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Media kit and everything an editor needs.
Approved biographies, photography, book details and interview topics. For interviews, review copies or extract permissions, write to mmereki@gmail.com.
Short biography
50 words — for programmes and listings.
Thato Sebastian-Charles Mmereki is a South African author, strategic executive and sovereign venture capitalist. A former aide to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, he has worked as a journalist and technical producer at the SABC, Director: Strategic Communications in the Office of the Premier, Chief Financial Officer of the China–South Africa Youth Forum and President and Chief Executive Officer of the Transcontinental Council for Strategic Cooperation. His memoir, What Light Cannot Touch, is forthcoming in 2026.
Long biography
200 words — for features and introductions.
Thato Sebastian-Charles Mmereki was born in Kuruman in the Northern Cape and works between Johannesburg and global markets. His career has moved along the seam where power is exercised and where it is recorded — public broadcasting, executive government, bilateral finance and sovereign venture capital.
He served as an aide to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, an experience that sits at the centre of his forthcoming memoir. He has since held roles as a journalist and technical producer at the SABC, Director: Strategic Communications in the Office of the Premier, Chief Financial Officer of the China–South Africa Youth Forum, Chairman of the National Gambling and Wagering Policy Council, and President and Chief Executive Officer of the Transcontinental Council for Strategic Cooperation.
He is a member of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust and One Young World, and advises principals, boards and sovereign entities on political risk, international partnerships and institutional governance across African and global markets.
Photography & cover
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Downloads
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- Author portraitPrimary press image · WEBP · credit: courtesy of the author
- Cut-out portraitFor programmes and posters · WEBP · credit: courtesy of the author
- Book coverFirst edition, 2026 · WEBP · credit: Kuruman House Publishers
- Monogram markPlatform mark · WEBP · credit: courtesy of the author
- Bio & fact sheetShort bio, long bio, book fact sheet, ISBNs and interview topics · TXT
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Speaker sheet
A one-page speaker sheet — biography, signature topics, formats, audiences and booking contact — formatted to print or save as a PDF for programme committees.
Open one-page speaker sheetBook facts
- Title
- What Light Cannot Touch
- Subtitle
- A Memoir on Memory, Cost, and the Shape of What Remains
- Author
- Thato Sebastian-Charles Mmereki
- Publisher
- Kuruman House Publishers, Johannesburg
- Genre
- Memoir · Political non-fiction
- Publication
- First edition, May 2026
- ISBN (hardback)
- 978-1-0492-8730-0
- ISBN (eBook)
- 978-1-0492-8729-4
- Extent
- 328 pages · Hardback and eBook
- Signed edition
- ZAR 430
- Territory
- South Africa, with international enquiries welcome
- Languages
- English
Interview topics
- Life inside the household and office of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
- What the official archive of the transition leaves out
- Political risk and institutional fragility in African markets
- Africa–China relations beyond the alignment narrative
- Governance, succession and founder dependence
- Writing memoir about people who trusted you