Each of these women dared to be first – challenging convention and stepping outside of their expected roles to create new opportunities for their sisters. We’re taking a walk in the halls of inspiration, looking at the top 10 South African women who have made a mark in the history of South Africa. Mentioning them all would take forever, so this list highlights a few. Find your role model in the list and follow in their footsteps to a brighter future for yourself and your country. Enjoy!!

1. Redi Thlabi

Radio talk show host, broadcast journalist, and author. Redi Tlabi, previously known as Redi Direko graduated with an Honours Degree in Political Economy and English Literature. She was one of the main anchors for the 2004 general election and inauguration coverage, and also presented SABC3’s premiere current affairs show, News Hour, which was replaced with Interface.

In February 2008 it was announced by e.tv that Redi would be one of the co-anchors of the e.Sat pay channel’s 24-hour news programme, with Jeremy Maggs. The channel launched in the second half of 2008 and Redi anchored the Primetime news bulletin until May 2009.

She released her first book entitled Endings and beginnings which won her the prestigious Alan Paton Award. Less than a year after it was released, she was getting offers to turn the book into as a screenplay. It was also revealed that award-winning director Oliver Hermanus is interested to join the projectct as a screenwriter joined the project as screenwriter; with an option to direct the film once the screenplay is done. When she’s not studying, presenting radio or TV show, Redi reads extensively and runs half marathons.

2. Nkosazan Dlamini-Zuma

Born 27 January, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Science (BSc) and left the country in 1976 to complete her MB ChB at the University of Bristol in 1978.

While serving as the Deputy President of the South African Student Organisation Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) she became active in underground African National Congress (ANC) activities. After the 1994 elections, Dr Dlamini Zuma was appointed as Minister of Health in the cabinet of then President Nelson Mandela. She remained in this portfolio until 1999, when she appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Dlamini-Zuma is one of the few ANC women occupying senior positions in government and in Cabinet.

In her role as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, she actively championed South Africa’s foreign policy which centred on the promotion of human rights, stability, peace, collective development and advancement of this continent.
In 2009, she was appointed Minister of Home Affairs and She brought about radical change in 2009 when she was appointed as Minister of home affairs. The department subsequently achieved a clean audit for the first time in many years in 2011.

Her biggest achievement was when she was in July 2012 when she was elected Chairperson of the African Union Commission by the Heads of State in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The first woman to lead the continental organization, including its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity. For the first time since the formation of the African Union, a woman and indeed a candidate of the southern region was successfully elected to this high post.

3. Graca Marcel

Graça Machel is listed on this list because she knows what it means to be unique. She is the only woman to have been first lady to two separate presidents. Born October 17th, Her father, who was semi-literate, provided for the family by oscillating between the South African mines and farming, and later went on to become a Methodist minister. After his death, her mother kept her promise to him that their daughter would be educated. A promise which she kept well. Though they were not well off, she had the best education.

In 1986, Machel was tragically widowed when the Russian Tupolev jet carrying her husband, Samora Machel, the first president of independent Mozambique. As the nation grieved, Graça Machel, a young mother, was dubbed Mozambique’s Jackie Kennedy because she has the same easy, cosmopolitan self-confidence and natural presence.
Her success is not only because of the men in her life. She has many weighty qualifications, too, including a law degree – combined with an impressive slate of global achievements in women’s rights and humanitarian issues. As Mozambique’s first lady, she was widely credited with being a moderating influence over her firebrand Marxist husband.

In 1996, she was urged to run for secretary general of the UN (a job that went to Kofi Annan), she declined with the strategic savvy characteristic of an ex-freedom fighter. “There is no political will,” she said of the UN. “So what would I do there?” Besides, she had a new, even more demanding, role to explore. Machel was on the path to becoming Mandela’s third wife.

 4. Thuli Madonsela

The fearless Thulisile Madonsela was born in 1962 in Soweto. She obtained a bachelor of Law from the University of Swaziland in 1987 and three years later, an LLB at Wits University. She then started working as an assistant teacher and taught from 1980 to 1983. In 1984 she entered the legal profession as a legal and education officer at the Paper Printing Wood & Allied Workers Union where she would work from 1984 to 1987.

Since 1987, Madonsela has worked in several government departments and civil society including, law lecturer at Wits University, presiding officer at the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), deputy director at the Justice Department and managing director at the Office of the Status of Women in the Presidency.
She is one of the 11 technical experts who helped the Constitutional Assembly draft the final constitution in 1994 and 1995. Madonsela was one of the drafters of South Africa’s current constitution in 1994. Previously, she has been a member of a Task Team that prepared constitutional inputs for the Gauteng Province of the African National Congress. She presented the final document at the African National Congress’ Gauteng Constitutional Conference in 1995.

An advocate for Gender equality and the advancement of women, Madonsela is a member of South African Women Lawyers Association (SAWLA) and Business Women’s Association of South Africa (BWASA). She currently holds three positions; chairperson for the Centre for Reconciliation and Equality Studies, member of the South African Law Reform Commission and the public protector of South Africa.

In 2009 Madonsela was appointed Public Protector by President Jacob Zuma after being recommended by parliament. She got a hundred percent vote by all parties in parliament. She was the only full-time commissioner in the South African law Reform Commission at the time. Of all her achievements and high profile positions that she has held, it is the public protector position that has put her in the public eye. Since her appointment, she has investigated several high profile cases and has received praise for her efficiency and professionalism.

5. Basetsana Khumalo

Formally known as Basetsana Makgalemele, she has always been a leader. Was a head girl in high school, was crowned Miss Soweto then went on to being crowned Miss South Africa in 1990 at the age of 16.

In 1995, she became a 50% partner in Tswelopele Productions, the company that produces Top Billing. The company went into merger with Union Alliance Media and was listed on the JSE, making her one of the youngest black women directors to be part of the mainstream of the South African economy. Since then, her production company has produced other reputable TV shows, including the Afrikaans magazine programme Pasella, and a youth TV show in SiSwati called Ses’kona.

Besides being nominated by former first lady Graca Machel in 2007 to be one of five celebrities who volunteered to take a public HIV test, Ms Khumalo has also helped to raise money for the Baragwanath Children’s Hospital. She is also a volunteer for Agang Sechaba, a project started in 2007 with the aim of Ms. Khumalo and other women professional to give back to the township communities into which they were born.

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