Top Women Leaders : High-fliers in high heels

Name: Stacey Brewer Company: Spark Schools Sector: Education

Identifying an opportunity to fix South Africa’s struggling education system through creativity and innovation, Stacey Brewer teamed up with Ryan Harrison to start SPARK Schools. A first in Africa, SPARK Schools is a network of primary schools that offers affordable, high-quality education using a combination of traditional classroom teaching and online learning. The method used by the schools enables education to be tailored to individual students while keeping costs relatively low.

Name: Leah Molatseli Company: Lenoma Legal Sector:Law

Having quit her corporate job as a legal practitioner and starting to work from home, Leah Molatseli realised that the traditional legal practice model was impossible to scale. Streamlining her offering using online platforms, Molatseli reduced the need to meet clients in person. This enabled her to increase her client base while keeping costs down. Today, Lenoma Legal provides legal services to SMMEs as well as offering legal advice online, making these services affordable and accessible to those who need them.

Name: Claire Reid Company: Reel Gardening Sector: Agriculture

What Claire Reid first started as a project to make extra pocket money is now a business that is contributing towards food security and healthy citizenry in South Africa. Using a simple design, Reel Gardening creates easy-to-use seed strips to enable South Africans of all ages and backgrounds to grow their own fruits and vegetables. The product not only impacts communities through its use but also in its creation, as Reel Gardening is designed to be handmade by previously unemployed mothers.

Name: Boitumelo Ntsoane Company: Afrilink HealthCare Sector:Healthcare

Boitumelo Ntsoane claims she’s a “typical township girl”, but her success in business has shown she’s also an incredible innovator. After realising that a typical nine-to-five was at odds with her independent nature, Ntsoane purchased a mobile clinic under the name Afrilink HealthCare to take medical services to those who need them. Since then, she’s set up On Point Healthcare, which provides access to equitable, sustainable and quality healthcare services to domestic workers.

Name: Rapelang Rabana Company: Rekindle Learning Sector: Education

Rapelang Rabana founded Rekindle Learning, a human development company that leverages technology to enable learning to help people improve their lives and economic prospects. The company provides readymade online courses built specifically for the African context. Rekindle aims to turn people’s compulsion to check their phones into an opportunity to learn by deploying a wide range of interactive content generated by local l authors to individuals, businesses and educational institutions.