In 2018, Kate Maakane placed second in a hackathon. She was hungry for the opportunity, bright and ready to be challenged. The tech industry didn’t come knocking. It took six more years before she got her shot.
A comprehensive 2024/2025 research report titled “Decoding ICT Demand”, conducted by The Collective X, a South African non-profit organisation focused on the digital skills ecosystem, says the country has 118,000 unfilled digital roles, a 37% vacancy rate across the sector, with 41,000 of those positions at junior level. Their data is compiled by analysing job advertisements from major platforms like Pnet and CareerJunction, cross-referenced with data from the MICT SETA and StatSA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey.
Youth unemployment is 57%. But the country is haemorrhaging talent it claims to need, while young people with proven ability wait for a door to open.
Maakane’s story, landing ahead of International Girls in ICT Day on 23 April, themed “AI for Development: Girls shaping the digital future”, exposes the gap between opportunity and access. She now holds five Salesforce certifications and serves as a volunteer and membership lead at Africa Ohana, a community supporting tech professionals across the continent. But the path to get here was anything but straightforward.
The six-year wait
Maakane grew up in a township, raised by her mother and grandmother. Her mother supported four children on a domestic worker’s wage.
“As the third youngest, I always felt responsible for my younger sister, who is six years younger than me. That protective instinct shaped my determination and made me want to build a future where I could support those I love.”
She also had teachers in school who believed in her, at a time when she needed it. Their encouragement was the spark that pushed her towards technology. Maakane enrolled at Tshwane University of Technology to study IT, but couldn’t finish her studies, due to owing to personal circumstances at the time
Hailing from the township forced her to be entrepreneurial: “Growing up in that environment taught me responsibility, resilience, and the importance of creating opportunities where there were none,” Maakane explains.
The hackathon placement confirmed what she already suspected: tech was the way out of poverty. But knowing where you want to go and having a means to get there are different things. For six years, Maakane had ambition but no way to channel her energies.
She is not unusual. Only 13% of STEM graduates in South Africa are women, while 23% of the STEM workforce is female. In ICT leadership, the picture is even bleaker: women hold 5% of CEO positions in South African tech companies.
Little encouragement
In 2024, Maakane applied to CAPACITI, a digital career accelerator. She arrived for the interview in flip-flops; they were her only shoes.
And yet, they saw her potential, she says. The programme taught her more than code. Agile methodologies, presentation skills, emotional intelligence, the practical toolkit that bridges the gap between raw ability and a corporate environment. “Understanding how to manage your emotions when you’re working with different personalities, that was new for me.”
She credits Trailhead, Salesforce’s free learning platform, with helping her break complex skills into manageable steps. But technology alone didn’t carry her: mentorship did.
Jemma Byrne, a VP based in the UK and Ireland, mentored Maakane through her journey. “She held my hand through moments when I felt like giving up, reminding me of my worth and my purpose,” Maakane says.
A pipeline problem
Maakane now works at Bluespec Holdings, where she has moved beyond IT support into increasingly complex projects. But her story raises a question: why did it take a woman who proved her ability in 2018 so long to enter the tech workforce?
South Africa’s skills crisis isn’t just about supply: there’s an abundance of talent in townships, hackathons, and universities, but it offers almost no infrastructure to connect that talent to vacant positions. Programmes like CAPACITI are the exception. For every Maakane who gets through, how many don’t?
As volunteer and membership lead at Africa Ohana, Maakane is trying to widen the pipe, by mentoring learners, sharing resources, and working to build the kind of network she didn’t have. “Africa has talent, but not always the access,” she says. “The pie is big enough for everyone.”
Why Girls in ICT Day matters
International Girls in ICT Day shouldn’t be required. The fact that it does and is now observed in over 170 countries, shows that the gap persists.
Globally, women represent just 3% of ICT graduates. In sub-Saharan Africa, for every 100 men with digital skills, only 40 to 44 women have the same proficiency.
Maakane’s message to young African women considering tech is: “You don’t need to know everything when you start. Just show up and stay committed.
“Growing up, many people said I couldn’t achieve much because I didn’t have money. They were partially right. But I had hope and the willingness to learn.”
Five certifications later, her flip-flops to work days feel a long way off. And yet the system that nearly locked her down still has a long way to go.
International Girls in ICT Day is observed on 23 April 2026.
