Maambele Khosa is a social entrepreneur and scientist building solutions at the intersection of women’s safety, innovation and social impact. Originally from the rural village of Tiyani Magoro in Limpopo, she is the Founder and CEO of SheCab, a women-led charter transport and e-hailing service established in response to SouthAfrica’s gender-based violence crisis.
Founded in 2021, SheCab connects hundreds of women passengers daily with vetted female drivers across theWestern Cape, offering ride-hailing, airport transfers and corporate transport services. Every role within the business, from driving and operations to leadership and accounting, is held by a woman, creating both safer mobility solutions and meaningful economic opportunities for women in the transport sector.
Alongside building SheCab, Maambele serves as Head of Communications and Marketing at Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI), one of Africa’s leading research institutions. She is also a PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University, where her research focuses on climate change,policymaking and infectious disease. Through her work in science communication, she reaches more than 100,000 people across the continent each month.
An ardent supporter of the next generation of African innovators, Maambele is involved in initiatives includingSWEAT Africa and the African STARS fellowship programme, supporting young leaders in science andentrepreneurship. Her impact has been recognised through numerous accolades, including being part of Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 in 2025, and the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans in 2023.
Maambele’s entrepreneurial philosophy is grounded in purpose-driven leadership and practical impact.Through SheCab, she is helping shape a future where women are safer, more visible and economically empowered within industries that have historically not been built for the them.
Entertainment SA caught up with Maambele Khosa to talk about village roots, creating safe spaces for women and her Veuve Clicquot Bold Future Award nomination.
1.How did growing up in rural Limpopo shape your perspective on community, safety and the way you built the SheCab ecosystem?
Growing up at Tiyani Magoro village in rural Limpopo, trust was not something you built. It was something you inherited. I remember coming home from school as a child while my mother was still out working. I would go straight to my neighbour’s house. The aunts, the granny next door, the women on that street, they were my safety net without ever being asked. Nobody assigned them that role. They just showed up. Every afternoon, without fail, until my mother came home.
That is the original SheCab model. Women holding space for each other not because of a policy or a platform but because it is what women do when you give them the conditions to do it. I did not build that into SheCab. I grew up inside it. The business is just a more structured version of something the women of Tiyani Magoro have always known.
2.You’ve spoken about a driver landing a major career opportunity just from chatting with a passenger. What is another heartwarming “only in a SheCab” connection story that proved this is more than just a transport service?
One that stayed with me involved a passenger who had just returned to work after maternity leave. She was anxious, second-guessing herself, not sure she had made the right decision leaving her baby that morning. Her driver was also a working mother. They did not talk about transport. They talked about that specific fear of thefirst day back. By the time the ride ended, the passenger sent us a message saying she arrived at the office feeling like herself again. The driver did not fix anything. She just made space for the woman in front of her.
Our Google reviews carry the same weight. One mother wrote about her daughter travelling alone with no WiFi connection: “A mother’s worst nightmare. Our driver contacted me” to give her peace of mind before she even had to ask. Another wrote: “It was the first time I had to organise for my daughter to be picked up and I only wanted the best. I am a very happy mom.” And another passenger said” Amazing experience. They areso understandingand very professional. I felt safe. It’s like being driven by a family member. I would definitely book again and recommend to people.” That is not transport. That is trust.
3.Building a business on your own terms takes a lot of energy. What is your go-to routine for switching off “CEO mode” and just being Maambele?
Honestly, switching off is something I am still learning. I am not going to pretend I have a perfect routine because I do not.
Some mornings I wake up, look at my phone, feel the weight of everything and make the decision to go back to sleep. Other times, the thing that resets me is opening a research paper on climate policy or infectious disease,something completely unrelated to transport, and losing myself in it as a PhD student. There is something grounding about being a student again, about sitting inside a question that has nothing to do with my inbox.
Most importantly, I pray. That is where I start my days, before the notifications, before the decisions. And thenI call my siblings. I lost both my parents and those calls remind me that I am, before anything else, just a girl from Limpopo who loves her family. That is enough to bring me back to earth.
What's your hot take on this story?
There is also a sassy cat tattooed on my arm, holding a glass of wine. She is free-spirited and unbothered and I look at her on the hard hours and laugh. Saturday wine and a real laugh with people is non-negotiable. That cat is a reminder that I am a human being before I am a founder.
4.As a Bold Future Award finalist, you are officially in the driver’s seat of the industry. What is the next major destination on the SheCab roadmap?
I will not share specifics yet but I will say this: we are in the most exciting chapter we have ever been in. We recently brought on a tech co-founder and an executive legal professional, both women. The tech co-founder is also a mother. That alone means something for SheCab. A mother building transport technology for women understands at a cellular level what safety, reliability and dignity actually mean. This is not just about building smarter infrastructure. It is about building it with people who have lived the problem. The next destination is not just a city. It is a model. One where every woman who works with SheCab leaves with more than income. She leaves with a financial footprint, a credit record, a professional identity. Watch this space.
5.What was the most challenging ride that a SheCab driver has encountered?
Two kinds of hard exist in this industry. The first is systemic. The transport sector is one of the most regulated and least compliant industries in South Africa. Operating licences, Professional Driving Permits, roadworthy certifications, provincial by-laws. For women trying to build legitimate livelihoods in this space the administrative burden alone is a barrier. We navigate that every day and we do it properly, because shortcuts in compliance are not shortcuts at all.
The second kind of hard is human. Women on the road face real risks, in parking lots, on quiet routes, in situations where being a female driver makes you vulnerable. That is something we take seriously at an operational level.
But the ride that stayed with me most was an emotional one. A driver picked up a passenger who broke down completely mid-trip, going through something deeply personal. The driver stopped. She sat with the passengeruntil she was ready to continue. She called us to explain why she was late for her next booking. That call told us everything about the women in this business. The hardest rides are rarely about the road.
6.You’ve built a strong foundation in the Western Cape. As you expand into provinces, how do you plan to adapt SheCab’s safety and operations to fit the diaerent security and geographical challenges of those regions?
Safety in SheCab means safety for everyone, the passenger and the driver. That is not always how transport businesses think. We do. A woman driving alone on an unfamiliar route in a new city carries real risk. Before we expand anywhere, we will build driver safety protocols specific to that region, understand the local road and security landscape and make sure our drivers are as protected as the people they carry.
Beyond driver safety, each province is a different regulatory environment. The Western Cape has its own licensing framework. Johannesburg operates under entirely different rules. We will not assume what worked here works everywhere. We will research, build local networks and ensure full compliance before a single booking goes live. Expansion without compliance is not expansion. It is risk. We will do it right or we will not do it.
7.Being a finalist for the Bold Future Award places you in an elite global network of female disruptors.how do you plan to leverage the Bold Woman Award by Veuve Clicquot global platform to scale SheCab’s long-term business goals?
Growing up in rural Limpopo I watched women build something remarkable with very little. Stokvels, working groups, burial societies. Women pooling resources, sharing knowledge, holding each other accountable. No boardroom. No investor. Just trust and consistency. Incredible things happen when women connect with intention.
The Bold Woman Award by Veuve Clicquot is a global stokvel of sorts. Nearly 500 women across 27 countries over 54 years, all building, all connected. The mentorship and network available through this platform is something I would not have accessed any other way. What I plan to do with it is not just grow SheCab. I want to show other women builders what is possible when you refuse to stay small.
I also want to encourage any woman reading this to explore the Bold Open Data Base. There are women in that network who have solved problems you are currently sitting with alone. Find them. And if you have not yet found your version of the stokvel, your circle of women who build together, start looking. That is where thereal growth happens.
