Huawei South Africa’s annual Girls in ICT Day gave young women practical skills in areas such as artificial intelligence, coding, and digital entrepreneurship. The day also celebrated their role in the digital economy, not only as future participants but as young innovators who can help shape what comes next.
Hosted by Huawei South Africa in partnership with UN Women, the event welcomed students from Gauteng and Limpopo, who are part of UN Women’s African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI), alongside members of Huawei’s Graduate Programme.
Themed “CTRL + SHE: Where She Takes Control of the Future,” the programme gave participants a closer look at what a career in ICT can look like, combining an Innovation Centre tour with keynote addresses and direct engagement with women working across the technology and education sectors.
Opening the day, Vanashree Govender, Senior PR Manager for Media and Communications at Huawei South Africa, said the event was designed to create space for students and young graduates to engage with each other and with women already working in ICT. “This day serves as an important reminder that the future of technology will be stronger and more relevant when more young women are part of shaping it.”
Christina Naidoo, Chief Operating Officer at Huawei South Africa, spoke with pride about what the Graduate Programme has built since its launch. More than 350 graduates have entered the industry through the programme since 2017, with women comprising half of that intake. “Know that you belong here. You belong in the labs, the development teams, and the boardrooms where the big decisions are made,” she told attendees.
Naidoo also positioned Huawei’s wider skills development work, noting that through initiatives such as the Graduate Programme, ICT Academy, and Code for Mzansi, the company reached more than 15,000 students in 2025 alone.
Dr Hazel Gooding, Deputy Representative at UN Women South Africa Country Office, addressed the relationship between AI and inclusion. “If left unchecked, AI will not automatically advance equality,” she said. “It can just as easily entrench inequality, reproduce bias, exclude women from its benefits, and amplify the very inequalities that we are trying to dismantle.”
She said this is why women and girls must be present not only as users of AI, but in the rooms where it is designed, governed, and deployed. She cited the African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI) as evidence of this work in practice, and how young women in the programme are already building digital solutions to problems affecting their communities.
Dr Gooding also drew attention to technologically-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), raising it as a direct consequence of unchecked digital spaces and a reason why responsible technology use must be part of how young women are equipped. “Technologically-facilitated gender-based violence is being used to attack women and girls online. This is a serious issue and one that we cannot ignore.”
Queen Ndlovu, CEO and Founder of QP Drone Tech, had the audience in awe of her achievements, she calls herself a serial entrepreneur, innovator and maverick in business. She has high hopes that her drone business will reach “Unicorn” status soon. She spoke with passion about her never say die attitude. Even with no background in ICT, she knew drones would play a role in the digital economy, that was way back in 2017, and she spent 6 months in China researching the technology.
“If a door is closed, it isn’t locked—keep trying. If you don’t like what’s behind it, pivot with purpose. Study the market, take the risk, and move with intention,” she said.
Her perspective reinforced one of the day’s strongest themes, that careers in technology are often built by stepping into unfamiliar spaces and making a path through them.
Nosipho Zwane’s moment on stage gave one of the clearest examples of the day’s spirit in action. A Graduate Programme alumna and now an Access Network Product Manager and Solution Architect at Huawei, she had sat in that same audience the previous year as a graduate. This year, she was one of the speakers.
She used her own journey from graduate attendee to speaker and technical professional as a direct example of what can happen when young women actively pursue the opportunities in front of them. She told attendees: “CTRL + She isn’t just a slogan—it’s a call to take command. Own your voice, your growth, and your impact. Take up space and trust your potential. You belong here. “
Another memorable moment came from Kgoetsimang Mulaudzi, a learner and coder from the UN Women’s African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI), who shared how coding and robotics have shaped her confidence and growth. For Mulaudzi, coding is “the language we use to turn ideas into instructions,” while robotics is “coding that you can touch.”
She said learning to code helped her engage more confidently with maths and science. Encouraging other young women, she said: “To those who come from rural areas and feel like, as girls, you cannot make it into the tech world, which is dominated by men, I am saying that you can do this. You got this.”
International Girls in ICT Day 2026 was a reminder that the pipeline is being built, one programme and one mentor at a time. Huawei’s continued investment in that effort reflects a clear position: South Africa’s digital future is stronger when more women are part of shaping it.
As Dr Gooding told the audience on the theme of CTRL + SHE: “CTRL is that key that you press when you want to take command. And SHE, well, that’s exactly who should be in command of our future.”
