Acacia Global awards Mandla Majola Global Leadership Award

South Africa, as evidenced by individuals like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the late President Nelson Mandela, has had many great leaders. Grooming the next generation of community leaders and preventing them from burning out in the face of unrelenting issues like poverty, disease and violence, however, is a challenge that is often overlooked. In honor of Human Rights Day, December 10th, Acacia Global presents our inaugural “Global Leadership Award” to Mandla Majola of South Africa’s Treatment Action Campaign. This annual award comes with a stipend that will help alleviate the stress that can come with leadership and will give the recipient additional support to ensure they remain engaged in transforming their communities. The community of Khayelitsha agreed that there was no one more deserving of this award than Mandla Majola.

A longtime advocate for human rights, Mandla grew up in the township of Guguletu, located outside of Cape Town, South Africa. At the age of 11, he joined the Young Romans Soccer Club where a good education, grounded in strong moral values and ethics, provided Mandla with the foundation for the social justice work that would become his life’s work.

Mandla began volunteering with the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in 1999, and by 2000 was employed as a Community Organizer and tasked with creating TAC branches in South Africa’s provinces. Within two years TAC had expanded from two regional branches to 15 national ones. In recognition of his talents and accomplishments, Mandla was appointed the National Organizer for TAC and elected as the General Secretary of the National Congress of TAC in 2003. He remained in that position, managing TAC’s Khayelitsha branch, until 2011.

Mandla left TAC in 2011 to become the Campaign Coordinator for the Social Justice Coalition (SJC). SJC and TAC are sister agencies, both being founded by Zackie Achmet. In 2013 Mandla returned to TAC to take over the position of the Khayelitsha District Coordinator.

Mandla works tirelessly for human rights issues in and around Cape Town. We are proud to present Mandla with the Acacia Global Leadership Award. Thank you, Mandla, for making a difference in your community and being a role model for others.