Adv Samuel Monyame Maifadi

Advocate Samuel Monyame Maifadi 
Advocate of the High Court of South Africa

Advocate Samuel Monyame Maifadi hails from the rural villages of Hammanskraal, a space to which he attributes his epistemic foundation at the feet of his Elders. He is an admitted Advocate of the High Court of South Africa having started his career in the field of Land Rights litigation and defending the rights of rural communities and farmworkers.

As a proponent for social justice he has served at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature in the Public Participation and Petitions Unit, a space that connected communities with the law-making function of the Legislature. He went on to serve the National House of Traditional Leaders as its Parliamentary Services Manager where he assisted in establishing parliamentary systems that ensured coherent policy input by Traditional Leaders on legislation before parliament that affected traditional and rural communities.

He currently serves as Director for Special Projects and Innovation at the National Department of Social Development. Maifadi holds degrees in the Social Sciences and Law from the University of the Witwatersrand. He has also studied Social Entrepreneurship at the Gordons Institute for Business Science. He has a keen interest in Social Security Studies, an area that combines his wealth of experience in community development and practical approaches towards equitable systems of social assistance and public expenditure.

He is a passionate teacher, trainer, speaker, mentor, coach, retreat leader and has presented at local and international platforms. Maifadi co-owns and leads Naledi Farm www.naledifarm.co.za together with his companion in life Manti. Naledi Farm is an Agritourism venture located on a 3.5 Hectare property in Laezonia within the Crocodile Nature Reserve. Under the motto “Hoba re bana ba thari” Naledi Farm provides a space for learning and healing through interaction with the land.

Maifadi is a proponent of learning through contact with the soil. He hosts retreat sessions and camps on the farm which seek to reconnect the African with the soil and thereby undoing the spiritual disconnectedness caused by many years of land dispossessions and to heal the memories of forced removals and forced migrations. Maifadi goes by the mantra: When we work the land we become generous again.