In times past, there were few women who ventured into the technology related world. Few exploits had been made in the technology sector by women but as we evolved into years of digital spaces and innovations, more women decided on learning these things for themselves. Women who have taken the lead into becoming tech advanced, making exploits by creating apps, bettering finances with technology and the likes.

Today, we are going to look at South African women who have picked up this mantle and become prominent tech women in their countries.

Nthabiseng Mosia

Co-founder of the Sierra Leone based company, Easy Solar, Mosia is a South African-Ghanaian who is passionate about bringing solutions to fintech and energy related issues. Her company has provided energy solutions to almost a million people in Liberia and Sierra Leone. She is an advocate for expanding opportunities and the horizon for African women. She is also passionate about building community-driven solutions to Africa’s most pressing development challenges. 

Zandile Keebine

Zandile is the CEO and co-founder of GirlCode, an organization that impact the lives of young girls through various programs such as free coding sessions, basic programming skills, digital literacy, etc. She is passionate about making the tech world an equal and safe environment for young girls around the world. She provides girls with opportunities which help them gain direct access to top women in the ICT industry. These opportunities also help them gain skills and promise them recruitment by the top companies.

Baratang Miya

Baratang is the founder and chief executive of Girlhype: an academy for women who code. She started this coding academy for women and girls in disadvantaged communities in South Africa to teach and develop them in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Since 2003, she has been empowering girls to code and write on the web. Thousands of women have been reached through her and employment opportunities have been provided through her academy.

Adriana Marais

Adriana is a South African who is an advocate for off-world exploration. She is a director of a space company in Africa which aims at taking Africa to the moon, literally and figuratively. She is an astronaut candidate with a project, the Mars One Project. Adriana is a physicist and technologist who is creating new works and projects for a flexible future.

Emma Dicks

Emma coordinates educational programmes for young people. She hopes to lift South Africa with education in technology and entrepreneurship. One of her famous projects is the Code4CapeTown programme, which enables young girls to learn web building and computer skills/IT knowledge such as coding and designing. She is an innovator who is all about helping young ones bring creative and high quality ideas to life.

Mmaki Jantjies

Mmaki was one of the first black females from South Africa to bag a PhD in computer science at a young age. She is ardent about innovative roles in the country and continent. She is a researcher who also runs an organization which enables exposure to critical STEM skills. Mmaki contributes greatly to research on mobile learning and technology development for mathematics and science in South African schools. She tackles the issue of lack of diversity in the technology space.

Karen Nadasen

CEO of PayU Africa and Chair for the Ecommerce Forum of South Africa, Karen is an enthusiastic advocate for women in technology. She is a professional who has experience working in both Europe and Africa. Her company is South Africa’s largest online payment gateway. Karen loves direct leadership and execution, environments that foster visibility and inspire results. She is highly recognized as one of South Africa’s most inspiring women in tech.

Tumi Sineke

She works to improve in diversity and inclusion in tech. Tumi owns a foundation whose aim and mission is to help communities that are unfavourable or disadvantaged grow in their tech careers. She impacts lives positively with her knowledge and executes programs on a good scale which yield results. She considers herself an optimist. Tumi is a mentor and also a public speaker. She loves thinking about how to make the world a better place and this fuels her interest in using technology to solve everyday problems.

Sewagodimo Matlapeng

Sewagodimo is a community leader, an advocate and a public speaker who loves programming and organized women in computer sciences. She is a blogger and a software developer who is multitalented. Sewagodimo provides career support for women who are into software development through her company, Indoni Developers. She is also a YouTuber who teaches coding through her page and channel. She is also the founder of Buza Answers, an educational platform for high school students who can reach each other and solve problems through the platform. Sewa is an inspiration to many young ladies in South Africa.

Indira Tsengiwe

Indira is the co-founder of a media brand and production company whose purpose is to create content for and about young entrepreneurs in Africa. She is invested in young entrepreneurs and uses media through entertainment to nurture them. Indira believes firmly that the media is a tool that can be wielded correctly to empower youths in Africa. She loves connecting with people who are ambitious and relentlessly finding ways to bring a change to their environment and community. She also co-founded a software company called BlueAvo.

Nneile Nkholise

Nneile values the development of young women in Africa and uses her biotech company, iMed Tech, to create opportunities for women. She believes that young women from Africa can be the leaders of healthcare research in the future, across the continent and globally. Her company is interested in the technological creation of medical prosthetics, breast prosthesis and bio implants. She is one of the top female innovators in Africa. She proves that women have the power to run companies specialized in the medical technology sector.

Lindiwe Matlali

Founder and CEO of a non-profit organization that teaches kids how to code, African Teen Geeks, Lindiwe seeks to expose young people and impact their lives through technology education. This has enabled eight hundred thousand children to be introduced to new programs in coding and robotics, and inspires them into thinking of new ways about their futures. She is driven by the belief that no child has to be left behind in the revolution of technology. Lindiwe asserts that humility is needed to bridge the gaps of equity in tech. She also believes tech entrepreneurship can shape Africa.

Benji Coetzee

Benji is the founder of Empty Trips, an AI enabled digital logistics platform that centers on the transportation of goods, especially cargoes, which reduces carbon emissions by using trains and trucks for transportation. She sees a lot that people don’t see when it comes to using trains for her transportation of goods. Coetzee is a mentor to top African innovators in Oxford university. She is practical, optimistic and efficient. She is a consultant and investor who actively searches for passionate entrepreneurs to invest in and enable our economy.

Tebogo Mokwena

A software engineer who is enthusiastic about solving African problems by digitally transforming Africa. She owns an online educational platform whose objective is to support and provide high school learners with study materials.

Nobukhosi Dlamini

With a career spanning sixteen years in the tech industry, Nobukhosi admits that there isn’t anything scary about the tech industry that should stop women from venturing. She has worked for global companies preparing internal software systems and owns a company focused on unfolding data protection for consumers and cyber security services to create and implement a safe cyberspace. Nobuhosi teaches women and girls who have never touched computers from the basics of computing to where they can get entry level or internship jobs. She hopes to help as many rural based women to access tech careers as possible.

You’re Next!

These women have taken the lead in South Africa and are impacting lives of girls and women. Surely, they are inspiring characters whom you would love to emulate as you go on into the tech world.

At Heels and Tech we help you transition into tech easily. You do not need any tech background at all. All you need you to do is enroll in any of our courses and viola! you’re on way to becoming a tech expert. 

If these women inspired you, it’s time for you to take that leap and inspire other women too!

Cheers!