PASA Leaders

Brian Wafawarowa is chief executive of content and product at Juta & Company. He has more than 25 years experience of working in the publishing sector, including schools education, Tvet and academic and journal, legal & professional. He started his career at Wits University Press and Juta as a trainee publisher. He is the current chairperson of the Publishers Association of South Africa (PASA) and serves on the board of the Dramatic Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO). Brian worked as the Learning Services Executive at Pearson; founder and former managing director of New Africa Books; executive director of PASA; executive chairman of Cape Town Book Fair; chairperson of the African Publishers Network (APNET); and also served on the board of the International Publishers' Association (IPA) where he chaired the Inclusive Publishing and Literacy Committee (IPLC). He served for a long time on the board of the Fibre, Processing and Manufacturing (FP&M) SETA. Brian has been a trustee on a few literacy and development entities in the book sector, including the Exclusive Books Trust, the Nick Perren Foundation which sponsors students for university studies in publishing and the Africa Innovation Fund (AIF) that is involved in sponsoring and mentoring various literacy and publishing development initiatives on the continent. He was awarded an honorary life membership by PASA for his contribution to the development of the book sector by PASA in 2019. Brian holds an honours degree in literature and film from the University of Zimbabwe, a Masters degree in English from the University of the Witwatersrand and an executive MBA from the University of Cape Town. He is a life-long student of martial arts working on his second dan.

Orenna Krut is PASA Secretary and chairs PASA’s TVET Sector Committee. She is a previous chair of PASA’s Education Sector. Orenna is Managing Director of Troupant Publishers, a specialist publishing house which develops post-school education and training materials for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET).
Orenna has been manager and director at Maskew Miller Longman, Managing Director of Heinemann Education and Managing Director of the Pearson Schools Group.
Outside of the publishing sector, Orenna has served as Managing Director: Africa of City & Guilds, a UK awarding body offering accredited qualifications mapped to regulated qualifications frameworks. She has consulted to companies and organisations in the UK and South Africa in the fields of education, training, equity, cultural industries and strategy. .

John Eglington qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PWC in 2000 and worked for several years within the profession, both locally and abroad. John joined the South African Publishers' Industry in 2007 and is currently serving as Finance Director for Shuter & Shooter Publishers. John has a wealth of experience in internal controls and financial and operational management. John has served in the position of Treasurer for the Publishing Association of South Africa since 2015.

Mpuka Radinku has been the Executive Director of PASA from 2013 to date. He previously worked in various publishing companies as publisher, publishing manager, publishing director and general manager from 1994. He represents PASA on various local and international stakeholder bodies including the FP&M Seta Board, Legal Deposit Committee, IPA, APNET and BUSA. Prior to joining publishing he was a teacher.

Julia Read has been active in academic publishing for the past two decades. While primarily involved in publishing for Higher Education, she served a few stints on the then Further Education and Training Sector Committee (now Technical and Vocational Education and Training) as Vice-Chair and Chair in its early years as a separate PASA committee. Julia has a background in editorial and commissioning, and is currently General Manager of Van Schaik Publishers. She has a keen interest in industry affairs, copyright and contracts, and digital publishing and has been fortunate enough to attend various international conferences, workshops and programmes over the years. Julia loves the dynamic nature of the academic sector and is passionate about contributing to improved, accessible learning outcomes for South African students.

Passionate about education, Sara Cowan has been active in educational publishing for the past 25 years, primarily in the school and TVET sectors. With a background in editorial and publishing, Sara was part of the working group who developed the Commissioning Editor (Publisher) qualification (PASA’s Community of Experts) and has served as a PASA committee member for the Adult Education and Training sector. Sara is currently a Content Development Manager at Via Afrika, who publish textbooks in printed and digital formats, readers, literature titles and various teacher support materials for all grades, TVET Colleges and AET levels.

Lucia represents the Education Sector at various engagements with national stakeholders and also coordinates the Provincial EDEX committee. She joined the Publishing industry in 1993 and worked as a Teacher Trainer, Provincial Schools Sales Manager, Regional Manager and now National Schools Sales Manager at Oxford University Press. She has served on PASA Local Committees across the country and as EDEX representative to many Provinces over the years. Lucia worked as a high school teacher before joining the publishing industry and is most passionate about using education as a tool for youth development.

Carlo Scollo Lavizzari, a lawyer qualified in South Africa, England & Wales, and Switzerland. Carlo specializes in intellectual property protection and by now has more than 21 years of work experience with law firms in Africa, Europe, Switzerland and the United States of America. He is a strategist and problem solver in negotiations, conflict resolution and policy, participating actively in global advocacy for norm setting and in litigation. Carlo is fluent in four languages: German, English, French and Italian, and has a very basic proficiency in Chinese.

Nicol is a freelance publisher, editor and author, specialising in school and university textbooks and literature. His latest published title is a guide on Afrikaans usage, the Pharos Afrikaansgids (2018). He was formerly a university lecturer, teacher, head of a teachers’ centre, superintendent of education, language subject adviser, head of the Western Cape Education Department curriculum development unit, and manager of publishing in the 11 official South African languages as an educational publisher. He is involved in the management of intellectual property and copyright, as well as providing fully accessible materials to print impaired persons.

Andrew is the Digital Publisher at Wits University Press, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. His publishing experience has largely been in academic and reference publications – books, journals and digital products - has worked with most major European and US academic publishers, and he is closely involved with standards development and implementation especially for metadata, identifiers, XML-based workflows and digital products. Andrew serves as a board and committee member for the Open Access Data Trust, Crossref, NISO and ANFASA.

Kgaogelo Mudau has just over a decade in the publishing industry and has worked for some of the leading publishing companies in the country. She holds an Honours Degree in Information Sciences (Publishing) from the University of Pretoria. Her love for education has made her passionate about publishing and she wants to make an impact and be the part of the generation that changes the face of publishing. She believes that even though education is for improving the lives of others, the publishing industry plays a big role in making that possible.

Ruth Delannoie, Managing Director of SMME educational publishing company Mthombothi Studios. Mthombothi Studios is a 100% black owned and 100% woman owned company. The entity’s main focus is the production and publication of children’s books and reading material aimed at establishing and improving literacy levels of young readers. Ruth is presently the PASA SMMEs Sector Chairperson and actively involved in supporting the transformation of the SMMEs within this association. She was previously engaged in the financial sector in various leadership roles in the personal and business markets. During that period, she focused on the transformation of business units, growth and development of SMMEs. She is qualified as an Associate Member of the Institute of Bankers in South Africa and completed an Executive Development Programme.

Kelly Ansara has worked in the publishing industry for nearly 15 years, having worked her way up from behind the counter at a bookshop through various departments in some of South Africa’s biggest publishing houses. Currently, she is the Sales Manager of the Independent Publishers and Local Publishing lists at Jonathan Ball Publishers. She has degrees in both journalism and creative writing, and a Master’s in publishing (based on her thesis ‘Redefining “Chick-Lit” and Women’s Publishing within Trade Publishing in South Africa’). She is based in Johannesburg with her husband and son.

Yolandi Farham is an Educational Publisher at Oxford University Press South Africa, focusing on Vocational Publishing. Yolandi upholds the mission of Oxford University Press to advance knowledge and learning. Yolandi holds a National Diploma in Language Practice (CPUT) and started her career in language teaching before transitioning to Publishing. She has worked with subject matter experts, regulatory authorities and authors to produce learning material that meets the needs of educational institutions and industry for over a decade. She has been a member of the PASA TVET Committee since 2015 and became the chairperson in 2021.