Kagiso Trust Sets Its Sights on Igniting Human Capacity Across Africa

After 40 years as one of South Africa’s leading development agencies, Kagiso Trust says it intends to expand its impact across the continent.

The move, announced by chairperson Mankoni Ntsaba in the Trust’s new annual report, marks a strategic pivot that recognises the continent’s interconnected development challenges and solutions.

“South Africa’s development is intrinsically linked to the progress of the continent,” says Ntsaba. “Going forward, we will seek to expand our programmes regionally, collaborating with peer organisations across Africa to share learnings, optimise interventions, and collectively strengthen human capacity on the continent.

“This regional outlook aligns with our belief that African challenges and solutions are interconnected and best addressed through partnership and shared innovation.”

The decision to explore continental expansion follows a strategic workshop reflecting on Kagiso Trust’s role within the broader African context. With proven models that ignite human capacity in education, socio-economic development, local government and civil society, the Trust believes it is positioned to share the expertise it has developed over four decades.

CEO Mankodi Moitse says the move is a natural progression. “A defining shift during the past year has been the maturation of our ecosystem approach,” she says in the Trust’s 2024–2025 report.

“We moved beyond viewing stakeholders as individual beneficiaries to recognising them as co-creators in a shared development journey.” The Trust will now look to extend this thinking beyond South Africa’s borders to embrace continental collaboration.

Proven models for regional sharing

The achievements reported by the Trust demonstrate the scalability of its approaches. The TV white space broadband network developed with the CSIR connected 26 schools and community sites in Sekhukhune East, Limpopo. And the matric pass rate in the district, where the Trust implemented its District Whole School Development Programme in 2019, improved by 9.3 percentage points year on year to reach 84%.

Moitse says the Trust’s commitment to technology-driven innovation in education reached a “pivotal inflection point”, bridging conceptual promise with tangible impact. “Our Learning Management System has completed its pilot phase and will unlock greater accessibility, data-driven personalisation and operational efficiency,” she says.

Teachers completed training in Coding and Robotics, while the Education Futures Competition challenged learners in grades 10 and 11 to design digital solutions for community challenges.

Democratic participation and governance

The launch of the Civil Society UnMute Coalition created a national coordination mechanism that decentralises capacity-building and amplifies marginalised voices; and the report says Kagiso Trust’s appointment as co-convenor of the National Dialogue demonstrates its credibility in strengthening democratic participation.

Building on lessons from Makana Municipality in the Eastern Cape, the Trust formalised a partnership with the South African Local Government Association (Salga) to scale its collaborative governance model to municipalities countrywide.

“In Makana municipality, the collaborative partnership between our civil society and local governance units, CSIR, SALGA, and Rhodes University has shown that by facilitating dialogue and reconciliation, stakeholders who previously operated in isolation are now working together to rebuild trust and co-create solutions,” says Ntsaba.

This model of facilitating structured partnerships has potential applications across African municipalities facing similar governance challenges.

Agricultural innovation and financial sustainability

Through the Trust’s socio-economic development programme, the Agri-Awards initiative provided funding to smallholder farmers for agricultural infrastructure, leading to improved yields and business sustainability, particularly in Limpopo.

The integrated agricultural model, combining aggregation, climate-smart agriculture and urban farming, addresses challenges common across the continent: smallholder farmer marginalisation, climate vulnerability and youth unemployment.

The Trust’s financial position strengthens its capacity for regional work. Net asset value grew 12% to R11.7 billion, while dividend income of R342 million funded programmatic activities.

Ntsaba says the Trust – founded as a conduit for international aid money to support marginalised South Africans during apartheid – spent the year reflecting on its impact and direction in the context of “40 years of igniting human capacity”.

She adds that the phrase is more than a celebration of the Trust’s legacy. “It is a reaffirmation of our purpose to foster a just, equitable, and prosperous society where communities and individuals are empowered to shape their own sustainable futures.”

In the Trust’s next chapter, it will deepen its role as an enabler of active citizenship and nurture spaces where individuals and communities take the initiative, lead solutions, and sustain progress independently.

“In this vision lies a revolution of participation, where every citizen recognises their agency and contribution to South Africa’s collective success,” says Moitse.

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