Big brains in craft and design to meet for a grand showcase of skills and products
By CityLife Arts Writer
Making It! 2026: Scaling South Africa’s creative economy
Making It! 2026 marks 25 years of the Craft and Design Institute shaping South Africa’s creative economy, convening designers, founders, strategists, investors and cultural leaders in the Kramerville Design District from 24 to 25 March 2026.
Since 2001, the CDI has grown from supporting 63 makers to a national network of more than 8,300 creative enterprises across all nine provinces. The sector has evolved. The ambition has sharpened. The conversation now moves beyond participation and into scale.
Making It! is designed for those already established in their field as well as those forging their path. It creates a rare point of connection between leaders who have navigated complex markets and continue to innovate within them, and emerging voices ready to step into that arena.
Across two days, industry leaders, brand strategists, cultural thinkers, fintech experts and founders will unpack what growth really requires: the move from local recognition to national presence, from creative practice to structured enterprise, from isolated talent to connected industry. That shift does not happen by accident. It happens when experience is shared openly, when hard lessons are examined honestly, and when the right people are in the same room.
Doyennes of the craft and design sectors such as fashion designer Marianne Fassler, master weaver Beauty Ngxongo, Ndebele bead artist Sophie ‘NoSinky’ Mahlangu, and founder of SA Fashion Week, Lucilla Booyzen.
The speaker line-up reflects a sector coming into its own. Internationally recognised artists sit alongside executives shaping funding and policy landscapes, entrepreneurs building scalable ventures, and systems thinkers interrogating how design operates within broader economic frameworks. These are individuals who have built, repositioned, expanded and endured.
Together, they represent a maturing creative ecosystem: founders who have scaled, strategists who have repositioned brands, academics who interrogate markets, financial leaders who understand infrastructure, and cultural voices ensuring growth remains grounded in identity.
Speakers include:
Shado Twala | Chairperson, Craft and Design Institute (Making It! MC)
Shado Twala is a South African radio DJ, journalist, entrepreneur, and producer, best known as a judge on SA’s Got Talent. She has over 25 years’ experience in radio and television and is also a respected MC and arts consultant.
Andile Dyalvane | Ceramic Artist & Designer — Keynote: Crafting Legacies: Heritage as a Blueprint for Future
Andile Dyalvane is a South African ceramic artist known for his large hand-coiled terracotta sculptures inspired by Xhosa tradition and the land. He co-founded Imiso Ceramics in 2005, and his work has been shown internationally, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Beauty Ngxongo | Master Weaver
Beauty Ngxongo is a master weaver from Hlabisa in northern KwaZulu-Natal, internationally recognised for her intricate work using ilala palm and natural dyes. Her practice helped elevate traditional Zulu weaving from everyday utility into globally recognised contemporary craft. Her work is held in major international collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution.
Beth Arendse | CEO, Business Arts South Africa
Beth Arendse is a visionary leader, social innovator, and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience shaping South Africa’s creative economy. She currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Business and Arts South Africa (BASA), where she is spearheading a new strategic phase that positions the arts as both a cultural force and an investable sector driving inclusive economic growth. Beth holds a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Inclusive Innovation from the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, alongside a BMus(Hons) in Music Communication and a National Diploma in Jazz Studies. She is the founder of several transformative initiatives including the Tshwane School of Music, the SA Creative Industries Incubator (SACII), and the Music Business Lab (MBL).
Bielle Bellingham | Brand & Business Director, CHOMMIES
Bielle Bellingham is a business and brand director and cultural strategist whose career spans creative direction, design journalism and lecturing in design history and critical thinking. As former Editor of ELLE Decoration and a contributor to international design publications, she has championed design as a force for cultural reflection and transformation. As Executive Creative Director of Decorex Africa and 100% Design Africa, she reimagined exhibitions with bold vision, positioning them as platforms for innovation and dialogue. Now at Chommies, she leads the brand’s marketing and business strategy, building experiences and campaigns that celebrate African craftsmanship and quality design while broadening its influence locally and internationally.
Carlyn Frittelli Davies | Consultant, ENS (Natural Resources and Environment)
Carlyn Frittelli Davies is a natural resources lawyer having worked for 17 years at ENS, a corporate and pan-African law firm. Carlyn obtained her LLB degree at the University of Pretoria and a post-graduate diploma in environmental law from the University of Cape Town. She specialises in environmental and mining law, with a particular passion for sustainability in the clothing, apparel, footwear, textiles, and leather industry. She supports local designers through legal initiatives at ENS, serves as a board member of the African Fashion Guild, and is a member of the Sealand Gear Sustainability Committee and a judge for the AllFashion Sourcing Young Designer Award.
Cyril Naicker | Fashion & Culture Strategist
Cyril Naicker is a fashion advisor with over 27 years’ experience, advancing ethical value chains, mentoring designers, and strengthening South Africa’s fashion ecosystem. Drawing on a deep international network, he speaks across Africa and global platforms with a clear focus on locally made, responsible fashion systems.
Dave Duarte | CEO, Treeshake
Dave Duarte is a digital marketer, entrepreneur and educator. As founder and CEO of Treeshake, he creates campaigns that have reached over a billion people — shifting behaviours, shaping policies, and sparking public engagement on issues ranging from public health to renewable energy.
Dave Nemeth | Trend Analyst & Creative Director, TrendForward
Dawn Robertson | Visitor and Creative Economy Catalyst, Jozi My Jozi
Dawn Robertson currently serves as Tourism & Creative Economy Catalyst at Jozi My Jozi, where her expertise in creative storytelling, urban renewal, and sustainable tourism development drives the movement’s transformation of the creative and visitor economy in support of its mission to revitalise Johannesburg. Prior to joining Jozi My Jozi, she served as CEO of Constitution Hill, where under her visionary leadership, the Human Rights Precinct was transformed into a premier tourist destination and was subsequently inscribed as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. She was named one of the Top 50 Modern Museum Innovators internationally in 2022.
Dr Motsane Seabela | Curator of Anthropology, Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History
Motsane G. Seabela is an interdisciplinary scholar and museologist focused on critical heritage and museum studies, as well as indigenous epistemologies. She currently serves as Curator of Anthropology at the DITSONG National Museum of Cultural History, Pretoria. A postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pretoria, her research centres on the overlooked narratives of black individuals in museums and collections deeply rooted in colonial histories, and addresses the transformation of museums from sites of violence to spaces of healing through restitution.
Erica Elk | CEO, Craft and Design Institute
Erica Elk is the founding CEO of the Craft & Design Institute, which she established in 2001. She has spent over two decades growing South Africa’s craft and design sector, supporting thousands of small businesses and expanding digital access and online learning for members.
Glorinah Mabaso | Founder, Renaissance Design
Glorinah Khutso Mabaso is a South African interior designer who found her purpose in pattern and product design. She is the Founder and Creative Director of the Pan-African brand RENAISSANCE DESIGN. As an academic design thinker with a passion to re-awaken the ancient cultural knowledge of the African continent, she uses pattern design as a visual language to create products that act as modern African living archives.
Heidi Brauer | Consulting CMO & Brand Advisor
Heidi Brauer is a brand builder, strategist, and thought-starter with a practical explorer’s spirit. Fondly known as the Brand Mama, she blends sharp business acumen with humanity, believing firmly that “it takes a village to raise a brand.” Her journey spans a rich mix of experiences: from leading market research programmes and designing aircraft interiors to reinventing insurance brands and co-creating the award-winning SLOW lounges, hailed among the best in the world. Her work has earned Gold and Grand Prix Loeries, PRISMs, Effies, Bookmarks, MMAs and D&ADs.
Janet Kinghorn | Brand Therapist & Fractional C-Suite Partner
Janet Kinghorn is a Brand Therapist and Fractional C-Suite Partner with over 25 years’ experience helping brands find clarity, distinctiveness, and momentum. She has worked with global, multinational, and local businesses through big moments of change — from repositioning and growth to mergers and reinvention. Janet is known for helping brands get to the heart of what makes them matter, diagnosing the tensions that hold them back, and translating insight into brand strategy, identity, and tools that work in the real world.
Kerry Balshaw | Senior Service Designer – eCommerce & Business Management Solutions, iKhokha
Joey Khuvutlu | Founder & Design Director, Daily Store
Joey Khuvutlu is a South African design entrepreneur and founder of Daily and Mitirho Works, a furniture manufacturing studio rethinking how locally made products are conceived, produced and experienced. His work sits at the intersection of industrial design, cultural storytelling and scalable manufacturing — blending contemporary minimalism with African design sensibility. Driven by the belief that African design must be both expressive and economically viable, he advocates for design-led manufacturing as a pathway to sustainable local industry.
Irene Vermeulen | Founder, Crafts Curator
Jon Savage | Director, Content Strategist & Podcaster
Junior Mlondobuzi | Founder & CEO, Entresure Africa
Junior Mlondobuzi is the Founder and CEO of Entresure Africa, empowering SMMEs to scale confidently through insurance and risk management.
Katherine Pichulik | Founder, Co-CEO & Creative Director, PICHULIK
Katherine-Mary Pichulik is the Founder, Co-CEO and Creative Director of the internationally recognised, impact-focused accessories brand PICHULIK. Founded in 2013, PICHULIK collaborates with women locally and across the African continent to handcraft high-end accessories for two retail stores, a global e-commerce platform, and a network of retail partners across 16 regions worldwide. PICHULIK pieces have been worn by global figures including Michelle Obama, Emma Watson and Solange Knowles. Katherine has received multiple design accolades, including Accessory Designer of the Year by African Fashion International and recognition in Vogue Italia’s Top 10 Jewellery Brands to Watch.
Khensani Mohlatlole | Fibre Artist, Researcher & Content Creator
Khensani is a Johannesburg-based fibre artist, researcher and content creator whose work explores African fashion history, material culture and sustainability through practice-based investigation. Rooted in a personal journey to reconnect with her ancestry through dress, her work examines how textiles function as archives of memory, resistance and identity. Using techniques such as upcycling, embroidery, beading and garment reconstruction, she creates work that bridges historical research and contemporary creative practice. She was awarded Influencer of the Year at the 2022 Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards.
Kopano Makino | Industrial Designer & Founder, AUKODesigns
Lucilla Booyzen | CEO, South African Fashion Week
Since launching SAFW in 1996, Lucilla Booyzen has shaped one of the country’s most influential fashion platforms, mentoring emerging talent and creating real pathways for designers to build sustainable businesses.
Mahlatse Mohlala | Founder & Managing Director, Green Route Hemp Industries
Mahlatse Mohlala is the visionary behind Green Route Hemp Industries, with over six years of leadership in building South Africa’s first integrated, Proudly SA hemp-based textiles business. With a strong foundation in environmental sciences, GIS and sustainability, and a Master’s Degree in Geography & Environmental Studies from Stellenbosch University, he continues to bring unique insights into the role industrial hemp can play in reshaping agriculture, construction and textile markets.
Marianne Fassler | Founder & Designer, Marianne Fassler
Mars Masaai | Research Manager, HEVA Fund
George Karanja Ochieng Aloo, known as Mars Masaai, is the Research Manager at HEVA Fund, East Africa’s first creative economy catalyst. He brings extensive experience in research and analysis to HEVA’s policy development and ecosystem-building work with stakeholders across the public and private sectors, international partners, practitioners, and investors.
Monika Bielskyte | Founder, Protopia Futures & Futurist in Residence, Nike
Mbali Mthethwa | Founder & Creative Director, The Herd
Mbali Mthethwa is a Johannesburg-based artist, researcher, and organiser. She is the founder and creative director of The Herd, a craft and design studio that reimagines traditional beading techniques as a living language of identity, memory, and place. Her work has been exhibited both locally and internationally, including at the Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2.0, the 18th Venice Biennale Architettura, Maison & Objet in Paris, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and the Wereldmuseum Leiden in the Netherlands.
Memorial Mnguni | Artist & Cultural Practitioner
Memorial Mnguni is an artist from KwaMsane in Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal whose practice spans sculpture, ceramics and mixed media. After more than twenty years working as an art teacher in rural schools, she dedicated herself fully to her artistic practice. Her work draws on Zulu cultural knowledge, storytelling and traditional vessel forms, bridging heritage practices with contemporary expression.
Nosipho Maketo-van den Bragt | CEO, Chocolate Tribe
Nosipho Maketo-van den Bragt is a South African CEO, entrepreneur, admitted attorney, writer, and mentor driving the global rise of African Animation, VFX, and Content Development. She is the Founder and CEO of Chocolate Tribe, an award-winning studio based in Johannesburg and Cape Town, recognised as Africa and Asia’s top-ranked Animation and VFX company. Under her leadership, the studio employs over 35 full-time staff and hosts more than 150 interns annually, building a strong pipeline of African creative talent. She is also the founder of AVIJOZI NPC, a social impact platform creating access to the creative tech industry.
Nthati Machesa | 3D Artist, Storyteller & Founder of Neotsentle
Nthati Machesa is a South African self-taught 3D concept artist, storyteller, and creator known for the “Royal Heritage Chess Set”. Formerly a corporate professional, she transitioned into a creative role, using 3D animation to educate on African history. Her artistic vision is deeply rooted in her African heritage, weaving together elements of fantasy and reality to create captivating narratives centred on African culture, identity and transformation.
Prof Emmanuel Nkambule | Architect & Associate Professor, Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg
Prof Emmanuel Nkambule is an architect and Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg. His practice, research, and teaching concentrate on the role of architecture in tackling socio-economic and socio-spatial issues in Africa. His work is disseminated through architectural projects, publications, public lecture series, and exhibitions, and he has served as a panelist for architectural awards and an external reviewer at numerous architectural institutions.
Ronald Makomba | Co-founder & Director, Mak and Chops
Ronald Makomba is a commercial and go-to-market leader who has spent over a decade helping South African entrepreneurs turn digital opportunity into sustainable revenue. As part of Yoco’s founding launch team, he has led multiple revenue-driving functions across business development, regional expansion, and customer success. His experience spans unified commerce, regional market launches, and designing systems that help small businesses understand their customers, price effectively, and grow sustainably.
Sanskruti Shukla | Systems Designer & Researcher
Sanskruti Shukla is an Indian systems designer and researcher trained in Textile Design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Her practice positions design as a mode of inquiry, with particular attention to participatory and material-led co-creation as tools for reimagining futures and transmitting endangered cultural knowledge in Global South contexts. She is a Don Norman Design Award Laureate (2025) and received the Most Distinguished Paper Award at the ICDHS14 Conference, IIT Delhi.
Simone Schultz | Design Editor, Writer & Strategist, Design Week South Africa
Simphiwe Mlambo | Architectural Researcher & Founder, LEBALA
Simphiwe Mlambo is an architectural researcher and founder of LEBALA, a spatial practice operating at the intersection of design research, territorial governance, and material policy in Southern Africa. A lecturer at the University of Johannesburg’s Graduate School of Architecture, she was named one of Scape Magazine’s “100 Voices in Design” in 2024. Her work produces legal evidence, spatial tools, and material audits that intervene directly in how land and resources are valued and circulated.
Sinegugu Ngxongo | Founder, BambiZulu
Sinegugu Ngxongo is the founder and creative director of Bambizulu, a craft-based design studio in KZN specialising in contemporary woven products rooted in indigenous knowledge. She leads a craft innovation programme exploring the intersection of traditional making and new technologies.
Sophie ‘NoSinky’ Mahlangu | Master Ndebele Artist & Founder, Nomhlekhabo Craft Africa
Msoziswa Sophie Mahlangu is an iconic custodian of Ndebele heritage and contemporary arts entrepreneur, working from her home at Ga Morwe village near Siyabuswa, Mpumalanga. A master beadwork maker, mural painter and performing artist, she is the founder of the arts production co-op Nomhlekhabo Craft Africa. Her talent and community impact have earned her national recognition: in May 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa awarded her the Order of Ikhamanga (Silver). In 2020 she received the Innibos Award for Beadwork for her fully beaded BMX bicycle — now in the collection of Colorado State University’s Gregory Allicar Museum. Sophie has collaborated with artists, institutions and brands across South Africa and internationally, and in 2026 will attend the International Folk Art Market (IFAM) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As an educator she has taught Ndebele arts skills through Africa meets Africa Projects, integrating indigenous knowledge with formal classroom learning.
Tamburai Chirume | Co-founder, ONEOFEACH
Tamburai Chirume is the co-founder of ONEOFEACH, alongside her mother Pauline Munemo — a brand rooted in African craftsmanship, known for hand-embellished leather bags, accessories, and lifestyle pieces. The brand has been showcased at institutions including the British Museum and the George Washington University Textile Museum. Tamburai is the founder of the Business of Creative Entrepreneurship (BCE), a U.S. Embassy-supported initiative that has trained over 900 women to build export-ready businesses, and co-founder of TAAF – The African Academy of Fashion. She has spoken at the United Nations Headquarters and is a two-time recipient of South Africa’s Exporter of the Year to the USA under AGOA (2021 and 2022).
Thuli Gamedze | Cultural Worker & Founder, For the Afterlife
Thulile Gamedze is a Johannesburg-based cultural worker engaged in text, textile and history, and interested in the possibilities that emerge through the collapse of discipline. She has an M.Phil in Fine Art from the University of Cape Town, is a current PhD candidate, and has published extensively in art and academic platforms. Through her brand FOR THE AFTERLIFE (FTA), she experiments with found textile and one-of-one wear, exploring the formal, historic, political and social meanings embedded in soft design.
Thulani Masebenza | Co-founder & CEO, Bloo Money
Thulani Masebenza is co-founder of Bloo Money, an innovative platform helping creative businesses manage every freelancer, invoice and payment in one place. A former Strategy Consultant at EY, he also co-founded Young Aspiring Thinkers, an NPO impacting over 5,000 learners. Since inception, Bloo Money has worked with 400+ users, closed funding from the Multichoice Innovation Fund, been recognised on the M&G 200 Young South Africans list, and won the Most Innovative Startup award at Converge Africa 2025.
Tracy Lynch | Executive Creative Director, Clout/SA & Design Curator, Nando’s
Tracy Lynch is a creative director, interior designer and curator of South African design. As Executive Creative Director of Clout/SA — a purpose-led creative agency founded within the Nando’s brand — she leads the Nando’s Design Programme, building long-term collaborations with local designers and bringing contemporary Southern African design into Nando’s spaces around the world. Over 12 years, the programme has evolved into one of the country’s most impactful industry platforms, including Portal to Africa, an online retail platform that has generated over R100 million in sales across 65,000 products since 2018.
Wacy Zacarias | Artist, Textile Designer & Researcher
Wacelia Zualo is a Mozambican artist, textile designer, researcher and healing practitioner working at the intersection of material innovation, ancestral knowledge and craft. She is the founder of Woogui, a brand creating sustainable accessories using local materials such as banana fibre and recycled plastic, and co-founder of Karingana Textiles, a studio dedicated to natural dyes, regenerative textiles and storytelling through cloth. As a traditional healer, she sees fabric as a second skin — something that can protect, restore and reconnect us with the earth and with ourselves.
Documentary Screenings
Motlatjo Mogoboya | PhD Candidate & Junior Lecturer, University of North West (screening)
Motlatjo Mogoboya is a historian and junior lecturer at the University of North West, currently pursuing a PhD on the representation of Black women in media and literature. Her work combines historical research with film, producing documentaries that explore heritage and social perspectives. Her historical documentary Crafting a Living Heritage emerged from her coursework master’s in history.
Frances Van Hasselt | Founder, Frances VH Mohair (screening)
Frances van Hasselt is a designer and entrepreneur developing mohair textiles within a local, South African context. She collaborates with a team of women artisans in the Karoo, allowing the natural environment to inform every aspect of their design and making process. Her work for Kate Otten Architects, Threads, was shown at the 2023 Venice Biennale, and FRANCES V.H Mohair has been selected as an artisanal studio under the Michelangelo Foundation’s Homo Faber umbrella. She is a Mandela Washington Fellow.
Programme & tickets:
Full programme details are available here
The conference takes place at Level Three in Sandton, with an evening reception at Katy’s Palace Bar in the heart of the Kramerville Design District.
Tickets are available at Quicket
● Virtual attendance from R850
● In-person attendance from R2,500 for two days
● CDI members receive a 20% discount on in-person tickets
Making It! 2026 is presented by the Craft and Design Institute, in partnership with iKhoka, Jozi My Jozi, W&R SETA, the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, the City of Joburg, Arts Alive, the Kramerville Design District, Katy’s Palace Bar, Level Three Premium Venue, Weylandts, Business & Arts South Africa, Department of Small Business Development, Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and Design Week South Africa, Decor & Design and IQOQO.