Dr. Cino Shearer elected Treasurer of Embrace Diversity, aPolitical Movement in Defense of Difference.
Dr. Cino Shearer (37) Executive Director (Executive Consulting International) Honours in Arts (University of Potsdam), Master’s in Clinical Psychology (Wits University), Doctorate in Psychology (University of Ghana) is an advocate for equality and change.
The 2024 South African general election will be held to elect a new National Assembly as well as the provincial legislature in each province. These will be the seventh elections held under the conditions of universal adult suffrage since the end of the apartheid era in 1994.
Dr Cino Shearer has strated working towards putting LGBTQI+ community in the forefront of leadership in the hope to be the first ‘gay’ president.
“It is time the country is led by those previously marginalised. Women have been marginalised for many years and deemed unfit to run the country. Members of the LGBTQI+ have been side-lined and discriminated for many years. Currently our leaders are failing us and need the formerly marginalised to step in,” he says.
“I am a proud gay South African man ready to take a stand. We need better schools, we need better health care, we need to protect our women and children. Who better to mobilise the people than a gay man,” he adds.
The Eastern Cape born Activist speaks fluent isiXhosa, English, Afrikaans and has travelled across the world and viewed how other leaders manage the politics of their countries.
“To date, there have been five openly LGBT people who have served as a national head of government, holding office in Iceland, Belgium, Serbia, Ireland and Luxemboug. Africa needs to catch a wake up. Currently in the US Pete Buttigieg is campaigning and an openly gay candidate seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Give gay people a chance,” says Dr. Cino Shearer.
He is a seasoned businessman with vast business acumen within the financial sector. He is also the founder and Executive Director of Executive Consulting International, an international consulting firm that specialises in High profile cases, review of international contracts and business transactions as well as business development and retention.
He has been voted among 130 Most Influential People in Africa (2014/2015), the founder of the Cino Shearer Foundation, Owner of Miss Mzansi Pride, and owner of CS Media.
In 2011, Cino started the Cino Shearer Foundation which helps below the poverty line families with food parcels and educational grants. This charitable work takes place in all nine South African provinces as well as in the diaspora regions.
The Cino Shearer Foundation was in partnership with Nedbank as part of a global campaign that opened up 2000 Educational Savings Accounts to underprivileged Grade 10 learners. In the same year, a campaign called Top Designer search was launched to draw interest to students in the fashion industry as well as those inclined to fashion.
His foundation has been part of the program assisting artists to deal with Mental Illness in the Entertainment industry. He offers consultations, mentoring sessions, and support to artists before fame and post. The struggles artists undergo; financial. Contractual, emotional support, and finance management.
He has assisted youth outside of the entertainment industry in mentorship, youth development programs that give people under the age of 35 the opportunity to develop their career paths, learn important life skills, and receive valuable mentorships.
Dr. Cino created a program for boy children aimed at empowering young boys to be better human beings. The way boys are being socialized currently has a negative outcome. Cino is concerned that the system currently does not raise boys to be human beings and general members of society. That young boys and men are told that they are powerful than their female counterparts, that the insistence of society that boys and men should not cry, that they should be key providers is problematic.
It recognizes the significant role that parents play in influencing the lives of youth. There is evidence that open communication about sex and sexuality between parent and child significantly reduces risk behaviour.
Dr. Cino Shearer continues to build on the need to facilitate communication between parents and children and to provide a platform for parents’ involvement in the organisation’s campaign to build stronger families. He implements three programs for supporting the rebuilding of families:
In 2013, he launched the first annual Mzansi Pride bringing together members of the LGBTI community in South Africa in an attempt to highlight gender equality and diversity on the African continent.
He was recognized among 130 Africans as Most Influential People in Africa, and in 2015 was nominated as Young Businessperson of the Year by All African Business Leaders Award for the African continent. This award is given to businessmen and women who have excelled in the fluctuating business arena of sales, marketing, and entrepreneurship. It is given to those who have grasped the business concept pf sustaining a stationery business model through stringent financial tidings. He was also recognised for his efforts in Uganda for judicially aiding members of the LGBTI community who would have been condemned to death for their sexual orientation. An author of two books, Moffie and Valliama- the Child Martyr and currently working on his third book entitled, Changing Business As We Don’t See
Dr. Cino is a social entrepreneur with his pulse on the business landscape. As part of his charitable work, Cino has received the Don Mattera Humanitarian Award. In the same year, he was appointed as Board Member of the Don Matera Foundation. He also sits on the Walter Sisulu University LGBTI Forum as well as the KZN Anti-Drug Forum.
Cece Smith 
Bongi Sikelo 