​As the world moves online, Georgina Lefifi takes pride in the recent launch of Joburg Pulse, the City’s premiere digital radio station, which aims to expand innovative communication platforms for Joburgers.

“I am proud that we are arguably the first municipality in Africa to launch a radio station of this nature,” says Lefifi, the Group Head of Communication and Marketing Department.

Lefifi is now rallying her team behind the launch of Joburg digital TV, the City’s first livestreaming television station. She says the City’s digital transformation hub on the 11th floor at the Metro Centre is also collaborating with other departments and entities to digitalise some municipal processes in a bid to get Joburg to be a truly smart city.

Charged with the strategic leadership of the City’s events, communication and marketing directorates, Lefifi is giving impetus to proactive communication, ensuring the City’s mandate, priorities, and programmes are effectively communicated. Her three-year tenure as Group Head started in October​ 2019.

The single-mother of 10-year-old Lesedi hopes to include communication issues on the agendas of each department and municipal entity to ensure the City’s residents are always kept abreast of service delivery initiatives.

Lefifi was born and raised in Joburg’s northern neighbour, Tshwane in the trendy Hammanskraal suburb of Temba, and has a strong entrepreneurial background. Her lifelong passion is vested in women’s empowerment, innovative communication, and finding a work-life balance.

“Covid-19 has created an environment in which leaders must interrogate what it means to manage teams they don’t interact with as frequently as they used to and I’m fascinated by this challenge,” she says.

A Wits University graduate, Lefifi has various qualifications under her belt, including a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Bachelor of Law (LLB) and certificates in Marketing Management, Public Relations and Advanced Journalism.

“Education will always give you the edge. There’s nothing you study that is in vain.”

She’s quick to point out that she obtained a law degree to appease her father, whose childhood aspiration it was, and who had laboured to see this unfold through his daughter. Deep down, however, Lefifi has always been an ardent creative, craving to express herself through colourful pictures painted with words and the like.

Before joining the City in 2013 as a Director for Strategic Communication, Lefifi plied her trade as a Deputy Director for Communication at the Department of Labour. She also worked for the National Democratic Institute, a US-based NGO. She served at the South African Local Government Association (Salga) as a Communication Director and worked as a Business Development Manager and a Legal Consultant at Mindset Network under Liberty. She also worked for the Media, Information and Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority (MICT SETA).

“Throughout my career, there has always been instances where the legal background always comes in, either fully or combined with communication and marketing. I have not discarded the fact that in future, perhaps I could find myself in a legal space again.”