Eisenhower Fellows Anita Brown-Graham and Mary Mountcastle.

Anita Brown-Graham, a professor at the University of North Carolina's School of Government, and Mary Mountcastle, senior associate of the Centre for Community Self Help in Durham, North Carolina, are guests of the Centre for Leadership and Public Values (CLPV), based at the Graduate School of Business (GSB).

They are the first Eisenhower Fellows to visit the country in the programme's 53-year history.

The CLPV is a bi-national partnership between the school and the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University in the US.

While in South Africa, the visitors hope to gain perspectives on the South African experience of racial reconciliation. Both serve as trustees of the Z Smith Reynolds Foundation, which has long standing interests in race relations in North Carolina in the US, and plan to apply what they learn in South Africa in this context.

Over the next four weeks Brown-Graham and Mountcastle are scheduled to meet with more than 40 leaders in business, government and society to discuss how South Africa is managing the reconciliation process.

Ceri Oliver-Evans, director of the CLPV said: "We are encouraging the fellows to take a broad lens and to appreciate the context of South Africa's road to reconciliation. Hence, our programme includes perspectives both on current challenges, such as socio-economic disparities and black economic empowerment, as well as looking at past developments, notably the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and current initiatives."

The fellows attended the Bi-national Civil Society Forum, an annual international conference organised by the CLPV. The experience will add a valuable additional dimension to their learning. This forum creates a space where key South African and American stakeholders can engage directly with issues confronting civil society.

The Eisenhower Fellowship Programme is a non-profit, not-partisan organisation created to highlight the work of emerging leaders around the world, through the exchange of information, ideas and perspectives.