About Us

Cathy Fry is the MD and Founding Director of Ukhanyiso Ebantwini NPC. Cathy Fry has over 30 years of teaching and training experience in South Africa. She was the principal of two of the top independent junior girls’ schools in Johannesburg. Cathy’s expertise lies in ECD and primary education, school leadership and management, as well as curriculum development. Cathy is highly qualified with a B.Ed. from London University in 1977, a Diploma in Remedial Education from UNISA, a Master’s in Philosophy, Second Language Acquisition, from Stellenbosch and a Master’s in Education from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2012. Cathy is a registered assessor and moderator with the Service and ETDP SETAS. 

After setting up her own company, Ukhanyiso Ebantwini, in 201,2 Cathy has worked in both independent and state schools, running a series of teacher development workshops. Cathy has developed online teacher training materials in 21st Century teaching and learning, study skills and leadership and management. She has worked with NPOs in Diepsloot, Tembisa, Modimolle and Johannesburg, facilitating school leadership and management workshops, coaching, and mentoring School Management Teams and running accredited ECD teacher development. She is an accredited facilitator for the British Council and works for Umalusi, doing evaluations for independent schools.

Vuyokazi has an Honours degree in Applied Mathematics and a Master’s Degree in Education, which she obtained from Leeds University. She also has a Diploma in Human Resources from UNISA.

Further, she has a Diploma in Labour Law from GIMT.

She has been a manager in the Education sector for several years, thus has a fair understanding of the Public Service. She is an experienced trainer and material developer.

Fiona McLachlan was admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa in 1982. She has a BA LLB LLM. 

Fiona has practised for her own account and as a sole practitioner since 1985 in Johannesburg. She has worked in the fields of human rights work, particularly during the last decade of apartheid rule, and she ran the Lawyers for Human Rights office in Johannesburg. Thereafter, she has focused on family law (with a particular interest in child law), labour law and deceased estates.

In 200,7 Fiona was one of the founder directors of the non-governmental organisation Impilo, which provides child protection and adoption services to babies and young children. She still serves on the board of this organisation. She was also a member of the TLC (The Love of Christ Ministries) board for many years, which organization runs a children’s home providing care for abandoned and vulnerable babies who are then assessed and for whom every effort is made to find them permanent homes. This organisation has enabled approximately one thousand such babies to find adoptive families, return to their own biological families or be placed in the best permanent option for them. 

The welfare of vulnerable children in the country’s welfare system is, in Fiona’s view, a matter of great concern, where many are failed by the various government departments that should provide them with protection, education, and healthcare.

Maggie Fussell has been involved in education for over 30 years. She is a qualified Foundation Phase teacher, HDE JP from JCE, as well as having a Diploma in Special Education from Wits University. Maggie has taught in both government and independent schools. During her teaching years, she taught Gr 2 and 5 as a class teacher as well as Gr 4, 5,6 & seven classes in various subjects. She has done work for the British Council as a teacher trainer, doing numerous workshops focusing on Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. She was also fortunate to be involved in a training program for people who were working in ECD centres in Modimolle. Maggie left formal teaching at the end of 2015 to become more involved in outreach education. She had already been volunteering at a local disadvantaged primary school through The Link Literacy Project, where Gr 2 learners are helped to learn to read. Maggie also started to do Remedial support lessons for learners at the same primary school. 

In 2019, Maggie became the Literacy coordinator for The Link Literacy Project. In July 2022, Maggie became the overall Coordinator for The Link Literacy Project. In this role, she works with the Link team, the centre managers, and volunteers, as well as the principals and staff who work at the seventeen different schools where The Link centres are.

Maggie is enthusiastic about ensuring that solid foundations are set in a child’s journey through school. She also sees the very great need to empower youth, parents, and community members to develop skills that will enable them to help our youngest learners to have a good start to learning to read in English.