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What are the Women in Tech Awards and why do they matter?
Women are reshaping South Africa’s technology sector — building businesses, creating jobs and engineering solutions that change how people and organisations connect. Yet recognition, capital and market access still lag behind. The Women in Tech (WIT) Awards, run by the Innovator Trust, exist precisely to close that gap, shining a spotlight on female-led small and medium-sized enterprises in the ICT space.
This is not a ceremonial pat on the back. The awards are designed to strengthen the credibility of women-owned businesses — credibility that directly influences whether those businesses land contracts, attract investment and access long-term support. In an ecosystem where female founders often have to prove themselves twice over, that kind of visibility carries real economic weight.
The 2026 edition returns on Tuesday, 24 November 2026, with free virtual registration open to women across the country. No entry fee. No geographic barrier. Just an open platform.
Who actually gets nominated — and how does the process work?
Nominees and participants are drawn from women who have gone through the Innovator Trust’s own incubation programmes: the Start-up Enterprise Development, Youth Entrepreneurship and Supplier Development tracks. These programmes equip participants with the tools to digitise, monetise and scale their businesses, and the WIT Awards serve as a public showcase of that journey — from early-stage incubation to measurable growth.
That pipeline matters. It means the awards are not just rewarding existing success stories — they are documenting a transformation process, tracking what happens when women receive structured support and then get a stage to prove what they have built.
What is the 2026 theme, and what does it actually mean?
The theme for 2026 is Tech Believers. Innovator Trust CEO Tashline Jooste frames it this way: women founders believe in their ideas long before the market does. They invest time, absorb risk, build capability and keep pushing while others are still making up their minds.
The theme is a challenge directed outward as much as inward. It calls on the broader ecosystem — investors, corporates, government buyers — to match that conviction with real resources: contracts, capital, mentorship, partnerships and market access. Believing in women in tech cannot stop at applause.
An award cannot replace procurement opportunities or long-term business support. But it can build the kind of credibility that opens those doors.
Who has spoken at previous editions?
Past WIT stages have featured voices that connect individual entrepreneurial experience to bigger structural conversations. Former Public Protector Professor Thuli Madonsela, former Deputy President Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, business leader Irene Charnley, African futurist Dr Roze Phillips, Vodacom Central Region Managing Executive Tsatsi Mthimunye and Cisco Senior Director for Africa Charmaine Houvet have all taken the floor. Their presence signals that the WIT Awards are not a niche event — they sit at the intersection of tech, leadership and economic participation.
Why should young Africans care about this?
South Africa’s tech economy is expanding, and the question of who gets to participate in that expansion is fundamentally a political and economic one. Female entrepreneurs remain underrepresented in ICT, not because of a lack of talent or ambition, but because structural barriers — access to funding, networks and procurement — have historically worked against them.
For young Africans aged 15 to 25, this is the landscape you are inheriting. Initiatives like the WIT Awards are part of a broader push to make that landscape more equitable, and more productive, before the next generation of entrepreneurs has to fight the same battles all over again.
Registration for the 2026 WIT Awards is free and fully virtual — open to women across South Africa who are ready to be seen.
