Johannesburg – Briefly News and Cars.co.za are marking Women’s Month with Women of Wonder 2026: Steering the Story in SA Motoring, a campaign profiling 12 women reshaping South Africa’s motoring industry, from the workshop floor to the racetrack.
Now in its fifth year, the series has already featured 10 of the 12 honourees, and their stories share one throughline: an industry that keeps underestimating them and keeps being proven wrong.
South Africa marks Women’s Month every August, anchored by National Women’s Day on 9 August, commemorating the 1956 march of more than 20 000 women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria against the apartheid regime’s pass laws.
Nearly seventy years on, the campaign uses that legacy as a lens on a modern, still male-dominated industry.
Five Stories, One Industry Long Overdue for Change
Kwanele Dlava: The Mechanic Whose Workshop Videos Have Gone Viral
Kwanele Dlava, 29, is a qualified mechanic in East London whose workshop videos have drawn over 190 000 likes on TikTok.
She impressed her dealership so much during a training placement that she was offered a permanent role without a formal interview, a rare feat in a trade still dominated by men.
Dlava has learned to let her work speak for itself rather than argue her way into respect.
“I’m not here to compete with anyone… I’d just keep quiet and do my job and leave them surprised, and that’s how I overcome things,” she says.
Her online following has since turned her workshop floor into a classroom for thousands of young women considering a trade career.
Emma-Rose Dowling: The Teenager Racing Toward Formula 1
Emma-Rose Dowling was 15 when she became the first South African girl selected for the F1 Academy’s Discover Your Drive Programme, a cost-controlled, merit-based pathway built to bring more women into elite motorsport.
She now splits her weeks between international racing, simulator sessions and homework done in airport terminals.
Competing against boys with years more experience taught her the sport’s one honest rule.
“I’ve learned that the stopwatch doesn’t care whether you’re a boy or a girl. If you’re prepared, committed and fast, you earn respect,” she says.
Her season has had its share of tough weekends too, and she has been open about that struggle as much as the wins.
Stacey-Lee May: Africa’s Only Female Monster Energy Athlete
Stacey-Lee May discovered spinning as a bullied teenager in Eldorado Park, after her father encouraged her to try the sport to build her confidence.
Twelve years later, she is the only female Monster Energy athlete on the continent, a spinner, drifter and stunt driver who recently spun a full semi-truck at the GAS Motor Show International.
“I’ve always had a mindset that I can do anything I set my mind to,” she says, adding that other people’s opinions of what a woman can or cannot drive simply do not factor into her decisions anymore.
Razia Cassim: The Drag Racer Who Turned Grief Into Purpose
Razia Cassim once feared speed after losing her father in a car accident in 2001.
Rather than let that fear define her, she chose to face it and is today one of South Africa’s fastest female drag racers.
In 2011, she and her husband Faizel co-founded Northern Natal Motorsport to build a safe, family-friendly home for the sport in KZN.
Cassim races alongside her husband, not against him, and their own daughter now competes as a three-time go-kart club champion.
“When the race is over, and I take my helmet off, the look on some of the guys’ faces when they realise they’ve just raced against a woman is absolutely priceless,” she says.
Karen Naidoo: The Record-Holder Who Is Also a Mum
Karen Naidoo holds the record for the fastest stock turbo Nissan GT-R in Africa, a 9.7-second quarter-mile run in a car with its full interior still intact.
Competing in the KZN Drag Racing Club community, she has built her name, proving that motherhood and motorsport are not mutually exclusive.
“I’m a mum, a woman, and I’m fast,” she says of the record. Her advice to other mothers considering the sport is simple: it is never too late to start.
Five More Women Steering the Story
- Chloe Stuart, 17, is the first woman in 50 years to win the Formula Vee Rookie Championship, and funds her own racing ambitions by running two businesses on the side
- Simphiwe Mohlahlo, 22, is the only Black female driver competing in both the Investchem MSA4 Championship and with the Formula Libre Gauteng team, alongside a career as a professional makeup artist and content creator
- Kayla Oliphant is known for her signature Suicide Slide manoeuvre and has worked as a stunt double on Showmax’s Spinners, with her sights now set on a career in film stunt driving
- Amelia Bishop, a Parklands College matric learner and school prefect, waited 15 years for her first race car and now trains near Killarney Raceway alongside her school leadership role
- Pamela Mtanga built a 313 000-strong lifestyle following before pivoting into Formula 1 content as “Pam the Paddock Princess,” earning an invitation to the Austrian Grand Prix seven months later
Campaign Runs Until the End of August
Women of Wonder 2026 continues to roll out story by story on the campaign’s landing page for the rest of August, alongside coverage on Briefly News’ website and social media channels.
Readers can also revisit Briefly News’ wider archive of women’s empowerment stories.
“What strikes me most about this group is how differently each of them arrived at motoring, through a workshop, a racetrack, a family tragedy, a viral video, and yet they’ve all ended up in the same place: proving this industry belongs to them too,” says Maryn Blignaut, Editor-in-Chief at Briefly News.
“That is exactly what Women of Wonder was built to show.”
About Cars.co.za
Cars.co.za is South Africa’s most visited online car marketplace, connecting buyers and sellers of new and used vehicles nationwide.
Alongside thousands of daily listings, the platform publishes motoring news, expert vehicle reviews and buying guides, and hosts the annual Cars.co.za Consumer Awards, powered by WesBank.
For more information, visit www.cars.co.za.
About Briefly News
Briefly News is a leading South African digital news platform delivering entertainment, lifestyle and human interest stories to millions of readers.
Part of the pan-African Legit media group, Briefly News is committed to celebrating the achievements of women, both well-known and yet to be discovered, through initiatives such as Women of Wonder.
For more information, visit www.briefly.co.za.
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