Limpopo author and filmmaker honoured with top award
Masindi Netshakhuma was recently named among the Forty under 40 Africa awards in the authorship and creative writing category.
LIMPOPO – Author, award-winning cultural practitioner and filmmaker Masindi Netshakhuma was recently named among The Forty under 40 Africa awards.
She won the category of authorship and creative writing.
Netshakhuma holds a B.Ed degree from the University of Limpopo.
She became part of the Lampstand Book Club in 2017 and released her first English poetry anthology, entitled Vision and Legacy, in 2018.
After that year she co-authored many books, including Tshanduko with Nndanduleni Jeffrey Manthakha.
In 2019, one of her poems won the Avbob Poetry Competition.
In 2020 she ventured into the film industry, wrote her first script, and was awarded for the development of her first film by the National Film and Video Foundation.
She developed an early interest in international relations and in February 2020 she was selected as one of 32 students from the International Global Network to be a mentee in the Kelas Daring IELTS NTT 2020.
She then implemented a project: Woman, My Breed to help publish stories about gender-based violence for young women, which was supported by the National Department of Arts and Culture.
In 2020, Netshakhuma was featured by The French Institute of South Africa and Impepho Press in the anthology history and imagining realities which were later translated into French and English. Netshakhuma founded Small and medium-sized enterprises in 2021 and won in the Kenya-South Africa Chamber of Business’s top 20 SMEs where she had the privilege of exhibiting her business where both presidents of South Africa and Kenya conducted a walkabout.
In 2022 she was listed among Mail and Guardian’s 50 Powerful Women and in the top 100 South African Shining Stars.
Masindi also received an award during the Pan South African Language Board Multilingualism Awards.
Her project, Unmute Women Voices, in 2022 help publish books written by young women on the GBV issues.
She said The Forty under 40 Africa Awards identify, honour and celebrate a cross-section of the continent’s most influential and accomplished young business leaders under the age of 40.
“I was nominated for the work I’ve done in the literature industry. The journey was not easy but I have the best mentor and family. It was not easy as the Venda people hardly support each other, but I got more votes and support from outside countries like Kenya. I am still part of the Kenya-SA Chamber of Business, so they too supported me. I cannot thank my parents enough for the privilege they have given me,” she said.
