Mapule was born in Pretoria in 1979 and later moved to the rural areas of Mpumalanga when she was five years old.
She stayed with her grandparents whilst her mother was working as a nurse. She grew up working on the maize fields and would only eat meat at weddings or when there is a visitor at their home.
Mapule is now the Chief Operations Officer at Discovery Bank. She was inspired by her mother who planted the seed in her that anyone can achieve anything.
Growing up, Mapule dreamt of becoming a doctor. She said she was very good in Maths and Science and would always come top in her class.
At 15 years old she got a bursary to study Bio Chemistry at the University of Cape Town.
She changed the course of her career when she was given a bursary by CSR to do Resources Management for her Masters.
Mapule revealed that at one pont she could not sleep for three months as she was working with very resourceful people in management consulting where they dealt with huge aspects of how business works.
She said self belief unleashes the will to succeed in whatever we want to be.
In 2009, Mapule received a scholarship from the Tutu Foundation and underwent a program at Oxford on African leadership.
She went into the banking world when she joined ABSA. Her job at ABSA was to develop sustainable ways that would reduce costs and make the business effective.
She recently joined Discovery Bank, one of the successful digital banks in Africa. The bank helps people to save for the future and to stay financially stable.
Mapule said innovation was the biggest element of progress, and that she is driven by being able to inspire other people to be fearless, thus enabling them to discover their dreams.
She added that she has a five year old daughter whom she wants to inspire because she looks up to her.
Mapule said for one to lead they must be authentic and be ready to serve and that self perception is important in building future leaders.
Future leaders must have a reason for whatever they are doing in their journey, she added.
She said there is a lot of technology nowadays such as internet and robotics but leaders must learn from nature bacause it is connected to the Eco system.
Her final advise to future leaders using social media was that they must be authentic so that they build their own personal brands, expressing themselves but remaining themselves.
Mapule said she has mentored a lot of people because it gives her joy. She added that people must aim to be like Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi because the two leaders existed to serve and they were not selfish.
