Global award for EC farmer Pretty

Starting Women’s Month off with some fanfare, celebrated Eastern-Cape born app designer Pretty Kubyane has received a fresh accolade for the farmers’ app eFama, which connects farmers directly with buyers locally and abroad. Kubyane was named winner of the prestigious global Veuve Clicquot Bold Future Award in Johannesburg on July 15. The prize, designed to honouremerging, high-impact female entrepreneurs,is part of a programme spanning27 countries.

It is named for Madame Clicquot,who in 1805 took over her husband’s failing wine businessat just 27 years old when he died, transforming it into the world-renowned Veuve Clicquot Champagne house. Born Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, the widow revolutionised the industry during an era when women were legally banned from opening bank accounts or working without permission. The Veuve Clicquot programme was expanded to SA in 2022, making this thefifth local edition.

To qualify, a candidate must demonstrateentrepreneurial daringand make a tangible contribution to transforming an existing market, bringing visible,ethical changeto both the company and their industry environment. Alongside her, industrialist and social entrepreneurLindiwe Nkuna-Kgopa, founder and CEO ofLindiwe Sanitary Pads –Africa’s first large-scale sanitary pad manufacturing facility owned and operated entirely by women — scooped Veuve Clicquot’s Bold Woman of the Year award for her innovation, courage, and economic impact. Veuve Clicquot winners do not just receive a trophy.

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The prizes are structured to fast-track global business growth with an immersive trip toReims, France, to visit the historical estate and vineyards of Maison Veuve Clicquot, as well as put them on a path to sustainedglobal visibilityand international media mapping via direct inclusion in the Bold Open Data Base, a global, borderless community connecting female trailblazers for ongoingmentorship and networking. Limpopo-born Nkuna-Kgopa, who began her fledgling enterprise in her home kitchen in 2018, has the added honour of having a vine named after her. In line with an institutional tradition honoring global laureates, achampagne vine will permanently carry her name inside the historic Veuve Clicquot vineyards.

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