Koketso Mbewe

Entrepreneurship, Youth Development, Public Speaking & Engineering

Koketso Mbewe is a calm, purpose-driven and God-fearing individual that has learned to embrace challenges in their various forms, while creating room to inspire and empower others to live out their potential. She is passionate about: youth development, especially as someone that comes from a township that has a notorious history with nothing to change the mind-set of its young people; entrepreneurship, as a vehicle for expressing creativity and solving problems; engineering as a dynamic field whose opportunities can be limitless.

She is in her final year of studies in Chemical Engineering at the University of Pretoria, and has co-founded a social enterprise called Youth Leadership Investment Network (YLIN), now in its fourth year running, as way of putting her passion for youth development to action as well as exploring her entrepreneurial endeavours. She has already stood out as one of the top ten young social entrepreneurs of 2016 by Monash South Africa through the MSA LEAD fellowship, which has allowed her to be part of the global community and be mentored by some of the most outstanding individuals. She is also a fellow of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS) and was named one of the ‘100 Young Mandelas of the Future’ in 2018, by News24. She has recently been selected as one of the top 35 innovative social entities globally by the Strategic Alliance Initiative (SAI), a partner of Youth Action Net.

Alongside her studies and work, Koketso also pursues her passion of public speaking, including round-table and panel discussions, and has been able to do this with a variety of audiences. She believes in story-telling and authentic, constructive engagements. She has had the opportunity to speak with the likes of the MasterCard Foundation, GirlCode, and ISFAP Programme at the University of Pretoria, to mention but a few. She has also volunteered with Adopt-a-School Foundation, the University of Pretoria Business Incubator (UPBI), Women in Engineering (WomEng) and many more. She is constantly seeking ways to reinvent herself while inviting others to the adventures of taking risks, learning and becoming so much more than what the world limits us to be.