Board of Directors

Meet our Board of Directors

Lunga Siyo
Chairperson

Lunga was admitted to the Eastern Cape Society of Advocates, Grahamstown, where he began his career in December 2013. He was admitted to the Johannesburg Society of Advocates in 2015. He holds an LLB and an LLM in Constitutional Law. Lunga is a member of Thulamela Chambers. Lunga is also in-house counsel at the Constitutional Litigation Unit of the Legal Resources Centre. His areas of interest include constitutional law, administrative law, land rights, mining law, customary law, medical negligence, personal injury law, and general litigation. He has appeared in the High Court, Land Claims Court, and the Constitutional Court.

Megan Bryer

Secretary

Megan is a Director in the Economic Policy Division of South Africa’s National Treasury. She has worked since 2012 in development economics, in the private sector for Genesis Analytics, in the academic space for the Universities of Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand, and as an independent researcher. Though she had the misfortune of studying economics at the height of the neoliberal project, she has been on a journey of recovery, wading into feminist economics, economic history, and heterodox
economic ideas. Her work for the Equality Collective shifts her away from her focus on urban poverty, inequality, and joblessness to a rural expression of these challenges; re-orientating her from the abstractions of policymaking to the practice of community-centred change. Megan has an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of
Economics.

Yana Van Leeve
General Board Member

Yana commenced her career in constitutional litigation at the renowned Legal Resources Centre, founded by Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson. She later specialised in education law and policy. Following a year of clerking at the Constitutional Court for Justice Edwin Cameron, Yana joined Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr as an associate in 2016 and worked there as a senior associate until 2021. She then moved to Ilifa Labantwana, an organisation
that focuses on early childhood development, as their Policy, Advocacy, and Communications Director. Yana recently completed her LLM from Queens University, Belfast and is now an executive in ENSafrica’s public law practice. Yana is also the
former Chairperson of Equal Education.

Dave Martin

Treasurer

Dave Martin is a South African social entrepreneur with 21 years’ experience developing community-led solutions in Xhora Mouth, Eastern Cape. He founded Bulungula Lodge (2003–2014), an off-grid community tourism enterprise later transferred in full to the local community.

He co-founded the Bulungula Incubator (2007), a multi-award-winning NGO working across education, health, sustainable livelihoods and basic services, and has managed projects across these sectors. He also co-founded Bulungula College (2017–present), serving on its board. Martin holds a Bachelor of Business Science (Honours) from UCT, has 15 years’ board experience, and is fluent in English, Xhosa and Afrikaans.

Phumla Hobe-Yabo
General Board Member

With over two decades of experience in development, social investment, and education, Phumla Hobe-Yabo has led impactful initiatives across grassroots, corporate, and governance sectors. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education, an Honours in Education Management, Law, and Policy (University of Pretoria), and a Master’s in Development and Management with a focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (North-West University). She has held senior leadership roles, including Acting CEO and Head of Programmes at the Standard Bank Tutuwa Community Foundation and Social Investment Specialist at Tshikululu Social Investments. She currently serves as a Specialist Project Manager at Absa Corporate Citizenship and is a Trustee of the Optima Trust, where she chairs the Programmes Committee. Additionally, she sits on the Board of the Rural Education Access Programme (REAP), contributing to strategic oversight and governance in the education sector.