CCE WOMEN'S CHAPTER
Women's Chapter · Inaugural Event
Connected & Seen
Access, mentorship and owning your seat
On 21 August 2026, twelve senior women in technology gathered at Blaauwklippen Wine Estate in Stellenbosch for the inaugural Connected & Seen — the first event of the CCE Women's Chapter. Every seat was personally curated. The afternoon ran for four hours and produced the kind of conversation that only happens when the right people are in the right room.
Guests arrived to a curated cheese and charcuterie spread with estate wines, connector cards personalised per guest, and an invitation to curate their own welcome gift from a styled selection of accessories and keepsakes. The amplification round — where every woman in the room took 60 seconds to share what she needed and the room showed up for her — closed an afternoon that several guests described as unlike anything they had attended before.
The conversation that emerged across the afternoon centred on three themes: the role of mentorship as a mechanism for access rather than advice; what it means to hold authority and voice in rooms that weren't designed for you; and the particular isolation of being a senior woman in technology in Africa — and what a genuine community could do about it.
Natalie Paida Jabangwe
CEO, Timbuktoo Africa Innovation Foundation · Board Member, Wesgro
Making mentorship work
Natalie spoke candidly about the mentors who shaped her path — from her mother's early intervention that redirected her toward technology, to the mentor who created the role she now holds running the largest startup fund on the African continent. She framed mentorship not as advice but as access: the people who open doors you don't yet know exist.
Nirvani Dhevcharran
CTO: Platforms & Operations, TFG Infotec
Owning your seat
Nirvani explored the three dimensions of visibility — to yourself, to others, and to the broader community — as the foundation of influence. She drew on her own experience navigating leadership in male-dominant environments, and on the network of women she built through an expedition to Antarctica that became a round-the-clock support system spanning continents.
"A really super event. So grateful to have joined and to have met you all. Sincere thanks to you Vineshia for putting this together."
LESEDI MODISE · NOA