Tiro's ToughLoop Testimony

CREATIVE TEAM

By trade, Ayanda ka Nobakabonwa is a theatre maker, arts and crafter, writer and an art facilitator, particularly in shadow puppetry. Trained at Magnet Theatre he has been involved in Chippa My Autie , Incwadi directed by Zwelakhe Khuse, Ukuza kuka Nxele directed by Mandisi Sindo for the 2013-Infecting the City, Ukhanyo directed by Thando Doni, In the City of Paradise directed by Mark Fleishman and Knock-Knock directed by Jennie Reznek.

Mfundo Zono is a proficient Theatre maker, Storyteller, an Educator, and performer who has worked with artists both local and international. In 2008 he directed a play called Weave for the National Arts Festival working with Taproot, a theatre company from Newcastle, London. In 2009 he facilitated workshops at the South African Schools Festival for the Eastern Cape Schools Festival in Grahamstown, then later on performed in a play called The Journey at the National Arts Festival working with both Taproot and Striding Arts, which in 2013 performed at the Market Theatre. In 2010 he was part of the Swallows Foundation in the UK which worked in residency for three months in the UK, running workshops and having performance in and around U.K in schools and theatres.

In 2011 Mfundo attended Scriptwriting workshops run by Sustain Theatre (U.K) and Wits in Cape Town. In 2011 and 2012 he performed in Three (Ntathu) a collaboration between a writer from the North East of England and Eastern Cape Artists. From 2014 to 2015 Mfundo became a trainee at Magnet theatre and in 2018 completed a diploma in Theatre and performance specialising in Theatre making, with a Post Graduate Certificate in education (PGCE).

Mluleki Titi is a stage technician and set designer from Khayelitsha, Cape Town. He trained at Artscape Theatre (2017 - 2018) as a stage technician where he developed skills in lighting, sound, audio visuals, stage management, set designing, and technical maintenance. In 2019, he worked at the National Arts Festival as a sound technician for various shows including Zombie in the Dark (2019) directed by Gaetan Schmid. In 2020, he got an opportunity to lead a technical team for Makukhanye Art Room in Khayelitsha.  Between the years 2020 and 2022 he worked for a number of shows such as Ndinxaniwe (2020), directed by Qondiswa James, House of Truth (2022) directed by Siphenathi Siqwayi and Ithuna (2022) directed by Buhle T Stefane. As an LX technician, he recently worked for the ICA Live Art Festival 2024.

Mluleki currently works as a production assistant at Magnet Theatre where he has expanded his skills and knowledge beyond the technical, he also experiments with graphic design for this organisation. In the near future he wants to establish a theatre NPO that will be based in the township of Khayelitsha. 

Mojalefa Koyana is a Goldsmiths (University of London, UK) trained and qualified Art Psychotherapist. Prior to attaining his MA in 2017, Mojalefa worked in South Africa’s arts industry for 15 years as a theatre director, professional performer and visual artist. He facilitated arts mostly in marginalised townships and rural communities in the Eastern Cape. Mojalefa rapidly achieved recognition as a theatre director and performance artist, earning himself the opportunity to travel abroad with his work. He ran workshops, performed & exhibited in UK with The Journey. He also conducted 2nd & 3rd year student workshops in the University of Middlesbrough and Newcastle University and has vast experience in facilitating intercultural educational workshops. He facilitated in the Remix Laboratory Programme at National Arts Festival, and administered, wrote, directed and managed numerous other productions and projects, including “Fabric” SA & UK tour with his own international Duka Dance Company in 2013, PE Opera House’s highly acclaimed “Andiyondoda” in 2014, and directed Keiskamma Trust’s “Indalo” SA tour in 2015, Directed a theatre production in an international exchange program of Swallows partnership working with highly professional performers from 7 different countries. After qualifying his MA, Mojalefa was employed into a multi-disciplinary team of professionals in London’s Kensington community who designed and set-up arts activity & therapy hubs of intervention for traumatised victims of the iconic Grenfell fire. Later upon his return to South Africa 2018-2023, Mojalefa returned to his position as founding co-Director of the Intlantsi Creative Development Project in the Ngqushwa municipality Eastern Cape. There He designed and delivered therapeutic arts activity facilitation training to unemployed young adults in remote rural villages. It is a groundbreaking community development initiative he himself designed , that aims to build a provincial platform for contextually relevant, formally recognised and accredited art’s facilitation, Arts admin &  Art Psychotherapy training. He is also part of the task team of 8 professionals designing the first MA art Psychotherapy program in South Africa, to be housed at University of Pretoria. 2024 Mojalefa worked as a stage manager in a peace called ”Tiro‘s tough loop testimony”, that has been nominated and played in numerous festivals across the country. He facilitated a lecture on Cultural policy development for MBTC delivering to all Eastern Cape arts centre managers, staff and artists, late August 2024. Later 2024- mid 2025 He then worked with Ndiyinkwekwezi Pty. A company that mostly works with children from marginalised communities in Port Elizabeth. There he made 2 large-scale theatre productions for the company's children program directed 2 shows for their professional artists developmental program. Apart from being engaged with the implementation of the arts he mostly spends his time re-designing his community Arts development model, for it, to be a replicable and self-sustaining projects framework. Late 2025 registered MindScapes company which produces multidisciplinary art works. He hopes to pilot his community arts dev model in a couple of districts in 2026.