Great Thinkers Academy

07/09/2026

Saturday ⚽⚽⚽

07/09/2026

🌍 GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY | 7 SEPTEMBER

HERITAGE | THE STORY CONTINUES

Last week, we went back to the beginning.

We explored the idea.

We met the founder.

We revisited an early encounter.

And we began asking what Great Thinkers Academy actually produced.

But a heritage story cannot remain in the past.

At some point, the archive has to meet the present.

The questions we ask about where we came from must eventually influence where we are going.

And that is where the story continues.

The next chapter will take us away from the familiar.

Into a different environment.

A different experience.

A different kind of learning.

Because development is not only about what we know.

It is also about what happens when we are placed in an environment that challenges us to apply what we know.

This week, Great Thinkers Academy enters a new chapter.

A chapter of preparation.

A chapter of experience.

A chapter of pursuit.

📺 A PASSION FOR EXCELLENCE

Coming this week.

The journey begins.

🌍 GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY
HERITAGE MONTH 2026

Culture. Identity. Development. Excellence.

05/09/2026

🌍 GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY | 5 SEPTEMBER

HERITAGE MONTH 2026

📺 THE FIRST OMNIBUS

This week, we went back to the beginning.

We started with a question:

What are we building?

Then we met the idea.

The tutoring school that would become Great Thinkers Academy.

We met the person who decided to begin.

Siyabonga Lumko Tshazi.

Then came the encounter.

Thinkers × Unionists.

January 2021.

An emerging education initiative encountering organised student leadership.

And then came the question that every idea eventually has to answer:

What did it produce?

Programmes.

Relationships.

Experiences.

Opportunities.

Knowledge.

Lessons.

Impact.

But we also confronted something else.

Not all of that history was properly captured.

And what is not captured can disappear.

So this month, we are opening the archive.

📼 GTA VINTAGE

The photographs.

The programmes.

The people.

The moments.

The work.

The stories.

The things we remember.

And the things we almost forgot.

This was Week One.

QUESTION → IDEA → ENCOUNTER → IMPACT

Next week, the story continues.

But first...

Let's look back.

🌍 GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY
HERITAGE MONTH 2026

Culture. Identity. Development. Excellence.

04/09/2026

🌍 GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY | 4 SEPTEMBER

HERITAGE | THE IMPACT

An idea is only the beginning.

An encounter can create a possibility.

But eventually, we have to ask:

What did it produce?

Great Thinkers Academy did not remain an idea.

The tutoring school became a programme.

The programme created opportunities for learners to access additional academic support.

People joined.

Relationships developed.

New ideas emerged.

Experiences accumulated.

And the work continued to evolve.

Some moments were small.

Some were significant.

Some were successful.

Some taught us what needed to change.

Together, they became part of the development of Great Thinkers Academy.

Impact is not always a statistic.

Sometimes it is a learner who received support when they needed it.

Sometimes it is a person who found an opportunity to contribute.

Sometimes it is a relationship that opened another door.

Sometimes it is simply an idea that survived long enough to become something more.

Over time, GTA produced programmes, experiences, relationships, knowledge and lessons.

But there is another part of this story.

Not all of it was properly captured.

And that matters.

Because what is not documented can easily be forgotten.

📼 GTA VINTAGE

Today, we begin looking at the evidence.

The photographs.

The programmes.

The people.

The moments.

The work.

The impact.

What did Great Thinkers Academy actually produce?

🌍 GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY
HERITAGE MONTH 2026

Culture. Identity. Development. Excellence.

03/09/2026

GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY | 3 SEPTEMBER

HERITAGE | THE ENCOUNTER

An idea can originate with one individual.

However, an organisation begins to evolve when that idea intersects with other people.

In January 2021, Great Thinkers Academy commenced establishing relationships beyond the tutoring environment.

One of those encounters brought together Great Thinkers Academy and Student Union.

Second week of January 2021

Two distinct organisational spaces.

One shared environment of young people, education, and development.

On one side, an emerging tutoring school seeking to respond to the educational challenges of its time.

On the other, organised student leadership representing the interests and experiences of students.

The meeting was more than an introduction.

It was an encounter between education and organisation.

Between thinkers and unionists.

And encounters matter.

Because ideas develop when they meet people.

Relationships create possibilities.

And possibilities can become something larger than the original idea.

Today, we revisit this moment not simply because it happened.

We revisit it because it forms part of the journey that helped shape Great Thinkers Academy.

GTA VINTAGE

THINKERS × UNIONISTS

January 2021

Revisiting the people, relationships, and moments that shaped Great Thinkers Academy.

🌍 GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY
HERITAGE MONTH 2026

Culture. Identity. Development. Excellence.

02/09/2026

GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY | 2 SEPTEMBER

HERITAGE | THE IDEA

Every organisation has a starting point, a spark that ignites a vision for a brighter future.

Meet Siyabonga Lumko Tshazi, the visionary founder of the tutoring school that would evolve into Great Thinkers Academy.

The idea took shape during a time of unprecedented disruption, as COVID-19 challenged the very fabric of education.

Classrooms were disrupted, learning routines interrupted, and learners, teachers, and families were forced to adapt to a new reality.

In the midst of this uncertainty, a powerful question emerged: Could a solution be created to empower learners to continue growing, despite the obstacles surrounding them?

This question marked the beginning of a tutoring school, which would eventually become the foundation upon which Great Thinkers Academy was built.

What started as an idea focused on education and learners has blossomed into programmes, relationships, experiences, and lessons that continue to shape GTA today.

This is where our story begins – not with a finished organisation, but with an idea, a person, and the courage to take the first step.

GTA VINTAGE

Revisiting the moments and people that shaped Great Thinkers Academy.

GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY
HERITAGE MONTH 2026

Culture. Identity. Development. Excellence. 🌍

01/09/2026

🌍 GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY | 1 SEPTEMBER

HERITAGE | WHAT ARE WE BUILDING?

August gave us an opportunity to reflect on Rights. Education. Opportunity. Leadership. Legacy.

September asks a different question.

What do we carry forward?

Heritage is not only about where we come from.

It is also about what we choose to preserve, what we choose to change and what we choose to build for those who come after us.

For Great Thinkers Academy, that means looking at ourselves.

What is GTA?

It began with an idea.

An idea about education.

An idea about young people.

An idea about creating opportunities to learn, develop and contribute.

Over time, that idea produced programmes, relationships, experiences and impact.

But some of that impact remains uncodified.

Some of the knowledge exists in people's experiences.

Some of the lessons exist in conversations.

Some of the work exists in memories, documents, relationships and unfinished ideas.

And perhaps that is part of our heritage too.

This month, we begin looking more closely at GTA's culture, identity, development and future.

Because an organisation's heritage is not simply what it remembers.

It is what it chooses to carry forward.

🌍 GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY
HERITAGE MONTH 2026

Culture. Identity. Development. Excellence.

26/08/2026

🚀 GREAT THINKERS ACADEMY | FROM SOCIAL LAB TO DEMO DAY

The journey continues.

Following our participation in Social Lab 7 of the KwaZulu-Natal Social Economy Development Programme, Great Thinkers Academy is now entering the next phase of the programme.

Representing the Academy throughout this journey is Deputy Director & Programme Coordinator, Fezile Hlope, who has participated in the Social Labs on behalf of Great Thinkers Academy.

🎯 NEXT STOP: BOOT CAMP

The upcoming Boot Camp will be an important preparation phase as participating social enterprises refine their models, strengthen their presentations and prepare for the much-anticipated Demo Day in October.

For Great Thinkers Academy, Demo Day will be more than a presentation.

It will be an opportunity to demonstrate why our organisation was selected from more than 300 applicants from across KwaZulu-Natal.

That means demonstrating more than a vision.

We must demonstrate:

📊 Evidence of our work
💡 The problem we are addressing
📚 Our educational programmes
💼 Our business model
🤝 Our community and stakeholder relationships
📈 Our potential for sustainable growth
🏛️ Our institutional readiness

Our Social Lab journey has challenged us to look honestly at our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and assumptions.

Now comes the work of bringing those lessons together.

From Social Lab → Boot Camp → Demo Day, Great Thinkers Academy is moving from reflection and learning toward demonstrating what we are building.

🌟 We were selected because there was something worth developing.

Now we have to show what that potential can become.

Great Thinkers Academy
Reaching Greater Heights.

21/08/2026

21/08/2026

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