By Fungayi Sox
Having landed in South Africa in 2016, primarily to pursue his studies, Andrew Tsuro had no idea that six years later he would make history and land an influential post as the 44th and youngest CEO-elect of Toastmaster’s Southern African district.
His narrative is that of extra-ordinary pursuit of passion for communication and servitude leadership.
At the age of 26, Tsuro will be steering the ship of a hub of the world’s leading organisation devoted to communication and leadership skills development.
His new role entails directly empowering, overseeing and managing Toastmasters hubs in Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In a statement, Toastmaster’s Southern African district described Tsuro as “an ardent advocate for millennial leadership, entrepreneurship and skills development in various organisations across Southern Africa”.
Over the years, he has also earned the title “DTM” or Distinguished Toastmasters–the highest honour bestowed by Toastmaster’s for exhibiting mastery in communication and leadership.
Tsuro is also the founder and chief executive of e-Hub–an entrepreneurial hub that helps professionals transition from corporate to entrepreneurship with mentorship to alleviate the plight of Africans.
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His work credits include extensive training at corporates across Southern Africa, such as Mercedes-Benz South Africa, Exxaro, University of Witwatersrand, Afrox Linde, Bidvest Bank, and many others in different industries. He has been actively involved in setting up and mentoring communication and leadership development programmes in corporates like Multichoice, Vodacom, FSCA, Standard Bank Southern Africa and Malawi and various other organisations.
It becomes of great paramount importance to trace the building process of this historic, unique and inspiring narrative and I recently caught up with him from his South African base.
Tsuro who hails from Bulawayo, says his journey traces back to the age of 10 when he was in fifth grade and contested a public speaking contest in Matabeleland which was usually meant for those in the seventh grade.
Unexpectedly, he emerged as one of the top five winning contestants.
This was probably the fuel to the fire which ignited his public speaking journey as he began getting a number of invites to club societies at the school and would often do some scouting work.
Tsuro’s journey carries traits of a young man who was born with a leadership acumen–from being a prefect during his primary and secondary days and eventually becoming a Junior Councillor and leaving a solid record of community impact.
After high school, he moved to South Africa to pursue his studies and ended up training young leaders as he spoke at leadership events and established a strong working relationship with Toastmaster’s South Africa through servant leadership.
“I was always serving behind the scenes. I was always the youngest in each role I played,” he said.
Tsuro rose through the ranks from being one of the youngest Toastmasters Pretoria and Midrand Division director (2017),Public Relations Director (2018), Chairman of Toastmaster’s Leadership Institute (2020) and Curator of Mentor’s Without Borders (2020).
He says his new tenure marks “the beginning of a movement of redefining leadership with young ethical and smart (YES) leaders and making sure that people change their perception of leadership and would work towards exceeding expectations to build a legacy that will make people believe that young people can inspire even the older generation”.
Tsuro added: “Toastmasters International has established itself as the leading leadership development organisation and I am excited to build on the momentum my predecessor and team have generated. We are fully equipped to advance leadership transformation in Africa. I can’t wait to get started”
His term of office will officially begin on July 1 and end on June 30, 2023.
- Fungayi Antony Sox is the managing partner at TisuMazwi — a communications centred social enterprise that facilitates book project management including writing and publishing, distribution, printing, ghost-writing, content development and marketing, digital media and personal development. He writes in his personal capacity. For feedback contact him on 0776 030 949, follow him on Twitter: @AntonySox or connect with him on LinkedIn on Fungayi Antony Sox.
