When Lindiwe Nkuna-Kgopa first sought investment for her sanitary pad manufacturing business, one major investor put his position on record: “Lindiwe does not have manufacturing experience and does not fit the profile.”
Ten years later, she leads Africa’s first large-scale sanitary pad manufacturing facility owned and operated entirely by women. The investor’s assessment has not aged well.
Nkuna-Kgopa was announced as the 2026 Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award winner on July 15 at a ceremony at Four Seasons Hotel The Westcliff in Johannesburg, marking the award’s fifth year in South Africa.
Alongside her, Pretty Kubyane, co-founder and tech lead of eFama App, took the Bold Future Award, which recognises entrepreneurs whose businesses are less than five years old.
Lindiwe Nkuna-Kgopa | Bold Woman Award
The story of Lindiwe Sanitary Pads is one of those entrepreneurial journeys that sounds straightforward in retrospect and was anything but in practice. Growing up in Limpopo, Nkuna-Kgopa had her daughter young while studying in Pretoria, circumstances that might have narrowed her ambitions but did not.
The business grew from a home kitchen into its current scale through a combination of conviction, resilience and the willingness to make bold moves when the alternative was giving up.
The most defining of those moves came during one of the company’s most difficult periods. With empty accounts, suppliers at the door and a team watching, Nkuna-Kgopa invited Absa and Industrial Development Corporation executives directly to her factory floor and presented her vision without intermediaries. She secured R27m in funding without collateral.
The business has since expanded into 11 countries through a partnership with Young Women of Africa, empowering female entrepreneurs to launch and own their own sanitary pad brands. In 2026, it supplied more than 100,000 schoolgirls with free sanitary products.
“When everyone else suffocates us, we go to other women for oxygen,” said jury member Happy Ralinala during the adjudication process.
“Lindiwe embodies that spirit. She has transformed doubt into opportunity and, in doing so, created a business that empowers other women and expands what is possible for those who follow.”
Pretty Kubyane | Bold Future Award
Pretty Kubyane’s path into technology was not the conventional one. Raised in a farming family and shaped by early experiences in her father’s workshop, she developed an instinct for community and problem-solving before she ever wrote a line of code.
When investors questioned whether a woman without a formal engineering degree could lead a high-stakes AgriTech venture, she responded by spending hundreds of hours mastering coding, cloud architecture, cybersecurity and AI.
More than 40 global certifications later, she co-leads a platform that supports more than 40,000 farmers around South Africa, connecting them with buyers through a digital marketplace that enables more informed production decisions based on real market demand. eFama is also backed by Google, Meta and Amazon.
Her definition of boldness is worth quoting in full: “The audacity to be a technical powerhouse, a devoted wife and a present mother simultaneously, ensuring my daughter knows that being a ‘beautiful, strong leader’ is her natural birthright at any table.”
“You are a social entrepreneur who uses technology to solve a problem,” said jury member Amanda Dambuza during the adjudication session.
The ceremony
Hosted by MC Nomndeni Mdakhi, the evening included a specially commissioned spoken-word performance by acclaimed poet and author Lebo Mashile and a reflection from 2025 Bold Woman Award laureate Retang Phaahla, founder of Setšong Tea Crafters.
“Winning the Bold Woman Award has amplified not just my voice, but the voices of the rural communities I build with,” she said. “It affirms that African stories belong on the global stage.”
Thomas Mulliez, president and CEO of Veuve Clicquot, attended the ceremony.
“More than two centuries after Madame Clicquot shaped the future of our Maison, her spirit lives on through women such as Lindiwe and Pretty. Their businesses are creating opportunity and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs,” he said.
Both winners now join Veuve Clicquot’s international community of Bold women, with a visit to Reims ahead of them and access to a global network of female entrepreneurs built over 54 years in 27 countries.
Wanted
