Y8 Delegates

Heading the team is Head of Government, Elnari Potgieter from Stellenbosch University.

Elnari is a 23 year-old Masters student at Stellenbosch University. Her research in Political Studies looks at the predictors of political participation in new democracies. In 2012, she completed her honours degree in Political Science with an International Relations emphasis (cum laude) and received several prestigious awards, including the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship and the SU Rector’s Award for Excellence in Service. Elnari’s extra-mural activities include volunteering for STOP Human Trafficking, writing for the student newspaper Die Matie on current affairs and working as an assistant to the Public Health and Development in South Africa exchange program between SU and the North-Western University in America. In July and August 2013 she will be participating in the Inter-Continental Exchange of Leadership in Conflict Transformation, in collaboration with the European Commission's Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES).  

Scurrying around organising all the delegates is our Sherpa, Yee Chen (Eriel) Huang from the University of Cape Town.

 

Eriel is a 27 year-old interdisciplinary Masters student at University of Cape Town. She is an AW Mellon Fellow researching the social values of music education. She is also the electric violinist for the acclaimed South African Music Award winning band ‘Sterling EQ’, whose third studio album was released by EMI in 2012. She has been involved in a wide range of youth leadership initiatives, community development projects and social music programmes worldwide; while also representing South Africa at the Toppenkurst Music School in 2003 in Norway, the SGI International Youth Leaders Training for Peace in 2005 and 2008 in Japan and the NuFax International Music Exchange in 2008 in USA.

Our Minister of Defence is Keamogetswe Moloi from North West University.

Keamogetswe is a 21 year-old undergraduate BSocSc student majoring in Politics and History at the North West University. In 2008 and 2009 she represented her region, Frances Baard, in the Northern Cape Inkosi Albert Luthuli Young Historians debate. She also took part in the province’s indigenous games. She was a debater from 2008-2010, participating in local and provincial debates in the Northern Cape.

Our Minister of Justice is Jonathan Singh from the University of Cape Town.

 

Jonathan is a 22 year-old Law student at UCT. He completed a Business Science Degree in Law and Economics in 2012 and will graduate with an LLB in 2014. In 2011 he was a top 10 finalist in the Nedbank & Old Mutual National Budget Speech Competition. In 2012 he was a graduate of UCT’s Emerging Student Leaders program at which he was elected guest speaker. In the same year he participated in the Centre for Child Law Moot Competition and was runner-up after speaking in front of a full bench of the North Gauteng High Court. From 2010 till 2012 Jonathan interned at four of The Big Five law firms in South Africa. He is currently the President of UCT’s Law Students’ Council.

Our Minister of Energy and Climate Change is Roberta Ndlovu from St Augustine College in Johannesburg.

 

Roberta Ndlovu is a 21 year-old undergraduate BA student majoring in Political Science and Literature at St. Augustine College of South Africa. She is currently taking part in the 2013 Earth Hour campaign, working with the World Wildlife Fund South Africa (WWF). The campaign encourages households and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change. Matters concerning the environment, especially climate change have been of interest to Roberta. Her passion for the environment has also led her to mentor at Inkamva Youth, an organization focused on the empowerment of youth through education. There she offers geography lessons to matriculates.

 

Our Minister of Development is Claude Moshobane from University of Pretoria.

 

Claude is a 25 year-old Masters student at the University of Pretoria in Zoology. His research deals with the application of photographic 3D modelling on biological specimens. He completed his undergraduate at the University of Limpopo, where he began his work as an environment and education activist. He has chaired and founded several student and community based organizations addressing mainly environmental and education issues. He represented SADC at an international student conference on environment and education in China and later in the United States of America.

Our Minister of Foreign Affairs is Naadirah Grimsel from University of Stellenbosch.

 

Naadirah is a 23 year-old Masters student in International Studies. She has been involved in campus through being on the Executive Committees of the Stellenbosch Political Science Students Association (SPOSSA), History and Mandarin Societies. She is a Political Science tutor and a member of the Listen, Live and Learn Leadership house, a housing initiative of the Stellenbosch University. Off-campus she has been an organizing member of the Brightest Young Minds Organization Annual Conference in 2010 and a student volunteer at the CNN Time Fortune Global Forum held in Cape Town. She has participated in various Model United Nations (MUN) conferences, including The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) in 2007. In July and August 2013 she will be participating in the Inter-Continental Exchange of Leadership in Conflict Transformation, in collaboration with the European Commission’s Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES).

 

And the Press Secretary of the delegation - who is managing this blog, the Twitter account and Facebook page - is Caroline Timoney from the University of Cape Town.

 



 

Caroline is a 24 year-old Law student at UCT. She previously majored in Politics and gained an Honours degree in History. Her involvement on campus has ranged from chairing the History and Current Affairs Society, to her current portfolio as Research and Education Officer for the UCT branch of Students for Law and Social Justice. Caroline has been heavily involved in community outreach from building houses, tutoring, volunteering at a legal clinic and providing assistance at the Refugee Rights Unit.  She has also worked as a monitor for the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, an NGO which monitors the South African parliament. She represented UCT at the 2012 Master Brain World Cup in Tokyo.