Doing it for her community

Owethu Makhathini, who teaches digital literacy and includes Absa’s ReadyToWork entrepreneurship module in her course, is one such woman.

At just 24 years old, this Chesterville, Durban-born dynamo is a respected business owner, lecturer and political studies student. But it is not what she herself is doing that is so incredible, but rather how she has been inspired by the women who went before her to use these skills and lift up other young women around her, at the same time.

One could say Owethu has this desire to guide, to help and to effect change, in her blood. An intangible inheritance from the women who have gone before her. Both her grandmother, who was a teacher and dedicated her time to teaching Owethu to read, and her mother, a strong-willed career woman with a resolute belief in the importance of believing in your dreams and pursuing your goals, are dominant influences.

But so is her great grandmother, the late, great, Mary Thipe – an extraordinary woman who marched for women’s rights in the 50s, offered a halfway house to freedom fighters during apartheid, and later became vice-chairperson of the ANC Women’s League. And an influential high school Zulu teacher, who Owethu describes as “smart, poised and unapologetic about her blackness and womanhood”.

In the same way it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community of women to inspire and empower each other; women past and present, family and friend.

It is these influences that motivated Owethu to forge the path she did, which – aside from her studies and managing her own business – includes facilitating digital literacy learning programmes for young people across the country and being a contracted trainer for Absa’s ReadyToWork programme.

“This programme is an incredibly important and insightful one. We are able to give people practical skills training and knowledge that they can use to better their lives. The modules provide comprehensive skills development, from work and entrepreneurship skills to people skills – all of which are necessary in aiding young people to become employable or at least, start their journey into entrepreneurial pursuits,” Owethu explains.

Owethu is an unstoppable force of nature, who holds a lifetime of lessons and promise in her pursuit for education and freedom.                                                                                  Her own legacy is inspiring and her own influence, immeasurable. Which is why Absa is telling Owethu’s story in its latest Prosper film, The women before us.

Through ReadyToWork and Owethu’s facilitation of these vital training programmes, she prospers, the students she assists prosper, their families prosper and their communities prosper. Because prosper is more than just a business ideal; it’s an idea that can change the world.

Absa is proud to partner with Owethu on her journey to do just that, as a woman who is leading the way, inspired by the women who went before.