Commercial pilot Boitumelo Katisi got her pilot’s license at the end of 2018 and became a recipient for the Outstanding Contribution to Aviation in South Africa award at the Civil Aviation Industry Awards a year later. On her birthday, she hosted the first aviation...

Mukundi Lambani caught the producer bug in 2010 when she began producing the international 48 Hour Film Project. At only 23, she bought the rights to produce the film festival in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Gaborone. The initiative created opportunities for...

As the youth development and education coordinator at the Cape Town Opera, Masixole Makwetu gives children from various backgrounds in the Western Cape a holistic introduction to opera. The programmes make the arts accessible to young talent and fosters an environment...

Some stars shine brighter than others. Their brightness is a factor of how much energy they put out and how far away they are. Thivhafuni Wisdom Radzilani started You Are a Star to give young people in Radzilani, a village in Limpopo, a space to improve their English...

Sinakekelwe Nkwanyana has carved out an academic niche that she hopes may better inform how we understand masculinity in South Africa. Currently completing her PhD in public health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, she dismisses the notion that men can be seen as a...

Masooa and his twin brother, who were raised by their taxi-driver father and stay-at-home mother, are the first and only matriculants in their family. He is also the first family member to attend university and is studying for a BA degree at the University of the...

Upliftment begins with education. This is the maxim by which Mahlogonolo Phahlamohlaka lives her life and drives her career. She is the founder of the Help Matriculate Centre, an organisation that upskills young residents in Tsimanyane Circuit, Limpopo Province. Her...

Transformation in a country begins with transformation in the education sector, and Mlamuli Nkosingphile Hlatshwayo is involved in this. His academic record — graduating cum laude with his master’s in social sciences and last year getting his PhD in education — has...

Wilson Mongwe, who is completing his PhD in artificial intelligence at the University of Johannesburg, hopes his research will further Africa’s position in the fourth industrial revolution. “Artificial intelligence is the key that will drive innovation in the coming...

Education activist Sizi Matthews Botsime says that he wants to see a South Africa that’s diverse in every sphere: “A society in which people look, embrace and unite in their diversity ... that each person will be getting an opportunity without any bias.” It is in his...

Moeletji Mapheto doesn’t see growing up in the rural community of Ga-Mphahlele in Limpopo as a disadvantage. Instead, Mapheto sees her upbringing as filled with opportunity. “Success doesn’t mean making it out of the village,” she says. “Sometimes success is going...