Rafiek Mammon is the former Cape Times arts editor and previous Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards judge and judge on many festival panels throughout the country. Mammon is also a celebrated, award-winning playwright and director. His first play, Seashells, received a Standard Bank Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival (NAF) in Grahamstown in 2012.

His second play, The Garage Sale, ran to critical acclaim as the opening production of Artscape’s 10th annual Festival of New Writing in 2014. He directed the play Syria? which also won a Standard Bank Ovation Award in 2017 at the NAF in Grahamstown. Before becoming a theatre maker he lectured in journalism at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). He also taught an arts journalism elective at UCT in the Film and Media Studies Department.

He holds a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) degree in Modern Teaching Philosophies from Stellenbosch University, and a BA (Social Science) degree from UCT. He is presently a freelance lecturer, playwright, theatre maker, Arts Festival judge, editor, arts journalist and columnist. Joan Rankin has illustrated over 30 books for children.

She received the South African HAUM Daan Retief Prize for children’s book illustration in 1986 and the Katrine Harries Award for Children’s Book Illustration in 1991. She has illustrated numerous books on the McElderry list, including A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson and Off to First Grade by Louise Borden. More recently Joan has won the MER Prize for best illustrated children’s book for Just Sisi/Net Sisi written by Wendy Hartmann.