Governing Council

Vusumuzi Sifile is a non-profit leader, journalist, human rights defender, communication for development and knowledge management specialist currently serving as the Executive Director of Panos Institute Southern Africa, a media advocacy and communication for development organisation that uses technology and other tools to amplify voices of poor and marginalized communities to shape the development agenda. Vusumuzi also serves on the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST) Zambia Multi Stakeholder Group, and is part of the leadership of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Zambia CSO Alliance. From September 2021 to November 2025 he served as part of the Steering Committee of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), an umbrella body of more than 200 media development and journalism support organisations from across the world, and a member of the Action Coalition on Information Integrity and Elections, a global initiative to share expertise, guidance, and knowledge on effective responses to disinformation and hate speech in elections, including the role of digital technologies. Vusumuzi has expertise and interest in the deployment of media and technology tools to promote information integrity and identify and address the effects of misinformation, disinformation, hate speech and other forms of information pollution. He previously served as Panos’ Knowledge Management and Communications Manager, and also as the head of the organisation’s Environment and Natural Resource Management Regional Programme. Before joining Panos, Vusumuzi worked for various local and international media outlets, as well as non-profit organisations, including as a Senior Staff Writer for The Standard, an independent Sunday newspaper in Zimbabwe, a reporter for the now defunct Parade magazine and the Weekly Times (both in Zimbabwe), Communications Assistant for the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Southern Africa, and had a brief stint in Botswana as Editor of The Mirror newspaper. Vusumuzi was also a correspondent for the Inter Press Service (IPS) News Agency, the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), the Radio Voice of the People, among online based publications with a focus on Zimbabwe and Southern Africa. Vusumuzi has academic qualifications in Journalism and Media Studies (undergraduate), and in Knowledge and Information Systems Management (Postgraduate). He also has professional qualifications in Multimedia and Online Journalism, Conflict Management and Mitigation, Results Based Monitoring and Evaluation, Web 2.0. and social media for Development, among others.