Vusi Mona was born in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, where he did both his primary and secondary school education. He holds a BA (English and Economics) degree and a postgraduate degree in Education (B.Ed), which he both obtained from the then University of the North (Turfloop).
Vusi started his working career in 1990 as an English and Economics teacher and thereafter became a lecturer at two teacher-training colleges of education in the then Eastern Transvaal. After his career in education, where he was a teacher activist and a pioneer in the establishment of the National Education Union of South Africa and the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union in the Eastern Transvaal, he enrolled for accounting studies at the University of Cape Town and had a stint as an articled clerk with Ernst & Young in 1995.
His passion for the written word saw him leave accounting for the world of journalism. In 1996, he became the launch editor of The Teacher newspaper, a subsidiary of the Mail & Guardian. While at The Teacher, he received a press fellowship scholarship to attend Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, where he studied the functioning of the British press. Upon his return, he was appointed editor of Tribute magazine.
After that, he joined City Press as a features editor and within a year was appointed deputy editor. In 2000, he took the editor’s chair and began to position the paper as a must-read for what was then referred to as “the emerging black middle class”. While at City Press, Vusi completed the Executive Development Programme at Stellenbosch Business School.
After his departure from City Press, he joined The Agency for Marketing and Advertising where he was MD of its PR subsidiary, Corporate Communications Agency. In 2007, he was appointed Head of Media and Communication for Rhema Church and had a stint as its Deputy CEO before he was appointed Head of Communication at The Presidency in July 2009. He joined GCIS in August 2010 as Deputy CEO responsible for Communication and Content Management.