Zimkhitha Mabanga

Collected data from various sources to determine facts and opinions and fashioned into cohesive story for the newspaper.

• Oversee client relations
• Reputation and crisis communications management
• Developing strategies and Public relations plans
• Act as a stakeholder relations manager for clients
• Act as an advisor to clients
• Manage freelance staff members
• Negotiated terms of business acquisitions to increase business base and solidify market presence.

• Public Relations and reporting
• Wrote engaging and successful press releases to control information and public opinion.
• Complication of publicity and project/campaign reports for the executives as required
• Proactively develop and execute integrated communications strategies across different channels (paid, earned, owned and social media) to support the achievement of key business objectives, and to protect and improve the Group’s reputation
• Drafted speeches for company executives and advised on media talking points.
• Oversaw team of communications and media relations professionals with focus on achieving PR results.
• Fostered positive relationships with key business journalists in national and trade publications.
• Identify media opportunities and proactively drive and secure positive publicity for the Group in South Africa and across the continent
• Develop a quarterly PR plan/calendar for the Group
• Drive the the curation of the content (through Freelance writers) and also curate content for media (when necessary), which will in turn be published on the website and LinkedIn (and repurposed for other social media platforms by the team)
• Proactively engage with the internal communications team to align the external content for use in internal communications platforms
• Maintain and build relationships with the Sustainability, HR, and internal communication teams and other internal stakeholders as well as partner organisations in order to identify opportunities to generate positive publicity for the Group
• Stakeholder relations
• Engage with government stakeholders for media relations relating to donations made by the company
• Represent the Group in various community engagements with other stakeholders
• Continuous engagements with various Non-profits and partners that support the sustainability and CSR work done by the Group in communities
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Formed part of the CSR strategic team that made decisions on which projects to fund
• Develop the CSI publicity plans and secure coverage for the portfolio
• Develop relationships with external stakeholders (partner NGOs and beneficiaries)
• Sustainability
• Contribute to the annual Sustainability report content through various articles the Publicity team developed
• Prepare a Publicity Plan and secure media coverage for the portfolio
• Corporate (including Enterprise Development)
• Develop a publicity plan to showcase small suppliers supplying to the Group
• Build relationships with buyers managing these suppliers in order to understand the core offering the Group gives to them
• Identify key small suppliers for publicity opportunities
• Assist the HR team with content for employee relations matters

• Clients managed: Santam, Sanlam, MWEB, Mozambique Investment Conference, University of Stellenbosch Business - Executive Education (USBED)
• Managing various client accounts and campaigns in all areas of the delivery of the agency’s services (media relations, content marketing/social media content, issues/reputation/issues management, content development, media pitching, media engagement: pre-events and on events)
• Actively listened to customers, handled concerns quickly and escalated major issues to supervisor.
• Brand Campaigns which involved influencer management and curating content for different social media platforms
• Establish and maintain an effective and productive level of communication with clients
• Maintaining a high level of relevant industry knowledge
• Providing professional and exceptional client service in all interactions with clients
• Ensure that the team delivers frequent reports to clients
• Manage reputational issues as they arise

• Executive Function:
• Speak on behalf of the MEC on various issues in the media and at events
• Provide comprehensive media strategy in line with the MEC's vision
• Build and maintain a strong media profile for the MEC
• Identify opportunities to craft op-eds
• Drive issues of strategic importance
• Identify and drive key ministerial projects
• Contribute to the compilation of the department’s Annual Performance Plan, Annual Report, strategic plan and Provincial Strategic Plan
• Responsible for compiling a media plan
• Represent the MEC in different government structures like local and provincial meetings
• Liaise with the National Department of Health, National Parliament as well as other Provincial Health Departments and other stakeholders as required
• Provide reports to top management to support decision-making
• Provide information to outside agencies as required
• Promote regional collaboration and represent the Ministry of Health in community structures
• Political Function:
• Assisting the MEC with media management for her political work
• Promoting the MEC’s media profile in her constituency through press statements and opinion pieces
• Parliamentary Function:
• Drafting of responses for parliamentary questions, motions, executive statements and speeches
• Identify opportunities to leverage the successes of the Department of Health.

• Managed media relations and campaigns to address public communications in crisis situations.
• Built and strengthened relationships with members of media in order to promote positive coverage.
• Developed and implemented short- and long-term communications strategies.
• Acted as point of contact for inbound media related calls.

• Managed day-to-day business operations.
• Develop business presentations and creative proposals to acquire new clients
• Manage client service and agency performance
• Oversee PR campaigns from creative briefs to implementation and delivery

• Entrepreneurs Programme
• Shadowing the, and owner of a Communications and PR agency in Italy as part of the business exchange programme for young entrepreneurs;
• Market research, strategy formulation and understanding the operational side of the business., - Young Entrepreneurs Programme by IBA Global which saw her jetting off to Italy for a business exchange and mentorship supported by the National Youth Development Agency.
• Learned new skills and applied to daily tasks to improve efficiency and productivity.

• Facilitate and co-ordinate the University’s strategic fundraising initiatives (university alumni)
• Develop fundraising plans for the university, targeting alumni
• Pursue and build strategic relations with prospect donors – (wealthy UCT alumni);
• Responsible for organising donor events
• Manage fundraising volunteers (students and graduates)
• Develop fundraising reports and report to senior management
• Managing the production of the donor publications (online and print);
• Assist the Head of publications with the alumni annual publication.

• Manage the internal communications portfolio;
• Develop effective communication plans to support the business unit objectives
• Develop an internal communications strategy that seeks to improve consistency, clarity and relevance of internal communications
• Lead content development that would lead to making employees effective advocates of the organisation
• Manage the internal communications platforms/publications (intranet and the monthly newsletter) and ensure that all information required by the different departments is available and up-to-date
• Manage the flow of the business unit information through set platforms like staff communications and the General Manager’s Communication desk
• Coordinate internal events for employees with the HR department to ensure that employees give input through different channels