{"id":68315,"date":"2026-01-29T08:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/887574718"},"modified":"2026-01-29T08:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:49:08","slug":"who-are-sas-tech-trailblazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/who-are-sas-tech-trailblazers\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are SA’s tech trailblazers?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Wired4Women Awards 2026 are underway and seeking nominations across 13 award categories, including the Trailblazing Career in ICT Award.<\/p>\n

The Wired4Women Awards<\/a>, presented by ITWeb Brainstorm in partnership with the Wired4Women Tech Forum and Telkom as the lead sponsor, recognise women across South Africa\u2019s technology industry, from emerging talent to established leaders, and celebrate the impact they continue to make across business, communities and society.<\/p>\n

The Trailblazing Career in ICT Award honours long-term excellence and leadership in technology, celebrating individuals who have consistently delivered results, influenced those around them, and contributed positively beyond just their organisations. <\/p>\n

Judges will consider sustained achievement in technology, as well as a broader community impact.<\/p>\n

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Previous winners<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

The <\/span>winner of the inaugural award in 2024 was Lillian Barnard<\/a>, who was serving as president of Microsoft Africa at the time, a role she held after being appointed CEO in 2019. Barnard is currently chief of enterprise partners<\/span><\/span> at Microsoft Middle East and Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n

Receiving the award, Barnard said: \u201cThis trailblazer award is about leaving a trail for those who are coming behind you. I always encourage women to go and reach as far as they possibly can, because the beauty of getting there is that they can do things for other women.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is such a humbling experience for me to run Microsoft across our entire continent. I really started very small and there were so many hurdles along the way, but I want to encourage the women in this room not to give up. That dream that you have in your heart, don\u2019t give up on it. The journey continues because we need to reach equity in this space, and until we do so, we\u2019re not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2025 Trailblazing Career in ICT Award was presented to Unathi Mtya, group chief information and digital<\/span><\/span> officer at African Bank<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my roles have been enriching and challenging, and some difficult, but they all taught me something,\u201d said Mtya. \u201cIt\u2019s taken almost my entire career to be in a role that matches my purpose, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve found at African Bank. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to become that person I wanted to have when I started my career \u2013 that\u2019s what I want to be to others, and I hope it inspires them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Have your say \u2013 nominate!<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

Nominations close on 8 February at 23:59 (SAST).<\/p>\n

Finalists and winners will be selected by a judging panel made up of Wired4Women board members, senior ITWeb editors and academic experts.<\/p>\n

The winner will be announced at the Wired4Women Awards Banquet on 16 April at the Four Seasons Hotel, The Westcliff.<\/p>\n

Nominations can be submitted at: https:\/\/www.itweb.co.za\/event\/wired4women-awards-2026\/nominations\/<\/a><\/p>\n

More information about the award and details on how to submit nominations are available on the Wired4Women Awards<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… partnership with the Wired4Women Tech<\/span> Forum and Telkom as … across South Africa\u00e2\u0080\u0099s technology<\/span> industry, from emerging talent … excellence and leadership in technology<\/span>, celebrating individuals who have … consider sustained achievement in technology<\/span>, as well as a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}