TEDxJohannesburg Countdown 2025

1 | All Aboard the Gautrain Express: Transport of the Future (GIBS).

Talk by partner Gautrain on the future of travel.

Discover how public transport is fighting climate change, one track at a time. Gautrain unveils ambitious future plans that could transform how Gauteng moves, breathes, and grows - proving that getting from A to B can actually help save the planet.

Speaker: Viwe Mgedezi, Gautrain Knowledge Management.

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2 | The Insider’s Track. Take a Ride on the Gautrain (Rosebank station to Hatfield station).

Sponsored trip on the Gautrain, with Gautrain travel guide.

First time on the Gautrain? Climb aboard with an insider guide who'll share the gritty, fascinating stories behind the engineering, the daily drama of keeping trains running, and the unexpected poetry of Johannesburg seen from the rails. This isn't just transport - it's time travel through the city's infrastructure dreams.

Activation Lead: Gautrain guide.

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3 | One Person’s Trash, Another’s Livelihood. Inside the Waste Picker Economy (Urban Surfer Depot, Parktown).

Tour of the Urban Surfer Recycling Depot.

Step into the real economics of recycling: the kilometres walked, the kilos pushed, the rands earned. Urban Surfer has transformed informal waste picking into a dignified, scalable system where workers don't just collect - they belong. Learn what actually gets recycled (spoiler: not what you think), what pays, and how one exceptional depot is rewriting the rules of waste and worth.

Activation Lead: Sifiso Gumbi. Wastepreneur & Recycler Relations: Urban Surfer.

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4 | Pedal Power in Diesel City. Cycling Sandton (Sandton CBD).

Cycling tour of Sandton's bicycle lanes.

Sandton dreamed of becoming cycle-friendly. Then reality hit. Join Tebogo from Bicycle Banditz Club as he navigates the abandoned promise of bike lanes, dodges pedestrians like a pro, and reveals the survival skills every urban cyclist needs. This is cycling activism on two wheels - part tour, part training, part testament to what could have been (and still could be).

Activation Lead: Tebogo Galagala. Co-founder: Banditz Bicycle Club.

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5 | Where Design meets Dignity. The Dignity Design Challenge: Designing Bathhouses for an African City (W17 Hyde Park).

Calling all Designers: A Design Sprint.

Nomcebo Dlamini of Sticky Situations challenges designers to tackle a crisis hiding in plain sight: dignified public sanitation. This intensive sprint will prototype bathhouses that run on independent energy, respect all genders, and all classes, prioritize safety, and scale across Johannesburg. Because clean water isn't a luxury - it's a human right that demands brilliant design.

Activation Lead: Nomcebo Dlamini. Urban Planner & Researcher: Sticky Situations.

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6 | Show Me the Green Money! Financing Resilience in the Age of Climate Change (Workshop17 Hyde Park Corner).

Workshop on Social Investment Strategies.

Tshikululu Social Investments manages some of the money that makes South Africa's just energy transition possible. This masterclass pulls back the curtain on innovative financing: how to raise it, where to deploy it, and why smart capital is the unsung hero of climate action. If you want to understand how transformation gets funded, start here.

Activation Lead: Richard Pfaff. Head of Social Impact: Tshikululu Social Investments.

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7 | Clean Water, Clear Thinking. Testing Joburg’s Lifeline (Sandton Field & Study Recreation Centre).

Water testing and talk.

Can you trust your tap in Sandton? Water warrior Ferrial Adam brings the receipts - literally testing the Braamfontein Spruit and breaking down Johannesburg's crumbling water infrastructure. She'll explain why wealthy suburbs aren't immune to water crisis, why rain won't save us, and what we must do before the taps run dry. Hard truths, real solutions, no sugarcoating.

Activations Lead: Ferrial Adam. Executive Manager: WaterCAN.

Crispian Olver

Shaping climate leadership from the inside

As Deputy Chairperson of the Presidential Climate Commission, and its former Executive Director, Crispian Olver has been at the centre of South Africa’s just transition. He works across government, business, labour, and civil society to align climate policy with urgent action, making sure the path to net zero is both ambitious and inclusive.

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Viaksha Mohabir

Linking South Africa to global energy futures

Viaksha Mohabir advises the G20 Energy Transition Working Group, bringing South Africa’s perspective into global climate policy. Her work connects local realities with international frameworks, ensuring that African voices are part of shaping the world’s energy future.

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Clyde Mallinson

Modelling a renewable energy future

Clyde Mallinson is an energy systems modeller who uses data to map South Africa’s path from coal to renewables. Known for his clarity and precision, he makes complex scenarios accessible, showing how the country can secure a just and sustainable energy transition.

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Leanne Emery-Hunter

Financing climate resilience with purpose

As Chief Executive at Tshikululu Social Investments, Leanne Emery-Hunter helps channel corporate and philanthropic capital into projects that address climate change and inequality. She focuses on building resilient communities, proving that smart investment can drive both social and environmental transformation.

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Gamuchirai Mutezo

Reframing waste as energy and opportunity

Founder of Madam Waste, Gamuchirai Mutezo, is pioneering circular-economy solutions that turn organic waste into decentralised energy. Her work demonstrates how African cities can reduce emissions, cut landfill, and build resilience through innovation.

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Taylen Reddy

Mobilising youth for environmental justice

As founder of Zero Waste Durban, Taylen Reddy mobilises young people to confront plastic pollution, waste colonialism, and urban inequality. His activism makes the fight for clean cities and healthy ecosystems inseparable from the struggle for justice.

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Tebogo Makhubela

Unearthing ancient clues to our climate future

Geologist and National Geographic Explorer Tebogo Makhubela reconstructs ancient landscapes and climates to understand how early humans responded to environmental change. His research offers a long view of resilience and adaptation, revealing insights that may guide us through today’s climate challenges.

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Charles Mpofu

Guarding wetlands through the flight of cranes

National Geographic Explorer Charles Mpofu follows the wattled crane, one of Africa’s most endangered bird species, as a sentinel for ecosystem health. His work highlights how protecting wetlands and waterways is critical not just for biodiversity, but for human survival in a changing climate.

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Steve Carver

Growing resilience one seed at a time

As co-founder of U Can Grow Africa, Steve Carver champions regenerative farming practices that help communities adapt to climate shocks. By combining traditional knowledge with modern techniques, he is helping farmers build resilience from the soil up.

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Jen van den Bussche

Designing dignity into the basics of survival

As director of Sticky Situations, Jen van den Bussche works to improve water and sanitation services in high-density urban areas. Her projects combine technical solutions with community engagement, ensuring that access to clean water is treated as a matter of dignity and justice.

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Sifiso Gumbi

From waste picker to circular economy pioneer

Sifiso Gumbi started his journey as a waste picker on Johannesburg’s streets. Today, as co-founder of Urban Surfer, he brings a grassroots perspective to the circular economy, showing how waste can be reimagined as a resource in the fight against climate change.

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Leonie Joubert

Telling the human stories of climate change

Science writer Leonie Joubert has spent years documenting the human side of the climate crisis. Her work gives voice to those on the frontline of drought, flood, and food insecurity, transforming abstract data into urgent, personal stories of survival.

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Nokulinda Mkhize

Bridging ancestral wisdom and climate futures

Sangoma, writer, and educator Nokulinda Mkhize draws from African spiritual traditions to reimagine our relationship with the earth. She shows how ancestral practices of respect, reciprocity, and balance can inform climate resilience today.

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Johan Thom

The art of meaning: Soil & Water

South African artist Johan Thom works across performance, video, and installation to probe the human condition in a changing world. As curator of the forthcoming Soil and Water exhibition at NIROX, he brings artists together to engage with ecology, resilience, and our shared climate future.

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Christophe Fellay

Composing rhythms for a planet in flux

Swiss drummer and composer Christophe Fellay blends percussion, improvisation, and soundscapes to explore the dialogue between humans and nature. His performances create immersive sonic journeys, reminding us that rhythm, like climate, is both fragile and profoundly interconnected.

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Oupa Sibeko

Reclaiming ritual as climate action.

Oupa Sibeko is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar whose work bridges performance, ritual, and African Indigenous Knowledge to confront the spiritual and ecological legacies of colonialism. Through projects like Black is Blue, he turns play and embodied storytelling into tools for climate justice — transforming art into an act of repair, remembrance, and resistance.

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Itai Hakim

Building sound as a space for consciousness

Itai Hakim is a multidisciplinary artist whose work bridges music, poetry, and performance. He crafts sonic architectures that hold space for reflection, protest, and renewal. Through his art, Hakim explores sound as both a social infrastructure and a spiritual technology—an embodied practice of listening that reimagines what collective healing can sound like.

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Muneyi

Healing through song and story

Muneyi is a folk musician and storyteller whose work creates space for reflection, ancestry, and emotional repair. The 2025 Standard Bank Young Artist for Music, his voice carries the weight of lineage and the tenderness of renewal. Blending folklore, memory, and contemporary sound, Muneyi’s music reminds us that healing — like the earth itself — begins by listening deeply.