layered solution to South Africa’s literacy crisis; and is passionately committed to supporting its work.
Meg has a BA from Sussex University and she taught in the UK where she was the London co-ordinator of the Primary Schools section of Teachers Against Racism from 1970-74. From 1975-85 she lived in Prague where she worked at the World Federation of Trade Unions. In 1990/1 she returned with her family to South Arica from exile.
She worked at the IEB from 1992-2000, exploring assessment in schooling, adult education and skills training, and is now on the IEB Board. Meg was responsible for the Secretariat of the National Pilot Project for Early Childhood Development.
In 1994 she was elected as Chair of the Gauteng Education and Training Organisations Forum. In 1996 she completed an M Ed at Wits University.
Meg was appointed to three ministerial committees by different Ministers of Education and in 1999 she chaired the Department of Education Task Team which set up Umalusi. In 2000 she was contracted by the Education, Training and Development Practices constituency to establish the quality assurance division of the ETDP SETA. She managed the Department of Labour’s national assessor training project to support learnership implementation and she was an active member of SAQA’s assessor SGB. From 2006-10 Meg was a member of
the Department of Labour’s NQF Task Team which drafted policies for the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations.
From 2011 Meg had been a member of the panel of the Government Technical Advisory Centre of the National Treasury. From 2012-2019 she was managing editor of The Thinker journal. Meg is married to Essop Pahad and they have two
children, Amina and Govan, and five grandchildren.
Lungile Moleko
CEO and Business Management Specialist
Lungile Moleko was appointed to the Board of Project Literacy as an executive director in 2012. She had already held other quality assurance and management positions within the organisation. She is passionate about community education and wouldn’t trade her role at Project Literacy for anything else!
Lungile Moleko’s role at Project Literacy includes strategic direction, coordination, implementation and management of business processes, quality control and assurance, fundraising and new business development management. Lungile has a National Diploma in Information Technology specialising in Business Applications from UNISA; BCOM in Marketing Management from MANCOSA 2024 and has several certificates in Information Technology, Finance and Business Management. She is also a trained Assessor.
Lungile has previously worked at SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) within the Quality Assurance and Development Directorate where her knowledge of the SETA landscape was heightened, with all the then 23 SETAs at the time reporting to their directorate on quality assurance issues. This division was also responsible for performing quality audits for all SETA quality assurance directorates.
Her passion has always been working within the education and training realm through managing information and business applications. She has maintained that passion for the past twenty years and continues to help empower previously disadvantaged South Africans by adding value to their lives through education and training. Lungile is also good at continuously motivating people to go the extra mile to achieve their goals, and this has helped her to stay positive and grow within her career.
Her business management skills have enabled her to build effective partnerships with relevant stakeholders in the education and training sector, including SETAs, government and the private sector as well as CBOs and other NPOs in Education. She continues to aid in the upkeep of Project Literacy’s ethos of ensuring good quality education and training for all, paying special attention to those coming from disadvantaged backgrounds while also breaking learning barriers to enable the creation of further youth employment opportunities and skills development.
Professor Crain Soudien
Chairperson of the Board of Directors and Education Specialist
Professor Crain Soudien was the CEO of the Human Sciences Research Council and current emeritus professor in Education and African Studies of the University of Cape Town. He was appointed to the Board of Project Literacy as a non-executive director in December 2019. He is determined to contribute to its work in promoting the culture of reading and taking urgent action to combat illiteracy.
Prof. Soudien holds a PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo and is a former deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town, where he remains an emeritus professor in Education and African Studies. His publications in the areas of social difference, culture, education policy, comparative education, educational change, public history and popular culture include four books, four edited collections and over 200 articles, reviews, reports, and book chapters, including a 2017 publication entitled Nelson Mandela: Comparative Perspectives of his Significance for Education.
He is involved in a number of local, national and international social and cultural organisations and is chairperson of the Independent Examinations Board, former chairperson of the District Six Museum Foundation, a former president of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies, and has served as the chair of three Ministerial Committees of Enquiry, including the Ministerial Committee on Transformation in Higher Education and the Ministerial Committee to Evaluate Textbooks for Discrimination. He is a fellow of a number of local and international academies and serves on the boards of a number of cultural, heritage, education and civil society structures.
Dumisani Dlamini
Education and HR Specialist
Dumisani is a consultant in Human Resource Development including Labour Law. He has wide-ranging experience in education, training and development in the public and private sectors, with communities, NPOs and municipalities.
He was appointed to the Board in June 2016.
Dumisani’s formal qualifications include a Diploma in Education from the University of Witwatersrand, obtained through Promat College. At Promat he was president of the Student Representative Council. At Promat College he was awarded the Overseas Development Agency (ODA) Scholarship from 1991-93. He then received the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) Scholarship 1994-96 to Avondale College of Higher Education, Australia, where he achieved his B Ed. Dumisani was employed at the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) from 2016-2019. He managed projects and trained educators in assessment and quality assurance. He also worked in the Assessment Institute Africa, a semi-independent organisation aimed at providing assessment and policy solutions to the private sector.
In 1999 he joined KNC & Associates as the Head of the Human Resources consulting division. The work involved delivery on skills development
assignments including the development of private and public sector qualifications as well as advising organisations on training and development. In 2001 Dumisani completed an advanced Diploma Law (Labour Law) at the University of Johannesburg.
From 2000 he has worked as an owner of Umtapo Consulting, a consulting firm providing services to both the public and private sector in relation to
Human Resource Development. In 2002 he cofounded Nantso Holdings (Pty) Ltd initially as a network of Black professional consultants and became its Managing Director a position he currently occupies. Nantso continues to operate as a fully-fledged Black owned management consulting firm based in Johannesburg. Dumisani has served as a board member of the IEB and Funda Afrika (both Education NPOs).
Dorette Visser Parsons
Executive DIrector (Finance)
Dorette is a professional accountant, tax, business rescue practitioner and B-BBEE consultant. She was appointed to the board in February 2007 as a non-executive director. Since 2020, Dorette has been serving as Project Literacy’s Consultant Executive Accountant.
Dorette Visser Parsons is also practicing under Accurate Accounts and Tax Pro Consulting. Dorette, the owner, is a registered accountant and with the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA) and registered Tax Practitioner. She is qualified to offer financial management, accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, taxation, business registrations, independent reviews and financial statement services to individuals and SMMEs.
With 20+ years’ experience she offers financial management, accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, taxation and related services to individuals and SMMEs. As a qualified business rescue practitioner and B-BBEE consultant she offers specialised services to the business sector.
Nontsikelelo 'Ntsiki' Adonisi
Non-Executive Director (Marketing Sub-Committee)
Ntsiki is an admitted attorney, conveyancer and notary. She is currently a director in Ensafrica’s Natural Resources and Environment Department. She was appointed to Board of Directors: June 2015.
Ntsiki was General Counsel of a gold mining company. Her experience covers a range of areas, including mergers and acquisitions, conducting corporate, property and mining due diligences, compiling mining titles reports, managing litigation matters, assisting with stakeholder engagements, including regulatory advice in regard to compliance with the mining legislation; advising in regard to the integrity,
security of tenure and variation of mining titles, including drafting of the section 11 and 102 applications; handling appeals, objections and judicial review applications preparing of legal opinions, and attending to the registration of mining titles. Ntsiki has acted for a wide range of mining companies in all mineral commodity sectors, including the base and precious metals, coal, rare earths, sand, as well as
diamond sectors. Ntsiki is a mother of two beautiful daughters.
Justice Johann Kriegler
Co-director on Project Literacy Investment Holding
Retired Judge: Constitutional Court of South Africa. Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission whose task it was to deliver South Africa’s first democratic elections. Board member of the Centre for Human Rights. He was a Founder Trustee of the Project Literacy Trust Fund from 1986 until it was dissolved in February 2013. Currently Judge Kriegler and Lungile Moleko are the Directors of Project Literacy Investment Holding Company (Pty) Limited.
Caryn Theresa Winter
Non-executive chairperson finance sub-committee
Caryn is the CFO of the SA SME Fund. She is a dynamic, commercially focused Chartered Accountant with a wide range of experience gained both in South Africa and abroad. She has worked for14 years in a variety of senior posts. She is the Chairperson of the Finance Sub-Committee, and she joined the Board in May 2023. In addition to being a CA, Caryn has a B Com (Hons) from the University of Natal and a Bachelor of Accounting Science from UNISA.