Katharine McKenzie

Associate

Katharine studied literature (BA hons, Wits) before gaining master’s degrees in Transport Studies (UCT) and Public Administration (UWC). For more than 20 years she has been Director of String Communication, a boutique agency providing communication products, publications and strategy for the public and development sectors.

She has worked with cabinet ministers, senior government officials and private sector leaders to advance projects which deliver public goods and shared value for people and communities.

Early in her career she served as private secretary to the Minister of Defence in the Mandela Presidency and was a staff member of Parliament’s secretariat and media team that supported the drafting of South Africa’s democratic Constitution.

Katharine has worked on a wide range of media from books, magazines, newspapers, speeches and scripts to technical publications and curation. Between 2004 and 2012, she led three book publishing projects for Parliament and edited Delivery: the magazine for local government, an award-winning, independent publication published by String to document the evolution of SA’s democratic local government system.

In the run-up to the FIFA 2010 World Cup she worked on the creation of a brand and communication strategy for MyCiTi, Cape Town’s bus rapid transit system, dedicating 12 years to this project and working with the City of Cape Town on a range of other transport and urban development projects to tackle Cape Town’s spatial inequality.

From 2018 she led the content development and picture editing for Mandela in Cape Town, an award-winning exhibition permanently housed at the Cape Town City Hall and developed with the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Katharine volunteers for Friends of Vista Nova, an NPO that supports Vista Nova School for children with special needs.