Q & A: VAXOWAVE
What should business leaders understand better about the role of ICT in growth, resilience, and competitiveness? Business leaders must stop seeing ICT as a support function. ICT is now business infrastructure.
It determines how fast you respond to customers, how well you use data, how securely you operate, and how efficiently you scale. In a difficult economy, technology is a tool for productivity, resilience, and competitiveness.
What are the biggest barriers facing women who want to lead in the technology sector? The barriers are not only technical. Women often face limited access to networks, capital, sponsorship, and decision-making spaces. There is also the burden of proving competence before being trusted with authority. Representation matters, but representation without influence is not transformation.
Where is the ICT sector making real progress on women’ s leadership, and where is change still too shallow? More women are entering ICT, leading teams, building businesses, and shaping transformation. But change remains shallow when women are invited into rooms without budgets, authority, or sponsorship. Inclusion must translate into power and accountability.
What would you say to young women who are interested in ICT but do not see an obvious place for themselves in the industry? ICT is broader than many people think. It needs strategists, engineers, analysts, designers, project leaders, finance minds, risk thinkers, and communicators. You do not have to fit a stereotype to belong in technology. Start with curiosity, build competence, and do not disqualify yourself because the room does not yet look like you.
What needs to change in South Africa’ s skills, education, and mentorship pipeline? We need earlier exposure, more practical training, and stronger bridges between education and industry. Young people must see how technology works inside real businesses. Mentorship must also be taken seriously. A mentee must come with intention, clarity, and willingness to do the work.
“... empowerment must move beyond speeches. It must change someone’ s options.”
How do Vaxowave’ s capabilities in cloud, AI, data, DevOps, FinOps, and site reliability translate into practical business value? Cloud, AI, data, DevSecOps, FinOps, and site reliability help businesses become more intelligent, efficient, and dependable. Cloud enables scale. AI and data improve decision-making. DevSecOps accelerates delivery securely. FinOps brings cost discipline. Site reliability protects performance. These are the foundation for businesses that want to move faster, reduce waste, and serve customers better.
Which technology priorities should South African businesses focus on over the next 12 to 24 months? South African businesses should prioritise secure cloud modernisation, responsible AI adoption, data governance, cyber resilience, cost optimisation, digital skills, and operational reliability. Downtime is now a strategic risk. The next 24 months will reward organisations that modernise with governance, innovate with discipline, and build resilience.
What does practical empowerment look like inside a growing ICT business? Practical empowerment is about access, trust, and measurable opportunity. It is about who gets trained, promoted, exposed to clients, trusted to lead, and sponsored when they are not in the room. Outside the business, I sponsor the education of a few young women from my hometown because empowerment must move beyond speeches. It must change someone’ s options.
What does industry recognition mean to you, and how do you use it to open doors for others? Recognition is meaningful, but I do not see it as a destination. I see it as a door. It gives credibility, but the responsibility is to use that credibility well: to open access for others, challenge narrow ideas of who belongs in technology, and show that African women can build serious, globally relevant ICT businesses. �
sabusinessintegrator. co. za 25