2025 | Countdown — TEDxJohannesburg

Poster for TEDxJohannesburg event titled "Count Down" at Sandton + Nirox Sculpture Park on October 24-25, featuring a landscape with trees and a body of water under a partly cloudy sky.

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Countdown 2025

To a greener, fairer, thriving future.

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On 24 & 25 October 2025, TEDxJohannesburg Countdown reimagines what a TEDx experience can be. Focused on accelerating climate action, this two-day journey begins in the vibrant energy of Sandton and culminates in the tranquil beauty of NIROX Sculpture Park in the Cradle of Humankind.

Day 1 offers immersive workshops, excursions, and design sprints led by scientists, creatives, entrepreneurs, and community leaders—all designed to engage deeply with the climate crisis and spark new solutions.

Day 2 unfolds in nature’s calm, where TEDx talks, performances, and creative activations will ignite ideas for a better, greener, and more resilient future.

Grounded in South African realities, shaped by Global South perspectives, and tuned to planetary frequencies, this gathering will spotlight local solutions with global power. It forms part of a worldwide drumbeat toward two major climate moments: the G20 climate meetings in Johannesburg and COP30 in Belém, Brazil.

As one of only 18 TEDx events globally selected as an official TED Countdown Anchor, we carry forward the energy of the Countdown Summit recently held in Nairobi and bring it into a uniquely South African, globally connected context. We are proud to hold this moment with care and courage.

Scroll down for the TEDxJohannesburg Countdown 2025 speakers.

Because ideas change everything.

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Crispian Olver

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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Lebogang Mulaisi

As Executive Manager of Policy & Research at the Presidential Climate Commission, Lebogang Mulaisi works at the intersection of labour, climate, and economic policy. Formerly Head of Policy at COSATU, she has long championed workers’ rights in the just transition, ensuring that South Africa’s move away from coal creates not only a greener economy, but a fairer one too.

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Clyde Mallinson

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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Viaksha Mohabir

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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Leanne Emery-Hunter

As Chief Executive at Tshikululu Social Investments, Leanne Emery-Hunter helps channel corporate and philanthropic capital into projects that tackle 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

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

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

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

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

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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.

Jen van den Bussche

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

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

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

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

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 (Switzerland)

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.

Oupa Sibeko

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

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

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.