Ntombenhle Khathwane

South Africa

Occupational Information

Job Title: Owner of AfroBotanics

Professional History

Ntombenhle Khathwane is the owner of AfroBotanics, which manufactures and retails ethnic hair care products using African botanicals. She is part of an increasing crop of young Africans building premium brands that deliver quality performance to rival global brands. She is determined to build AfroBotanics as a brand that is African and celebrates African women and to use her success to encourage African entrepreneurship that produces and sells in Africa so that Africa starts owning and keeping as much economic activity in the continent. She is currently featured in Think Big SA, which was a TV program sponsored by Standard Bank airing on SABC 3 that shortlisted 12 semi-finalist companies out of hundreds of brownfield companies to compete for an R1million cash injection. Her company AfroBotanics has made it into the top 6 of the show. Think Big SA is about showcasing and assisting to accelerate business champions to encourage entrepreneurship in South Africa.

Ntombenhle started her business after leaving the provincial government job that she had held for eight years. She worked in the fields of research, policy development and analysis, strategic planning, speech writing, communications, and media liaison. Working in provincial government she was able to influence policy at the national level and oversee implementation at the local level. She worked on areas affecting the Millennium Development Goals in the Mpumalanga Provincial Departments of Social Development, Health, Culture, and Provincial Legislature. Her work in government instilled her philosophy as a Pan-Africanist, determined to contribute to the development of Africa. She is a strong believer that for the peoples of South Africa to develop, all of Africa must develop. Working in government prompted her to start Bhala Africa.

She helped write the EFF Social Transformation And Social Development Discussion Document in preparation for the EFF policy conference in December 2014. She has worked on highlighting the difficulties teen pregnancies create and has contributed towards curbing the high teen pregnancy rate in South Africa. Having had her daughter at 16, this is a project very close to her heart. Khathwane is also slowly writing her first book, a fiction novel that has polygamy as its central theme.

Qualifications

BA in Politics & Philosophy
Post-graduate degree in Public Policy and Politics

Programs

2014 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow

 Additional Tags: Politics, Philosophy, Entrepreneur, Development, Business, Policy Development, Literature, Media, Communications