EntreprenHER Grant Award Ceremony 2025, 13 November 2025

bongiwe53
Nov 7
5 min read

Updated: Nov 12

Join the fraymedia Foundation and our Keynote Speaker, Athandiwe Saba and meet four incredible women in media and business – pioneers who have taken the plunge and founded their own media ventures.

Date: Thursday, 13 November 2025

Time: 10h00 - 11h30 am SAST

Register here to attend

The recipient of the fraymedia Foundation's second year of the EntreprenHER Grant Award 2025 will be announced at the event on Thursday, 13 November 2025.

Our four finalists for the EntreprenHER Grant Award completed a six-month professional development programme with six other participants. The participants pitched their business ideas and plans, and one of these four tenacious EntreprenHERS will be awarded a R50 000 Grant Award to support their business.

The EntreprenHER – launched as a pilot program in March 2024 – aims to encourage, support and skill-up women media entrepreneurs. It provides selected accredited business and management courses to 10 qualifying women, culminating in the opportunity to secure a modest grant to support or help establish their media ventures. This programme was funded through bursaries from MiH Holdings Pty Ltd, and aims to be a catalyst for individual success and transformation in the industry. The fraymedia Foundation continues to use all the lessons learned to refine the program in its establishment as a flagship entrepreneur support initiative.

The mission of the fraymedia Foundation is to amplify the presence of women in media, not just as professionals but as leaders and owners who shape the narrative and drive innovation.

“As we look to the future, fraymedia Foundation is committed to initiatives like The EntreprenHER, which focus on creating and supporting women media owners in South Africa and beyond,” says Charmeela Bhagowat, Co-Founder of fraymedia Foundation.

Meet the Keynote Speaker, Athandiwe Saba, AI Newsroom Initiative Lead, Code for Africa (CfA)

Athandiwe Saba is a pioneering multi-award winning investigative data journalist. She established the award-winning data desk at Africa’s oldest online newspaper, the Mail & Guardian, and currently leads the continent’s largest forensic data team, the iLAB, at Code for Africa (CfA). CfA’s iLAB uses investigative data analysis, open source intelligence (OSINT) and AI-driven tools to investigate the ‘digital mercenaries’ who work on behalf of lobbyists or malign foreign states to secretly polarise African societies by seeding hate speech, conspiracist disinformation and extremist content that is designed to undermine public trust in democratic institutions or smear human rights defenders. The iLAB has in country analysts in 26 African nations.

Alongside her CfA role, Athandiwe served as a research associate at the University of Pretoria’s Data Department of Computer Science, advising on the South African focused Data Commons project to enable local decision-making. This was an initiative underwritten by Google’s Data Commons. Prior to joining CfA, Athandiwe was deputy editor at the Mail & Guardian. She established its investigative data desk, which produced award-winning investigative journalism cited internationally by the Global Editors Network, amongst others. Athandiwe has also worked as a senior investigative journalist at other major South African media, including the Sunday Times and City Press.

She has also presented at the African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC) on numerous occasions, was a guest speaker at the Transnational Law Institute seminar series at Kings College in London, and was a News Corp Fellow with the Wall Street Journal in the USA and The Times in London. She has studied at the University of South Africa and has studied finance at the Gordon Institute of Business Science.

Read more about the fraymedia Foundation EntreprenHER Program and its cohorts, 2024 and 2025 below:

The four EntreprenHER Grant Award finalists are:

Irma Titus, journalist and Founder of The Purple House
Maggie Malatjie Mokane, Director, The L Magazine
Boitumelo Makgobotloane, Managing Director, Letshepa Media, Founder & Editor in Chief, Komati Newsflash
René Sparks, Social Justice & Health, The Sheroes Collective Fellowship

The Grant Award recipient will be selected by a formidable panel of judges:

Slindile Khanyile, a versatile journalist, editor is the Co-founder and CEO of Likhanyile Group which publishes Umbele, an award-winning isiZulu financial publication, and Umkhanyisi, a Zulu-medium digital education publication distributed via WhatsApp. She has more than 25 years’ experience in legacy and new media organisations. Previously, she served as the Editor of Isolezwe and is former Deputy Editor of the Daily News. Slindile is the chairperson of the SANEF Media Freedom Sub-Committee and she also chairs the DUT Journalism Advisory Board. She also serves on the AIP and ARB boards. Slindile holds a Master’s in Leadership Studies from UKZN and is part of the inaugural cohort of the Executive Programme in Media Leadership at GIBS.

Joanne Joseph is an award-winning journalist, media owner and author who has been in the media industry for 30 years.

For 20 of these, she has owned a successful media production company. Joseph is a presenter, producer, executive producer, scriptwriter and trainer, and is also the bestselling author of two books: Drug Muled and Children of Sugarcane. She is in the process of completing a PhD at Wits University.

Christopher Mcinga is a South African media business consultant, publisher, and business developer at MeD8 Media with over 15 years of experience in community news media. A graduate of Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership, he serves as Project Leader of the SANEF Digitisation Drive and sits on the Association of Independent Publishers (AIP) sub-committee, championing digital transformation for independent media. His international work includes contributing to UNESCO's media sustainability guide and participating in journalism conferences in Kenya and Ohio, USA. As publisher of Student Living SA and other community newspapers, he combines technological innovation with strategic media development. His expertise spans media sales, project management, and mentoring emerging journalists. Through his multifaceted work, Mcinga continues to advocate for the vital role of independent journalism in the digital age.

Let us celebrate our courageous EntreprenHERS. Join us as we announce the Grant Award Recipient 2025, on 13 November 2025, at 10h00 am SAST.

Register here to attend.