Sandisiwe Mpahleni

Sandisiwe Mpahleni grew-up in Mdantsane, the second largest township in South Africa. She held leadership positions both in primary and high school as a prefect.

She matriculated at Alphendale Secondary School in East London and pursued her studies in Public Relations Management at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

She majored in Public Relations, Communications and Media Studies. Passionate about community empowerment, she volunteered at outreach programmes in Cape Town namely the CPUT Cape Town Campus Outreach Programme and SCORE (Sport Coaches OutReach) where she was involved in projects that assisted disadvantaged communities.

In 2013, she worked as Project Assistant at the Eastern Cape Communication Forum (ECCF), a non-profit organisation that supports the small independent media sector in the Eastern Cape. She assisted in numerous tasks such as organising of workshops and on-site trainings; developing and sustaining information channels with participating media, external facilitators and other stakeholders; updating the records of projects, as well as updating ECCF’s local media database and website. Working as a Project Assistant gave her the chance to develop her communication skills, to market a service and event preparation.

Currently she is working as a Science and Technology Youth Science Journalism intern at the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA).

She is currently placed at Rainbow News in Peddie (Ngqushwa Local Municipality) where she is producing science, technology and innovative stories. A day without work and being productive is boring and brings stress to her.