Daphne Mashile-Nkosi, is a South African award-winning mining entrepreneur. She was awarded with the 2015 Africa Female Business Leader of the Year Award.
As a business powerhouse, social worker, political activist and women’s rights campaigner, Daphne was born and raised in an impoverished rural environment. She grew up in a patriarchal society where women come second.
She refers to herself as an ‘unstoppable tsunami’ that arrived on March 16, 2008, when her Kalagadi Manganese mine began production.
Daphne speaks directly to the business women in the room, but also to the men who surround them by sharing hard-won leadership insights for everyone in South Africa.
She takes controversial positions regarding how to make the state-owned enterprises in this South Africa work as productively as they did under the apartheid government.
She talks knowledgeably about the lessons to be learnt from White Afrikaner society and how Afrikaners successfully preserved their culture.
More so, she talks about wealth creation for the sake of a sustainable society, as opposed to personal riches.
She relates to the story of how she met an 88-year old Afrikaans mineworker from Kuruman who told her where to find the manganese, and today that is where her Kalagadi Manganese mine is located.
