We sat down with Thembalethu Msibi, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of BlackSwan and Jury President of the 2026 iPendoring Awards, to talk about why South African advertising still treats indigenous language work as an afterthought, and what it will take to change that.
Being invited to judge at Cannes Lions is one of the highest honours in our industry. This year, 31 South Africans help shape the festival's most important conversations, serving on both shortlisting and awarding juries across categories ranging from Titanium and Glass to Film to Media, Design, PR and a Jury President in-between. Meet the marketers, strategists, filmmakers, designers and creative leaders representing South Africa on the global stage. Thank you legends for making us proud.
We all know that feeling. A piece of work drops and your stomach sinks a little because… damn, you wish you’d did that. The idea, the craft, whatever it is, it gets under your skin in the best possible way. So instead of pretending creatives don’t get wildly jealous of good work, we decided to celebrate it. We asked some of South Africa’s top talent to look at the work released between September and December 2025 and pick the pieces they genuinely wish they’d done themselves.
IDIDTHAT JUDGE THEMBALETHU MSIBI CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF CREATIVE PARTNER BLACKSWAN SOUTH AFRICA JUDGE'S BIO I am the Co-Founder of BlackSwan, a boutique powerhouse creating magic for various [...]
Here are the results for this month's IDIDTHAT.co Craft Awards. Thank you to our most esteemed judges, Thembalethu Msibi, ECD at BlackSwan and Sam Coleman, Director at Patriot for lending us your expertise this month. Congratulations to Mzonke Maloney and the team at Carbon Films for taking home Best in Craft for March.