The Wired4Women 2025 National Women’s Day celebration sponsored by BCX took place at the Four Season Hotel, Westcliff, on 8 August. The event was a masterclass in trailblazing women, with leaders in technology sharing their expertise and inspiring other women to take their steps onto the digital stage. From the Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) of Telkom, Dr Noxolo Kubheka-Dlamini, to Hope Lukoto, the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of BCX, to Kerusha Kanjee, CIO: Wealth and Investment International, Investec, women in technology leadership spoke about policy, bias and the ongoing need for change.

Nomonde White-Ndlovu, Chief Information Officer, Bidvest Bank Limited, and Chairperson of Wired4Women, set the scene. “We have spent decades building systems that were never designed with all of us in mind, and as it fractures, what are companies doing? Hiring a few women and launching a few campaigns?” she asked. “Inclusion isn’t a side project or a statistic in an annual report; it is the scaffolding that holds up belonging and equity and lives in the spaces that equality forgets.”

Hiring for culture fit is a statement often used in the equality narrative but, for White-Ndlovu, this is a silent weapon of exclusion that simply shows a system that is refusing to stretch for women. Biased algorithms and technologies are designed without marginalised communities in mind.

“Technology does see it, and it won’t save us,” she said. “Conscious design, radical accountability and leadership will.”

And this looks like pay transparency, flexible working as a foundation, mentoring that builds confidence and opens actual doors, and tables where women are the trusted voices of strategy. More profoundly, it looks like culture where difference is celebrated, and women don’t have to perform proximity to power in order to belong. “The most revolutionary code we will ever write will be in policy and how we choose to lead and who we choose to centre,” said White-Ndlovu.

Unathi Mtya, Group Chief Information and Digital Officer at African Bank, was a keynote speaker at the event and she set the bar even higher by asking one very simple question: “Why are we still here?”

“You don’t see men gathering around and looking to fix the equality problem,” she said. “Our challenge and invitation today is to lead with presence and perspective, to bring our whole humanity and honour the system’s full complexity. When we are bold, we are perceived as arrogant. We are told to contain our emotions.”

There is a different measure as you rise up through the different levels of the business, and women are told not to do so many things. Don’t act like a man, don’t be emotional, don’t be soft. Women are also expected to be soft, empathetic and motherly. The standards of measurement are higher and almost impossible to achieve, and Mtya said that for women, this means having personal integrity.

“You bring all of you because you need it all,” she said. “Your inner alignment and integrity is all you have and whatever you do, always honour yourself and maintain your integrity.”

The event then moved to a panel discussion hosted by Penny Lebyane, South African media personality, with CDIO of Telkom, Dr Noxolo Kubheka-Dlamini; Hope Lukoto, CHRO, BCX; Kerusha Kanjee, CIO: Wealth and Investment International, Investec; and Clarissa Appana, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Tracker Connect sitting down to discuss the topics at hand.

Lebyane kicked off the discussion by asking Kubheka-Dlamini what real policy looks like.

“It provides a framework against which you can claim what you believe in,” explained Kubheka-Dlamini. “Without policy, you wouldn’t be as efficient and effective because it anchors you. So, when you make demands with feminine power, you are grounded and supported by policy. The goal is to uphold that policy in practice, so it impacts lives in a positive way.”

Appana added: “We must not be afraid to use it and we need to also ensure it is agile enough to adapt. If a policy isn’t working in practicality, we need to understand what needs to change so it can have the impact required. In my environment, I am constantly chasing policy; some don’t work or introduce delays, so I am going back and relooking things to understand where policy does or does not work. It is important not to be afraid to challenge policy and allow for change.”

This is a common narrative. Kanjee also highlighted how there is often a disconnect between the policy and what happens in the real world. “You need to think about who is sitting in those rooms and creating those policies. Sometimes things are not done with diversity in the room, which is why you end up challenging them. You need to ask the hard questions – who created these policies? Why wasn’t I there? We need to be bolder.”

How, asked Lebyane, is it possible to navigate these issues in a country as diverse as ours?

Lukoto responded by saying that she doesn’t like rules. “I know HR is all about policies, but I don’t like them,” she said. “But I recognise that we need to operate with fairness and justice and create an inclusive workplace and so policies must be relevant to the environment in which you operate and drive the narrative of diversity and inclusion.”

This led to the next question, where Lebyane asked Kubheka- Dlamini how technology impacts policy and inclusion within a large-scale organisation.

“We need to think about how we are designing all these technologies,” Kubheka-Dlamini said. “Think about language, for example. In our country, how many languages do we have? So when systems are designed, they need to be done in a way that ensures everyone has access and they can all understand.”

If people are not supported and given access to tools that allow them economic participation, then equality is a widening gap. It also comes down to affordability and connectivity – people from disadvantaged and marginalised communities need to have access and also know how to use the tools that will give them a place at the table.

Lebyane then asked how true flexibility looks in practice and how policy can support diverse employee needs without compromising business outcomes.

“Most companies will say employees are their greatest assets, right?” said Kanjee. “At Investec, we really believe that. This means we embrace flexibility and we actually empower our teams by taking their wellbeing seriously. Everyone is different and we need to recognise this. I am a mother, so my CEO knows that they will get the best version of me if I can drop my son at school and get a workout in. If you don’t, I absolutely will be there for a 7am meeting, but you won’t get the best of me.”

As a leader, you must understand what is important to your people and allow for the little things that make such a difference in their lives. It’s a sentiment that BCX heard – the company has introduced feminine health leave as part of its enhanced internal policy and offering.

Lebyane wanted to know how Lukoto drove this policy past the exco.

“We all recognise that women are underrepresented in ICT and we have to solve for that, so the business case was how to attract and retain the best female talent,” said Lukoto. “And to do that, we have to create workplaces where women feel seen and heard. The quiet is too loud when it comes to things we don’t talk about. Corporate has solved for fertility leave, right? But there are no other solutions for the transitions we go through as women.”

Periods, perimenopause, menopause – women are fundamentally and deeply impacted by these biological realities and yet companies aren’t solving for their impact.

“These life stages impact on our performance, our productivity,” said Lukoto. “We are showing up with brain fog and competing with a man who will never experience it. We can’t say we are in perimenopause, that vulnerability is too personal. Nobody wants to know. But if we as women do not advocate for ourselves, nothing will change.”

BCX’s policy change recognises that there are up to five generations of women in the workplace working in a world men created, and this setup doesn’t work anymore. It is time for women to raise their voices and for policies to reflect the lived reality of skilled, talented women who add value and depth to the business. 

“Women will choose to work at those companies that will make them stay,” concluded Lukoto. “Companies that have had the silent conversations and created the policies that are changing the workplace.” 

By Tamsin Mackay

Photographs: Karolina Komendera