The Isivivana Centre is owned and managed by the Khayelitsha Youth & Community Centre (KYCC) Trust. The Trust has Trust Registration No. IT021933/2014(C) and is a registered Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) with number 930048392. It operates according to a Trust Deed, and is governed by a board of a maximum of nine trustees. The current trustees are:

Phumeza Mlungwana 

Acting chairperson

Phumeza was born and raised in Khayelitsha. She is General Secretary of the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), one of the most important social movements in the Western Cape. Phumeza’s undergraduate degrees were in the Social Sciences and she is currently enrolled for an M.Phil in Law and Society at the University of Cape Town. She is an Alumnus of the Building Bridges Programme within the Graduate School of Development in Policy and Practice at UCT. She also serves on the board of trustees of Ndifuna Ukwazi, a Cape Town-based research and advocacy organisation focussing on questions of urban justice.

Eric Kwelata  


Eric is Regional Secretary of the National Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) and Chairperson of the Lingelethu West Police Precinct Community Policing Forum (CPF). He is a former chairperson of the Khayelitsha Youth Development Council (KYDC). His experiences have developed his skills in youth development, strategic planning, project management, events management and community organising.

Thembalihle Sidaki

Thembalihle, known as Lihle, is an advocate of the High Court of South Africa and has been a member of the Cape Bar for five years. He attended Justice College in Pretoria and obtained B.Iuris and LLB degrees from the University of South Africa. For some 10 years he worked in various capacities as a Public Prosecutor, including being a senior manager in the South African National Prosecuting Authority and conducting proceedings in the Cape High Court as Senior State Advocate. He thereafter worked, for 4 years, as Assistant Ombudsman to the Ombudsman for Long-Term Insurance. In 2012 Lihle was appointed by the Premier of the Western Cape as Evidence Leader to the Khayelitsha Commission of Enquiry, a position he held until the work of the Commission was completed.

Nocawe Mankayi

Nocawe is Life President of the highly respected Nonceba Family Counseling Centre in Khayelitsha. She was co-founder of Nonceba. Nocawe is a long-standing and well-known community leader. She is SANCO’s representative on the RDP forum, holding the portfolio for Health and Welfare, is member of the Community Policing Forum (CPF) and is Khayelitsha representative to the Western Cape Network on Violence against Women.

Honjiswa Raba

Honjiswa Raba was born in Mou Mou, Nyanga East, Cape Town in 1989. When she was three years old her parents relocated to Khayelitsha, where she still resides with her family. Honjiswa holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences majoring in Politics, Public Policy and Administration and Sociology. She interned with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform in 2013 where she worked in the Gender Directorate advocating for equal opportunities in the rural Western Cape for Women, Children, and Persons with Disabilities including Older Persons. She has worked at Equal Education (EE) since 2014. Having worked in a supporting role to the EE Secretariat, and then helping to lead the setup of EE’s Eastern Cape office, she is now the organisation’s Head of Human Resources.

Katlego Motene

Katlego, born in Soweto, is an Architect registered with the South African Council of Professional Architects. In 2007 he curated Inter(face) Southern Africa: Engaging our Lived Realities at both the Venice Architectural Biennial and the Royal Institute of British Architects. From there he developed his focus on designing vibrant, sustainable and qualitative spatial environments that are responsive to societal needs, market demands and environmental forces. Underpinning this, is the desire to introduce people from all walks of life to the transformative power of design. During his time at GAPP Architects, Katlego was intimately involved with the design of the Isivivana Centre, from inception through to construction. He now runs his own architectural practice, Toro.

Odette Geldenhuys

Odette is a partner in the Pro Bono Practice at Webber Wentzel, one the largest law firms in South Africa. Her expertise is broadly in the field of public interest law with an overarching career interest in access to justice. As a documentary filmmaker and a participant in the independent film industry, she has been involved in award-winning films. She founded ProBono.org the first pro bono clearinghouse in South Africa in 2006. Prior to that she was responsible for implementing the Justice Centre model for Legal Aid South Africa. Odette held a leadership position with the Legal Resources Centre and a project officer position with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. She has a Sociology Honours degree UCT and an LLB degree from Wits University.

Jill Singer

Jill Singer has a BA, LLB, LLM and is a graduate of the University of Cape Town. She practiced law at Mallinicks and later at Webber Wentzel as a partner in the commercial law department. She is now legal adviser to the Singer Group of Companies, which is involved in the hotel, travel and leisure industries, as well as to a number of private clients. Jill has been involved in the development of the Khayelitsha Central Business District since 2003 and with Isivivana Centre since 2014. Jill is on the board of Infinity Culinary Training, a non-profit organisation that teaches chef’s skills to women and men in need of employment.