Sipho has been working for BrainLife for almost eight years. He is our general assistant and jack of all trades. If you can imagine it, Sipho can build or fix it. He walks to the beat of his own drum, and loves a good braai. Don’t let his small stature fool you, he is as strong as an ox.

Constance is our general assistant and local fashionista! If she isn’t assisting in the group, or making tea or lunch, you can find her chatting and showing off her million dollar smile. She’s a bookworm at heart and has a Facebook page where she shares make-up tips—sister’s got style!

Hester is our admin genius who keeps everything together with her tiny hands and size 4 feet. You can find Hester in the broom closet (otherwise known as the admin office) quietly keeping the BrainLife wheels turning. When she is not looking after all of us, she’s a mom of 2 busy and mostly lovely teenagers.

Cindy is a co-founder of BrainLife and a speech therapist. She fell in love with the field of adult neurology 20 years ago and this love—unlike her previous fondness for palazzo pants—has stood the test of time. She loves knitting, crocheting, reading and snail mail. She truly believes that brain injury survivors and their families have so much to teach us and is grateful to be part of the BrainLife family.

Elaine is another one of our speech and language therapists who loves working with both kids and adults. She is a wonderfully nice person, a great artist, an even better advice giver, and a loving mother to cat babies and her loving husband.

Marica is one of our passionate music therapists. Her guitar is basically a fifth limb and when she’s not making music, listening to music or talking about music, she’s thinking about music. She has two beautiful daughters and three dogs at home and loves the sound of her piano students hard at practice.

Dionne is our resident physio. She’s passionate about neurology and puzzles, is the friendliest drill sergeant ever, and always has a can-do attitude. When her daughter was diagnosed with Rett syndrome, she realised the need for support and understanding for these special children, which is why she is dedicated to helping brain injury survivors get moving, advocates for Rett awareness, and runs Nova School.

We are lucky to have not one, but two music therapists at Brainlife. Hermi brings her musical genius and the joy of music to the Wilgers and Mamelodi groups, and enjoys seeing how music brings out the creative and spontaneous sides of survivors, and how it supports their recovery. She also has quite the suburban zoo, with one cat, two chickens, three dogs and four fish!

Francois is a chemical engineer who recently retired and then promptly unretired. When he is not busy auditing huge chemical factories, he has the unenviable task of helping us keep Brainlife in the green. Luckily, Francois is a wizard with numbers, which is handy for a father of five!

To say Lizl is a jack of all trades is definitely an understatement. She is a business owner, landlord, mindfulness guru and expert on everything creative—from crocheting and painting, to carpentry and building. Lizl is at her happiest during arts and crafts groups, surrounded by chatty BrainLife members.

Karen is a social worker who has a masters degree in the field of neurology, and 20 years experience supporting survivors and their families. Her quiet, calm strength and great sense of humour is tangible and her understanding for people affected by brain injury has deepened even more by her family's journey with autism.

Kgomotso is the chairman of our board, an engineer by trade, and an entrepreneur at heart. When he is not running a civil engineering company, he’s at his chicken farm, or next to the pool watching his daughter play water polo. He prefers all-black outfits, but his heart pumps all the colours of the rainbow nation.