Making dreams come true

Women's Day: Kagiso Trust celebrates 40 years as development organisation

- Citizen reporter

Noziphiwo Zumani felt defeated as she watched her hometown deteriorating and its people losing hope. Nomsa Ngwenya knew how to grow cocktail tomatoes but she had no transport to get them to market. Dipuo Phakathi's side hustle was showing promise but she needed help to get it to the next level.

Today, all three women – and thousands of others – are seeing their dreams come true thanks to support from Kagiso Trust, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary as one of South Africa's leading development organisations.

“As we celebrate Women’s Day on 9 August, it’s inspiring to see how our programmes have been able to ignite women’s capacity, empowering them to drive sustainable change for themselves and their communities,” says Kagiso Trust CEO Mankodi Moitse.

“Everything we do is based on the belief that investing in people is the greatest investment of all and the women who have benefited from our local governance, education and socioeconomic development programmes have proved that time and time again.”

Zumani, 42, says she remembers the Eastern Cape town of Makhanda when it was “at its peak, economically and socially”. But things deteriorated and no-one seemed interested in “bringing back the dignity that we as black people had in Makhanda”.