ACA announces 2022/2023 board of directors

Karabo Songo was elected to the position of chair, and Monalisa Zwambila to that of vice chair. The Executive Committee for the 2022/23 fiscal includes Mathe Okaba, Sharleen James and Thabang Skwambane.

In his chairman’s report, outgoing ACA chair Wayne Naidoo noted that the Covid-19 pandemic had provided the time to review, reset and rethink the association’s future and act on delivering new initiatives. Naidoo added that it had taken a crisis to force much needed historical change within the ACA, leaving it stronger than ever as a collective, and more transformed and purposeful than could have been imagined.

Naidoo went on to highlight the numerous ACA achievements over the past year, focusing on four key standout areas including diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) both within the ACA and the broader industry, the transformed nature of the ACA membership offering, the introduction of the Effie Awards, recognised globally by advertisers and agencies as the pre-eminent marketing effectiveness award in the industry, and the much-anticipated launch of the MAC Charter Council on 25 March.

The ACA’s most transformed Board and Executive Committee

For the first time in its history, in the 2021/22 fiscal, the ACA had a 52% female representative board, which proudly consisted of 36% black female and 20% black male members. Furthermore, the Exco also for the first time consisted of 100% black member representation.

New and improved membership offering

A new and improved membership proposition was launched on 25 April. The broader more inclusive membership is now open to individual members, namely, freelancers/consultants, young professionals (under 35), professionals (over 35), and students. A more inclusive corporate membership alongside the pre-existing principal members (agencies) was also introduced to now include incubators and associates, offering a comprehensive range of benefits to boost future success.

MAC Charter Council

After a prolonged period, the MAC Charter Council was finally launched the on 25 March 2022 by Minister in the Presidency Mondli Ngungubele. Angelo Tandy was appointed as council chair by the minister, while ACA CEO, Mathe Okaba was voted as deputy chair by her peers on the council. ACA board member and human capital executive at Brave Group, Lebo Sethole, was appointed to the position of chair of the planning, strategy and regulatory sub-committee.

Other noteworthy accomplishments included:

• The ACA’s electronic and producer’s committee started Producers’ Training Sessions to enhance the skills producers require in our profession.
  
• The appointment of a new insurance provider, GIB, who services and offering to ACA members commenced on 1 July 2022.
  
• An incredible R1,7m worth of education and personal development funding was facilitated by the ACA. This was directed at enhancing the leadership abilities of 24 women and providing 11 bursaries to students of the Red & Yellow School of Business (both funded by the MDDA), while 15 bursaries were awarded to students of the AAA School of Advertising with funding secured from the MICT-Seta.

In closing, Naidoo encouraged younger members to step up and play an active role in the various ACA portfolios and called on deeper and more purposeful relationships with our industry partners including the likes of The Loeries, MASA, Creative Circle, IAB, ARB and others.

“We have the ability to be at the top of our game globally through our collective efforts. Let’s continue our quest to be world class,” he added, prior to thanking the exco, secretariat and board for their courageous and professional conduct throughout all the adversity.