Kabira Dewan, a South African entrepreneur creating jobs for women in underprivileged communities

March 19, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Kabira Dewan, founder, Tamura Enterprises (Pty) Ltd (South Africa)

Kabira Dewan is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Tamura Enterprises (Pty) Ltd in South Africa. She is also a proud wife and mother of 3 with a successful career pivot from being a 20 year Ex-Banker at one of the 4 Big Banks in South Africa. She is a passionate social entrepreneur with a firm belief in combining profit with philanthropy and is the founder and Craft Director at Bead Expressions, a social enterprise that is creating jobs for women in underprivileged communities in an effort to eradicate unemployment. In addition, she is also a Franchisee for a Famous Brands Combo Store Restaurant Franchise. She enjoys sharing her insights and knowledge of women franchisees, as women are particularly underrepresented in fast food franchise. She is also a guest blogger for Lionesses of Africa.

Ayanda Majola, a South African entrepreneur building a niche beauty brand for sensitive skin

March 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Ayanda Majola, founder, Yanda Cosmetics (South Africa)

Ayanda Majola is the founder of Yanda Cosmetics which is a local South African beauty brand that specializes in scientific skincare made specifically for sensitive skin. As well as being a beauty entrepreneur, she is also a medical science student. Her business is committed to bringing non-toxic, simple, effective and affordable skincare products made with clinically proven active ingredients that were carefully selected from her background knowledge in both Medicine and Science. Despite her young age and being a full-time health science student, Ayanda has been able to grow her brand in a short space of time. Her products are now available on Zando and Takealot which are the leading online platforms in the country and she has recently signed a deal with an international shopping platform that will stock and sell her products in the United Kingdom.

Nneile Nkholise, an agri-innovator creating global trade access

February 26, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Thola Inc, building a B2B agricultural produce procurement marketplace for Africa

Nneile Nkholise is the founder of Thola Inc, a business founded in 2021 and building the middle ground for mass continental farmer global trade access through a B2B agricultural produce procurement marketplace; that enables global companies to purchase forensic tested and verified climate sustainable goods from African farmers. She was born in Lesotho and grew up in South Africa and she studied towards a Masters Mechanical Engineering at Central University of Technology and Bachelor of Science majoring in Physics & Computer Science at University of Witwatersrand, all in South Africa. She is a product engineer with a specific focus in design engineering and has eight years’ experience in the construction and biomedical sectors, having developed biomedical products ranging from prosthesis to bio-implants. She was the co-founder of iMed Tech, a biotech company specializing in custom-made medical solutions using CAD and CAM techniques. In 2018, she co-founded 3DIMO, a venture backed company that automates livestock data analytics to monitor livestock health.

Bontle Tshole, a South African entrepreneur passionate about healthy eating

February 26, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Bontle Tshole, founder, Baaa Health & Luminary Thrivist (South Africa)

Bontle Tshole is a healthy eating and responsible food advocate, and the founder of Baaa Health & Luminary Thrivist in South Africa. She started her entrepreneurial journey early on in her life through the time she invested in assisting her mother in the family business at age nine. Over time she grew to love business and the endless opportunities it offered to her. It was during her tertiary studies that she began what was then called Baaa Smoothie Bar, now Baaa Health, in 2017 and has grown its reach and capacity since then. Baaa is a health bar that is changing the narrative of access to healthy eating by promoting responsible food choices through the provision of healthy quality food, addressing UN Sustainability Development Goal 3.

Tania Morgan and Britt Marki, creating a self-care focused feminine wellness brand in South Africa

February 19, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Tania Morgan, founder, MiQuann (South Africa)

Tania Morgan and Britt Marki are cofounders of MiQuann! a South African feminine wellness business focused on female self-care, hormonal health and ageless lifelong sensuality. This dynamic team are developing a community platform to empower women to make lifestyle and self-care choices to optimise their hormonal health enabling a better quality of life and lifelong sensuality.

Beauty Monene, a South African plant hire business builder

February 19, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Monenebe Maintenance & Projects, a specialist cleaning plant hire business servicing South Africa’s mining industry

Beauty Monene was born and bred in Mamelodi in South Africa. She is the founder of Monenebe Maintenance and Projects, a business established and registered in 2006. She has a passion to define herself in business and giving opportunities to those in her community. Beauty is married with three daughters and has completed a BCom degree and a senior management diploma. She has worked in various entities in both finance and customers services, and her experience led her to establishing her business, Monenebe Maintenance and Projects. Today the business employs 39 people. In 2020, after the Covid pandemic hit, Beauty opened another manufacturing entity, and today she is mentoring her daughters in this business.

Arlene Singh, a South African environmental consultant in the renewable energy sector

February 5, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Arlene Singh is the founder of Nala Environmental (Pty) Ltd based in Johannesburg, South Africa. After years in the corporate sector, she took the big leap into starting her own Environmental Consulting firm. Arlene’s business is focused on providing environmental consulting services to Developers in the renewable energy sector in Africa. The business was founded in 2019 after 10 years in the sector. She is registered as a Professional Natural Scientist in the field of Environmental Science with the South African Council of Scientific Professionals and a Registered Environmental Assessment Practitioner with the Environmental Assessment Practitioners Association of South Africa.

Tamryn Lowe, a South African entrepreneur passionate about photography

January 29, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Tamryn Lowe, owner, Tamryn Lowe Photography (South Africa)

Tamryn Lowe is the owner of Tamryn Lowe Photography based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is an international award winning photographer with a passion for helping change the way women see themselves, as well as helping businesses receive more qualified leads through being intentional with their personal branding photos. While she founded her business eleven years ago, she spent the first four years also working for other photographers and the second four years in corporate - all while running her own business at the same time.

Barbara Kleinschmidt, South African entrepreneur tapping the healing properties of Aloe Ferox for her brand

January 22, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Barbara Kleinschmidt, founder and Director, Totally Wild (Pty) Ltd (South Africa)

With 30 years of experience in the aloe industry, Barbara Kleinschmidt is a founder and Director of Totally Wild (Pty) Ltd, a 13 year old Cape Town based company, specializing in natural and organic products, made from South Africa's wild-grown, indigenous Aloe ferox plants. Barbara, a single mom with 3 grown up sons, has always had a strong interest in naturopathy, traditional and natural medicines, and focuses on products that will help to improve the health of their customers. In addition, the aloe industry in South Africa relies on a large rural workforce to harvest and pre-process the aloe leaves, providing jobs and upliftment for entire communities who were previously disadvantaged.

Marylou Bawden, a South African entrepreneur helping seniors to downsize their homes

January 8, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Marylou Bawden, founder and owner, Clear Path Senior & Speciality Moving Managers (South Africa)

Marylou Bawden is the founder and owner of Clear Path Senior & Speciality Moving Managers in South Africa. The business assists seniors to sort, downsize and move from their family homes into retirement villages. It also assists the family when their loved one passes away to sort and clear the family home. Marylou was retrenched at the start of Covid after being in the exhibition industry, and having previously been a business owner in the retail space she was looking for something new to start up. While the business is not a charity, the aspect of assisting and helping seniors in what is an enormously stressful time in their lives is the key purpose of the business and is enormously important to Marylou.

Mylene Bosch, a South African entrepreneur passionate about training

January 8, 2023 Melanie Hawken

iCALC Training Academy, changing lives through training and development in South Africa

Mylene Bosch is the founder of iCALC Training Academy in South Africa, a private college that empowers individuals within their chosen careers. Specializing in Engineering, Business and IT studies, the business offers individuals quality education. What Mylene has done at iCALC Training Academy is to add to the mix a number of specialist mentoring and coaching groups. These help companies achieve the bottom line with efficient individuals that are cohesive in their workplace with qualified and certified coaches. The business was started in 2014 and today employs 23 people.

Melissa Jacobs, a South African entrepreneur creating workshops to help candidates prepare for financial exams

January 1, 2023 Melanie Hawken

Melissa Jacobs, founder, Mel J (Pty) Ltd (South Africa)

Mel J (Pty) Ltd, founded by Melissa Jacobs in South Africa is a specialist business that facilitate workshops for one of the toughest exams in the financial industry - RE5 and RE1. The regulatory exams are being developed and delivered under the direction and management of the FSCA. Melissa’s business has a unique method used to teach its candidates and to prepare them for the exam. Workshops are held all over Johannesburg and candidates travel from all over South Africa. Melissa’s business has a great pass rate and its facilitators are passionate, not only about training, but about people and that is the winning recipe. Going over and above what is required is another trick to the business’s success.

Lioness Launch / South African award-winning upcycling business, Lilly Loompa, introduces recycled plastic desk to range

December 18, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Cape Town Designer and founder of Lilly Loompa, Lizl Naude (from Paarl), is known far and wide for her quirky, upcycled décor items. But more than that, she is known for her purposeful and environmentally-consciousness approach to design. In 2020, during the pandemic, she launched her “My Africa Lap Desk” made with discarded, waste material. It is currently their most popular product. In November 2022, Lizl decided to make the evolution from wood to recycled plastic for the next generation of the desk and launched it to market.

Georgina de Kock, a South African eco-innovator disrupting plastic pollution

December 18, 2022 Melanie Hawken

**Georgina de Kock, founder, Munch Innovation (Pty) Ltd (South Africa)**

Georgina de Kock is the founder, product developer and a director of Munch Innovation (Pty) Ltd in South Africa. She is a seasoned entrepreneur who has won many awards and she is a devoted business leader. Georgina was a financial advisor and owned a photographic, design and screen-printing business, Georgi 'D". She made a career change to follow her passion to something she believed in which is to help disrupt plastic waste to help save our environment making a difference that matters. Today, her business also employs 7 people, creating local green jobs.

Lindiwe Nakedi, a South African diversity-focused mining entrepreneur

November 27, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Gubhani Trading (Pty) Ltd, a South African surface diamond drilling business making its mark in the mining sector

Lindiwe Nakedi is a wife, a mother, and the Owner and Managing Director of Gubhani Exploration, a South African surface diamond drilling company, with over 10 years’ experience in the surface core drilling in the mining industry since 2009. The business employs 20 people. She holds a Bachelor’s degree majoring in Industrial Psychology and Philosophy from the University of the Witwatersrand and completed the New Managers Program from Wits Business School focused on Business Management. Lindiwe served as Chairperson of WiMSA in 2017 and 2018 and is now a Patron in the Organization. She is also the founder and Director on the board of WIMBIZ. On a personal level, she has been married for 17 years to her all-time crush and has 3 children aged 15, 12 and 5.

2nd South African Women Entrepreneurs Job Creators Survey reports key insights

November 20, 2022 Melanie Hawken

The key insights from the 2nd edition of the South African Women Entrepreneurs Job Creators Report, produced by Lionesses of Africa in partnership with New York University, and in collaboration with Absa, were shared with attendees at a special Lioness Business Agility webinar on 18 November 2022. The report once again provides key insights into the pivotal role women entrepreneurs play as job creators in the country. These insights are important as the South African National Development Plan (NDP) estimates that the country will need to create an additional 11 million jobs by 2030. 90% of these are expected to come from new and expanding SMEs.

Mamela Luthuli, a pioneering South African security-focused techpreneur

November 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

TakeNote IT, a South African cyber security business providing innovative IT solutions to clients

Mamela Luthuli is a well-known business leader, founder, entrepreneur, and CEO of Take Note IT in South Africa, which provides cyber security and innovative IT solutions to its clients. The business was established in 2007. Her purpose is “I am dedicated to protecting and keeping businesses and our people safe in South Africa and the rest of the world. I believe that technology and 4IR are only at the tip of a disruptive revolution that will create a new way of life for us all.” As a CEO, she guides her team of 65 young leaders to build a future for themselves the business, and the future of the country. Her contribution to the Cybersecurity and IoT industry has been realized through engineered products & services that secure digital and physical assets by proactively mitigating the risk of hacking, vandalism, and theft, through engineered cyber security and IoT solutions - helping to protect your business, protect your people, protect your reputation.

Sewela Setshogoe, a South African growth-focused engineering entrepreneur

October 23, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lefata Engineering, a growing specialist engineering and maintenance services and construction business

Sewela Basetsana Setshogoe is a South African entrepreneur operating in the traditionally tough and highly specialized engineering industry sector. She is the owner of Lefata Engineering, an engineering services and construction business which operates mainly within the mining and manufacturing industries. The business has been in operation for six years having launched in 2016, and harnesses the management team’s personal extensive engineering experience. Lefata Engineering currently employs 11 people, and has grown to undertake turnkey and high quality projects for large corporates and businesses across different sectors with a focus on the mining industry.

Cleo Johnson, a South African hospitality marketing expert

October 2, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Nuecleo, a specialist marketing consultancy for hospitality and tourism businesses in South Africa

Cleo Johnson is the founder of Nuecleo, a hospitality marketing consultancy in South Africa. She is a seasoned marketing consultant and businesswoman with expertise in marketing and business strategy, e-commerce, and hospitality. A multi-award-winning businesswoman, she was recently recognized as Forbes Africa 30 under 30, the class of 2021 and has been named one of Africa's TOP 50 CEOs two years in a row. She has over nine years of industry experience and has improved the brand reputation, marketing, and sales revenue for various clients through strategic, innovative solutions and her collaborative mindset. Her business, Nuecleo was started in 2017 and today employs 6 people.

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