Our Speakers

John is a Life Member and currently serves as SCI President-Elect.

He chairs the SCI Strategic Planning Committee and has chaired the SCI Finance Committee, Committee on Committees and SCIF Veterans Committee. He has co-chaired the SCI Governance Committee, was vice-chair of the International Affairs and Development Committee, and served as a Governing Board Member of the SCI Foundation.

He served on the Executive Director Search and on the SCI Audit, Convention, Ethics, By-Laws, MCDC, GAC, Education Committees, the Strategic Plan and Intellectual Property Task Forces of SCI as well as the SCIF Finance Committee.

He led the development of the first and all subsequent Strategic Plans for SCI as well as the first three plans for SCIF, setting the courses of action into the future for both. He secured establishment of the Veterans Committee in SCIF.

John has extensive leadership, advocacy, budget, marketing and legislative experience spanning 41+ years in uniform and as a senior executive with the U.S. Army and in the private sector.

He hunted extensively in the U.S. and overseas and is Life Member of Sables, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Wild Sheep. He is a member of Texas Trophy Hunters and an Endowment Member of NRA.

Jerry is the CEO of the Wilder International Hunting platform.

He is the VP of the China Wildlife Conservation Association’s hunting committee; Founder of the China Hunting Show and the CPSA (Clay Pigeon Shooting Association) and co-founder of the Shooterking Hunting Clothing brand.

Currently he is involved with CPSA China’s marketing & member recruitment, 2020 – 2021 he operates the Wilder Hunting Club in the Shanxi Province in China and from 2019 – 2020 lecturer of CWCAHC for domestic wild boar control.

Mpho has been employed by the Department of Environmental Affairs since 2007, and currently holds the position of Deputy Director: CITES Policy Development and Implementation in the Branch: Biodiversity and Conservation.

Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa is the Chief Executive Officer at the Tourism Business Council of South Africa with 20 years’ experience in the International Marketing, Business Development, International Trade Relations, and Leadership among others in Tourism.

Tshifhiwa has worked for various companies in the tourism value chain including South African Tourism, Myriad Marketing, FEDHASA, Rennies Travel, SARS and others. He has also consulted for various companies focusing on projects development, marketing management, travel and events management, and communications.

Tshifhiwa has also served as a member of Tourism Transformation Council, Tourism Grading Council of South Africa, and currently serves on the global Board of Advisors for “The Sigmund Project” which supports innovation and collaboration in Tourism across the globe.

Tshifhiwa holds a MSc in International Business, Leadership, and Management with University of York, Bachelor Business Administration on Marketing Communications, Diploma in Marketing (Institute of Marketing Management) and a National Diploma in Tourism Management (University of Johannesburg).

Ms Sisulu was appointed as Minister of Tourism on 5 August 2021. She was Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation from 30 May 2019 to 5 August 2021. She was Minister of International Relations and Cooperation from 27 February 2018 to 25 May 2019. Ms Lindiwe Nonceba Sisulu was the Minister of Human Settlements of the Republic of South Africa from 26 May 2014 until 26 February 2018.

She has been a Member of Parliament since 1994. She has been chairperson of the Inaugural of the African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development since 2005. Ms Sisulu is member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC) and a member of the National Working Committee of the ANC. She was a trustee of the South African Democracy Education Trust; trustee of the Albertina and Walter Sisulu Trust; and a member of the Board of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Academic Qualifications

Ms Sisulu completed her General Certificate of Education (GCE) Cambridge University Ordinary Level at St Michael’s School in Swaziland in 1971, and GCE Cambridge University Advanced Level in 1973, also in Swaziland.

She holds a Master of Arts degree in History from the Centre for Southern African Studies of the University of York and an M Phil also from the Centre for Southern African Studies of the University of York obtained 1989 with the thesis topic: ”Women at Work and the Liberation Struggle in South Africa.”

Ms Sisulu also holds a BA degree, a BA Honours degree in History and a Diploma in Education from the University of Swaziland.

Career/Positions/Memberships/Other Activities

Between 1975 and 1976, Ms Sisulu was detained for political activities. She subsequently joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and worked for underground structures of the ANC while in exile from 1977 to 1978. In 1979, she received military training specialising in military intelligence.

In 1981, Ms Sisulu taught at Manzini Central High School in Swaziland and in 1982, she lectured at the Department of History of the University of Swaziland. From 1985 to 1987, she taught at Manzini Teachers Training College and she was a chief examiner of History for Junior Certificate Examinations for Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. In 1983, she worked as sub-editor for The Times of Swaziland in Mbabane.

Ms Sisulu returned to South Africa in 1990 and worked as a personal assistant to Jacob Zuma as head of the ANC?s Department of Intelligence. She also served as Chief Administrator for the ANC at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa in 1991 and as administrator of Intelligence at the ANC Department of Intelligence and Security in 1992.

In 1992, Ms Sisulu became a consultant for the National Children’s Right Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation. In 1993, she worked as director of the Govan Mbeki Research Fellowship at the University of Fort Hare and from 2000 to 2002, she served as head of the Command Centre for Emergency Reconstruction.

Ms Sisulu was a member of the Management Committee, Policing Organisation and Management course of the University of the Witwatersrand in 1993; a member of management of the Sub-Council on Intelligence, Transitional Executive Council in 1994, and chairperson of the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence from 1995 to 1996.

Prior to her appointment as Minister of Public Service and Administration, Ms Sisulu has served as Deputy Minister of Home from 1996 to 2001. She was Minister of Intelligence from January 2001 to April 2004; Minister of Housing from April 2004 to May 2009; and Minister of Defence and Military Veterans from May 2009 to June 2012.

She was Minister of Public Service and Administration of the Republic of South Africa from June 2012 to 25 May 2014.

Research/Presentations/Awards/Decorations/Bursaries and Publications

Ms Sisulu has published the following works:

• South African Women in Agricultural Section (pamphlet). York University in 1990
• Women at Work and Liberation Struggle in the 1980s
• Themes in the Twentieth Century South Africa, Oxford University Press. 1991
• Women Working Conditions in South Africa, South African Situation Analysis. National Children’s Rights Committee. UNESCO. 1992
• Housing Delivery and the Freedom Charter: the Beacon of Hope, New Agenda and Second Quarter 2005.

Ms Sisulu was awarded the Human Rights Centre Fellowship in Geneva in 1992. Her project for the United Nations Centre resulted in the University of the Witwatersrand School of Business setting up a training course to upgrade the policing skills of MK members.

She received a Presidential Award for the Breaking New Ground in Housing Delivery Strategy by the Institute for Housing of South Africa in 2004; In 2005, she received an award from the International Association for Housing Science in recognition of outstanding contributions and achievement towards improving and solving the world’s housing problems.

Dr Herman Els is the founder and Executive Chair of the National Hunting and Shooting Association (Natshoot [NHSA]).

He is a cultural anthropologist specialized in environmental and development anthropology. As Associate Professor he taught environmental and development anthropology at the department of anthropology of the University of Pretoria for 20 years. He also lectured on communities and conservation at the Centre for Wildlife Management in the period Prof Kobus Bothma was the Director of that Centre.

He has extensive experience in research on the interaction between communities and conservation. His research was focused on the use of renewable natural resources among rural communal communities on the Western border of the Kruger National Park and on the Mozambiquan border of Maputaland in the Kosi Bay area, up into the Futi corridor to just South of Maputo. In this context he is the author of 5 books, seven chapters in books including chapters in the well know text book, Wildlife Ranching, and author of 43 peer reviewed articles in scientific journals.

Herman has been intricately involved on the civilian side (accredited associations) in the implementation of the Firearms Control Act since its inception in July 2004. First as board member of SA Wingshooters, and later as founder and Executive Chair of the National Shooting Association (NSA), which grew out of SA Wingshooters (NSA changed its name to NHSA on 1 March 2016).

He was a founder member of the Hunters Forum and later chairman of the Hunters Forum and of the Hunters / SAPS Consultative Forum for a number of years. He is also a member of HAWASA (Hunters and Wildlife Associations of South Africa) since its inception in 2007 and of the Wildlife forum (hunting and wildlife sector and DFFE) since its inception in 2006.
Herman is the current Chair of the Sustainable Use Coalition – southern Africa (SUCo-SA)