WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP7 AUG 2026Building bigger tables for Africa’s futureBuhle Phiwe Hlatshwayo’s career is a testament to relentless reinvention, from political journalist to diplomat and now president of the Chevening Alumni Association of South…Busi Lethole7 min read

Buhle Phiwe Hlatshwayo’s career reads like a study in relentless reinvention. Unafraid to pivot, she embodies the principle that women can continuously redefine themselves and excel at every stage. Her professional career spans roles as a former political journalist, a former diplomat at Auda-Nepad within the African Union, the recently appointed president of the Chevening Alumni Association of South Africa (CAASA) and a PhD candidate specialising in AI governance, digital sovereignty and security.

Hlatshwayo’s trajectory began in rural Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal. Growing up as a farmer’s daughter, her days were spent milking cows and herding sheep in a community where educational opportunities for girls were limited. “Bergville is a tiny town nestled in the Drakensberg.

It’s beautiful, beautiful scenery but it’s impoverished. It is rural. I would look around and I would see young women getting pregnant, not finishing school.

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A lot of women, especially young women, are disenfranchised here. You find that a lot of women don’t finish school. You find that a lot of them don’t have many prospects.

They don’t have much of a voice. That’s the environment I grew up in. “I’m also very proud to have grown up in Bergville but it taught me that many people live with the consequences of decisions they have no voice in making.

My environment showed me this and shaped every step of my career. So my commitment has always been to champion inclusion and strengthen representation.” Starting out in political journalism gave Hlatshwayo an early lesson in challenging authority and elevating unheard voices. Focus on Africa in London, she noticed that young black women in diplomatic circles were few.

The realisation prompted a pivotal shift: she moved from reporting on policy decisions to helping shape them from within. “I was reporting on politics and economic development across the continent and engaging with ministers, technocrats and policymakers. It was during this time that I became very aware that I didn’t see diplomats who looked like me.

I didn’t see young people. I didn’t see black people. I didn’t see women.” “I was young.

I was curious. I was ambitious. At university, I was determined to understand how public policy shaped people’s lives.

Journalism really placed me very close to political processes and gave me a front-row seat to how governments make decisions, how institutions function and how those decisions ultimately affect our communities.” While reporting for the BBC’s “Young people and women were not being advocated for in these spaces. That was the first lightbulb moment. That was the reason why I chose to transition into diplomacy.” The precise catalyst for her transition from journalism to diplomacy was an unexpected encounter with the former UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan.

“I know exactly the turning point, when I wanted to be a diplomat and it was when I got to interview Kofi Annan. I had no business interviewing this man. I was a junior journalist. There were way more seasoned journalists who were supposed to interview him but he was in town and I was the only one available.”

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