By Kerry-anne Allerston
INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day has been around for more than a century and it celebrates women and raises awareness around discrimination and other important topics. Even though it was formed and launched in 1911, the UN officially recognised the day in 1975. There are so many incredible women doing extraordinary things in our beautiful South Africa but to celebrate this special day I thought it might be nice to shine a little light on some of the ladies who have achieved incredible things very recently.
Congratulations to our reigning Mrs World 2025, Tshego Gaelae. Tshego is beautiful inside and out and is an outstanding representative for South Africa on the global stage. She is from Soweto and she is the first black woman to win the pageant since its inception 40 years ago. Our queen is a lawyer, entrepreneur, model, digital creator, mother and wife and she is doing us proud. 22 February saw her homecoming parade where she engaged with media and the public at Hard Rock Cafe on Nelson Mandela Square, Rockville - Makapan Street and Sakhumzi Restaurant on Vilakazi Street. Well done Tshego. This superwoman is on a mission to create lasting change from the courtroom to the community and we wish her good health, lots of love, strength and good luck along the way.
The FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit 2025 also took place at the Sunbet Arena, Time Square in Pretoria on March 5 and what a star-studded event it was. The event saw influential, inspiring women come together from more than 50 countries and featured 30 game changers delivering speeches, presentations and interviews to more than 1 000 attendees. In its 10th year, the event hosted A-list speakers – from global billionaires to Hollywood celebrities, sports stars, corporate titans and Grammy Award-winning artists like Zolani Mahola, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Minnie Dlamini, Demi Lee Moore, Rawdah Mohamed, Sarah Hassan, Ashleigh Plumptre and Tems Temilade Openiyi to name but a few. Even though every single person deserves special mention and recognition, some of the winners on the night included Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, (Lifetime Achievement Award) the first woman and the first African to take on the role of Director-General at the World Trade Organization in March 2021. Dr. Glenda Gray who won the award as the Champion of Change is the first female President and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council, leading the Council for 10 years in this role. Currently, a Professor and Director of the Infectious Disease and Oncology Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. Isn’t that just unbelievable?! The winner of the Entertainer of the Year Award, reigning from Kenya, the beautiful Sarah Hassan is a multi-award-winning actress, Producer, and TV Host. She won Best Actress at the Kalasha Awards in 2019 for her role in “Plan B”. Through her production company, the film she produced, “Just In Time”, is currently streaming globally on Netflix. Arunma Oteh, (Change Maker of the Decade Award) currently Chairperson of the 124-year-old Royal African Society holding the position of Executive In Residence & Member of the Global Leadership Council at the Said Business School, University of Oxford. She was previously also the Vice President and Treasurer of the World Bank. Dr Adriana Marais is quite literally out of this world and the winner of the Academic Excellence Award. She is the powerhouse Director of the Foundation for Space Development Africa and Head of Science for the Foundation’s Africa2Moon Project which is in the running to become Africa’s first mission to the Moon. Yip, how proud are we? There were and are so many sensational winners, incredible guests and phenomenal leaders in various fields that I couldn’t name them all but you can check out more info on the event and its achievers in excellence at www.leadingwomensummit.co.za.
Here’s a playlist of some of my favourite female superstars:
Adelle Nqeto- Along The Way
Anna Wolf- Shaped Like A Gun
Zoë Modiga- Abantu
Msaki- Nangomso
Andra- Cockroach
Sannie Fox- Sorrow
Pema- You See Me
Shotgun Tori- Sweet Weather
Crow Baby- All Better
After Wonderland- Sleepless at Night
Bianca Blanc, Justin Serrao- Wonder Wonder
Shaza- Happy
Bye Beneco, MISSU l- Baby I’m Gold
Black Heidi- I’m Fine
Sea of Green- The Devils Chasing Me
Full Swing- Get Together (Electro Swing)
Cindy-Louise- Woman Of My Own Damn Mind
Cindy Alter- She’s Doing Well
Wolfgang Marrow-Extreme Sports
Jamie-Lee Sexton- Goodbye & Goodluck
There are too many for just one Top 20 so there’ll be another soon.