Lisa Adams is a South African born technology leader and Founder of Citizen Code, working at the forefront of building digital products for social impact across Africa and globally. Her work is defined by designing for real-world barriers like high data costs, limited internet access, low-end devices, and complex social environments, including conflict-affected regions. She focuses on creating accessible, safe, and culturally grounded technologies that reach millions of young people where they are, particularly in areas such as sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender-based violence (GBV), mental wellbeing, and digital heritage. She is a trusted advisor to global organisations including UNICEF and Girl Effect, and the author of the 2026 UN-CPD Regional Briefing for Africa on Population, Development, and Technology. As Acting Minister of Technology and AI for the State of the Youth Address, Lisa brings a perspective that is both proudly South African and globally recognised, advocating for a future where young people are not just users of technology, but active builders shaping systems that truly work for them.

uhlebethu Magwaza is the Project Lead at Youth Capital, a national advocacy campaign driving policy change to tackle youth unemployment in South Africa. Her work sits at the intersection of evidence, policy, and community action — amplifying young people’s voices to influence more inclusive and responsive economic systems. At Youth Capital, she leads advocacy strategies that connect national policy reform to the lived realities of young people, ensuring that those most affected by unemployment are central to shaping solutions. Her focus is on expanding equitable pathways into work — including strengthening public employment programmes, improving access to employable skills, and enabling entrepreneurship as one of several viable routes into sustainable livelihoods. Through this, she contributes to advancing funded, accountable, and scalable responses to South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis. Buhlebethu has led and contributed to national and regional initiatives on school-to-work transitions, education, graduate employability, demand-led skilling, and social protection reforms. In her role as Minister of Youth Employment, she brings a systems-level perspective grounded in both policy insight and lived realities — advocating for coordinated, responsive systems that give young people a fair shot at meaningful work, sustainable livelihoods, and a dignified life.

Dr Siya is a medical doctor and digital health educator working at the intersection of healthcare, media, and access. His work is shaped by frontline experience as an ER doctor in underserved township communities in South Africa, where he witnessed firsthand the barriers young people face in accessing care, from overstretched systems to stigma and a lack of trusted information. This reality has driven his focus on rethinking how healthcare reaches people beyond traditional systems. He has since built a platform reaching millions, using spaces like TikTok to translate complex topics such as sexual health, mental wellbeing, and public health into content that young people can actually understand and engage with. He has gone on to work as a strategist and advisor to global health organisations, including the World Health Organization and partners within the Gates Foundation ecosystem, contributing to how digital platforms can be used to expand access to trusted health information at scale. As Acting Minister of Digital Health for the State of the Youth Address, Dr Siya brings a clear and urgent perspective that in a country where access to healthcare remains unequal, trusted digital information is essential to democratising care for young people.

Raeesah Noor-Mahomed is an intersectional activist, artist, and revolutionary whose work bridges art and social justice. Their activism began at 17, in 2019, when they organised public performance art protest pieces to raise awareness about the climate crisis. Since then, Raeesah has collaborated with activists and organizations both nationally and internationally. Raeesah’s work consistently explores how art can be used as a way to bridge gaps and unite people in the fight for change. They are particularly interested in the power of (re)imagining to envision and shape new futures. Currently pursuing a Master’s in Southern Urbanism, Raeesah combines their passion for social justice with their love of the arts. Their research explores how knowledge can be shared and communities connected through art as a medium of communication.

Rod Ndlovu is a South African public health practitioner, youth development leader, and researcher whose work sits at the intersection of adolescent health, masculinity, and social change. With a background that spans student leadership, athletics, and community coaching, including serving as Vice President of University Sports South Africa and as head coach at Clyde Pinelands Football Club, he brings a grounded understanding of how young men navigate identity, pressure, and wellbeing in real-world contexts. His work has consistently focused on sexual health, mental wellbeing, and the role of social and behavioural norms in shaping how young men show up in society. Professionally, Rod works in monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning, using data and lived insight to shape programmes, influence policy, and track impact at scale. He is particularly interested in how masculinity is formed, performed, and challenged, and what it takes to shift harmful norms while creating space for healthier, more accountable versions of manhood. As Acting Minister of Masculinity for the State of the Youth Address, Rod brings a perspective that bridges evidence and lived experience, focused on redefining masculinity in ways that support wellbeing, responsibility, and positive social change for young people.

Candice Chirwa is a South African menstrual health activist, academic, and founder of Qrate, widely known as the "Minister of Menstruation." She has built one of the most recognisable youth-led movements tackling period poverty and stigma, using education, storytelling, and community work to shift how menstruation is understood and spoken about. Her work addresses a critical but often overlooked barrier to opportunity, where thousands of young people miss school and fall behind simply because they cannot access menstrual products or safe, informed support. Through her work, Candice has pushed menstrual health into broader conversations around dignity, education, and gender equity, positioning it as a public health and human rights issue, not just a "women's issue." As Acting Minister of Menstrual Health for the State of the Youth Address, she brings a clear and necessary perspective, that you cannot talk about youth development, education, or economic participation without addressing the realities of period poverty and the systems that continue to ignore it.

Naadiya Moosajee is an engineer, entrepreneur, and one of South Africa's most recognised voices at the intersection of technology, gender, and innovation. As the co-founder of Women in Engineering (WomEng) & WomHub, she has spent years developing engineering talent among girls across multiple African countries and building pipelines into industries that have historically shut women out. She leads the innovation team developing incubator programmes with a sharp focus on gender in AI and cybersecurity, two of the most critical and contested frontiers in technology today. She is also the co-founder of Cybherfence, a cybersecurity firm dedicated to keeping people safer online by understanding and addressing vulnerability to cyber threats. In a world where cyber threats are growing and the people most at risk are often the least protected, Naadiya is building the systems and the talent pipelines to change that. As our Minister of Digital Safety & Cybersecurity, she brings the technical depth, the social conscience, and the lived experience to lead one of SOYA's most urgent and timely conversations.

Kiara Mitoo is a South African junior software engineer, AI student, and youth technology advocate working at the frontline of the education-to-employment transition. Having only recently transitioned out of the school system, she represents a generation of young people navigating a critical and often broken pathway between education and meaningful work. As a developer at Citizen Code and founder of Code: Connexion, her work is grounded in the realities of South Africa's youth unemployment crisis, with a focus on how technology, learning, and access intersect in environments shaped by inequality and limited opportunity. She is a strong advocate for rethinking internships and learnerships as critical economic infrastructure, essential bridges that convert skills into real participation in the economy. Drawing from both lived experience and her work in the tech ecosystem, she challenges systems that leave young people overqualified on paper but excluded in practice. As Acting Minister of Internships for the State of the Youth Address, Kiara brings a clear, urgent, and deeply relevant perspective on what it will take to unlock opportunity for South Africa's youth at scale.

Raeesah Noor-Mahomed is a South African climate justice activist and youth leader working at the intersection of climate, inequality, and social change. Her work is grounded in an intersectional approach, linking climate change to histories of colonialism, apartheid, and systemic injustice, and pushing for solutions that centre those most affected. She began her activism as a student and has since grown into a recognised voice in the African climate movement, from leading school-level mobilisation to participating in global spaces like COP26 and collaborating with organisations such as Greenpeace. She is particularly focused on climate literacy and making the climate conversation more accessible, inclusive, and youth-led, recognising that young people are already living the consequences of decisions they did not make. As Acting Minister of Climate Change for the State of the Youth Address, Raeesah brings a clear and urgent perspective, that climate change is not just an environmental issue, but a justice issue, and that any meaningful response must centre youth voices, local realities, and the communities most impacted.

Sabrina Walter is a gender-based violence activist and founder of Women For Change, one of South Africa’s most influential grassroots movements addressing GBV and femicide. She founded the organisation in 2016 in response to the murder of Franziska Blöchliger, building it into a powerful digital and community-led platform that reaches millions each month. Through her work, she supports survivors in real time, amplifies critical cases, and mobilises national attention and accountability, often engaging directly with women seeking help, justice, and safety. In 2026, Sabrina was named to the TIME100 Most influential people list, recognising her global influence and impact in the fight against gender-based violence. Her work has helped shift GBV from a silenced crisis to a national priority, contributing to the advocacy that led to its classification as a national disaster. As Acting Minister of GBV for the State of the Youth Address, Sabrina brings a deeply grounded and unapologetic voice shaped by frontline experience, committed to survivor-centred support, public accountability, and driving systemic change for women and girls in South Africa.

Wandile Mpisi is an attorney and legal engineer working at the intersection of law, technology, and governance. His work focuses on ensuring that as Al systems shape everyday decisions, they are designed and deployed in ways that are fair, transparent, and accountable. His practice is grounded in Responsible Al, embedding human rights, privacy, and societal values across the full lifecycle of how Al systems are built and managed. He translates regulatory and ethical requirements into practical frameworks for transparency and traceability, so that technology-driven decisions can be understood, interrogated, and traced back to accountable actors. In a world where algorithms increasingly shape access to jobs, finance, and essential services, he is guided by a simple principle: power without accountability is a risk to rights. As Minister of Rights and Receipts, he brings a legal lens to digital governance, focused on evidence, responsibility, and building trust in how modern systems operate.

Lauren Powell is a South African archaeologist and digital anthropologist whose work explores how culture, power, and technology shape knowledge and collective memory. And how memory in turn shapes identity, belonging, and the future. Her work connects the past with the digital world, asking questions about who gets remembered, whose stories are told, and how young people can reclaim their place in shaping culture. She now works as a Digital Anthropologist and Interpretative Strategist at Formula D_, contributing cultural insight to projects involving museums, archives, and public storytelling. Lauren collaborates with Citizen Code on digital heritage and ethical technology initiatives, exploring how digital systems can help reconnect displaced communities and archives.

Ms Mpadi Makgalo is a Public Health Specialist with vast experience in multinational programme development and management with extensive experience working with international NGOs, community-based organisations and the private sector. She has provided technical assistance in the area of gender, HIV/IDS, public health, and education to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on improving access and quality of care for all. She has led large scale public health programmes with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, BroadReach Healthcare, Wits Reproductive Health Institute (RHI) and Centre for Disease Control (CDC/South Africa). She served on several boards including; South Africa’s COVID-19 Task Force, Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo, Sizwe Hosmed Medical Scheme, Harambe Advisory Services, and the Johannesburg Market. She is the Founder and CEO of Heal South Africa Together (Heal SA) a registered national, not for profit, non-governmental organisation which aims to actively work with the community, government, and private sector to achieve the highest possible level of mental health for all. She established HEAL SA in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a response to the psycho-social needs of people having difficulty coping with everyday life, and to assist persons living with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities. She is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion and making mental health services relevant and accessible for women and youth in South Africa.

Arabella Rogerson is a strategist, storyteller, and passionate advocate for the power of games to drive real-world change. Based in Cape Town, she leads marketing and strategy at Sea Monster Entertainment, where her work sits at the intersection of creativity, technology, and social impact. With a background in film and a deep love for narrative, she brings a storyteller's eye to everything she does - from crafting research that helps brands understand the games industry, to building the case for why play is one of the most powerful tools we have for learning and human connection. She believes that the best games don't just entertain, they change the way people see the world.