COMPILED BY LEN KALANE
Every Women’s Month, the same handful of names tends to circulate: Bonang Matheba, Connie Ferguson, Mishqah Parthiephal, Meren Reddy and a small constellation of household icons whose staying power is, frankly, remarkable. They opened doors, broke ceilings and built empires, and South African media owes them an enormous debt. But an industry that celebrates its trailblazers only in retrospect risks missing the point of the trail: it keeps going. Somewhere between the red carpets and the ratings reports, a new generation has been quietly — and not so quietly — building its own legacy.
This year, we set out to compile a different kind of list: not the usual suspects, but the women currently arriving, breaking through and reshaping South African culture from the ground up. We looked across music, film, television, fashion and the visual arts, and across the country’s many languages, regions and communities, to find ten women who represent where South African creativity is headed next. Some are already stars in their own right; others are only just stepping into the light. All of them are worth watching closely.
Here, in no particular order, is our 2026 list of the new guard.
1. Zee Nxumalo — The Amapiano Storyteller
Music
Born Zandile Nxumalo in Bloemfontein and raised in Alexandra, Johannesburg, Zee Nxumalo has become one of the most compelling voices in amapiano — a genre that, more than any other, has carried South African sound to the rest of the world. Her 2023 single “Funk 55” turned heads nationally and went on to be certified multiple times platinum, while her 2022 debut EP KwaNxumalo and 2024 follow-up Inja Ye Game revealed a songwriter unafraid to move beyond the dancefloor into more introspective territory. Her platinum-certified collaboration with Pabi Cooper and 031choppa, “Thula Mabota”, showed a natural chemistry with fellow hitmakers, while features alongside heavyweights such as Dlala Thukzin have cemented her as a go-to collaborator.
WATCH THIS SPACE: Nxumalo has spoken of wanting her music to hold both weight and warmth — expect her next project to push further into personal storytelling, cementing her as more than just a hit factory.
Lizl Simoes — The Afrikaans Torchbearer
Music
A 23-year-old pianist, songwriter and singer from Pretoria, Lizl Simoes was selected in 2025 as one of ATKV-Crescendo’s four recording artists for 2026 — a mentorship platform that has spent fifty years launching Afrikaans music careers. Her sound moves comfortably between sensitive balladry and contemporary pop, built on lyrics she describes as diary entries of her own inner life. Her single “Muurblom” (Wallflower) was nominated for Best Newcomer Single at the Afri-Indie Independent Artist Awards, a fitting title for an artist who has spoken openly about starting out feeling overlooked before finding her voice through the Crescendo mentorship. She teaches piano alongside building her own catalogue, quietly investing in the generation of Afrikaans musicians coming up behind her.
WATCH THIS SPACE: Crescendo alumni have a track record of becoming genuine industry mainstays. With a follow-up single, “Ek Wens”, already out and more on the way, Simoes looks set to be one of the names to watch when Afrikaans music’s next chapter is written.
CAPTION: MASALI BADUZA
Masali Baduza — South Africa’s Global Screen Star
Film & Television
Masali Baduza has quietly become one of the country’s most internationally visible young actresses, landing roles in major international productions including The Woman King and the hit Netflix series Bridgerton. Her rise reflects a broader shift: South African actresses are no longer waiting to be discovered abroad — they are being cast in the world’s biggest productions while still building their profile at home.
WATCH THIS SPACE: As international studios continue to court African talent, Baduza is well placed to become one of the country’s most recognisable crossover stars — the kind of name that anchors a franchise, not just a supporting cast list.
CAPTION: LIYABONA MROQOZA
Liyabona Mroqoza — The Prodigy
Film
At just 15 years old, Liyabona Mroqoza has already achieved something most actors spend a lifetime chasing: a role in an Oscar-recognised production. Her performance in the 2025 Oscar-nominated short film The Last Ranger announced her as a rare young talent with the poise and presence of a far more seasoned performer. In an industry often criticised for overlooking younger, homegrown talent in favour of imports, Mroqoza is proof that the next generation of South African screen talent is arriving remarkably early.
WATCH THIS SPACE: Still a teenager with an Academy Award-recognised credit already to her name, Mroqoza’s ceiling is difficult to predict — which is exactly what makes her worth following.
CAPTION: NELISWA SIBIYA
Nelisiwe Sibiya — The Telenovela Powerhouse
Television
At the 19th South African Film and Television Awards in March 2026, Nelisiwe Sibiya took home Best Actress in a Telenovela for her role in the acclaimed series iThonga — one of several first-time wins that signalled a changing of the guard on the Golden Horn stage. Her performance was part of a broader night for iThonga, which also picked up Best Actor in a Telenovela, but it was Sibiya’s turn that critics and audiences singled out as a genuine breakout.
WATCH THIS SPACE: A first SAFTA win is often the beginning, not the peak. Expect broader casting opportunities and, quite possibly, a leap from telenovela lead to feature film billing.
CAPTION: NQOBILE KHWEZI
Nqobile Khwezi — The Multi-Hyphenate Broadcaster
Media & Sport
Nqobile Khwezi’s route into sports broadcasting was anything but conventional. Armed with a degree in Strategic Brand Communication, she built her early following as a content creator during the pandemic before working her way into SuperSport, where she has since presented across the Premier League, Formula E and major global events — interviewing figures from Olympic champions to Formula One royalty along the way. Beyond the microphone, she has built a parallel career as a model, brand strategist and MC, proving that today’s media personalities rarely fit into a single box.
WATCH THIS SPACE: Khwezi is emblematic of a new kind of media star — one who moves fluidly between sport, fashion and digital content without being boxed into a single lane. Expect her international assignments to keep growing.
Gugu Peteni — The Sustainable Luxury Disruptor
Fashion
Through her label Gugubygugu, Gugu Peteni has carved out a distinctive place in South African fashion by proving that sustainability and high-end design are not mutually exclusive. Working with recycled mohair and ethically sourced textiles, she has built a brand that treats environmental responsibility as a creative constraint rather than a marketing afterthought — and the results have made her one of the breakout names of the current design generation.
WATCH THIS SPACE: As global fashion faces mounting pressure to clean up its supply chains, designers like Peteni — already fluent in circular design — are positioned to lead rather than follow the industry’s next chapter.
CAPTION NICOLE FORTUIN
Nicole Fortuin — The Craftswoman of Cape Flats Stories
Film & Television
Raised in Belhar on the Cape Flats, Nicole Fortuin has spent close to two decades building one of the more quietly versatile bodies of work in South African screen and stage acting — from her breakout lead in the Afrikaans drama Roer Jou Voete to acclaimed film roles in Flatland and Late Bloomer. Recent years have seen her profile expand further, with a role in the 2024 Netflix feature Heart of the Hunter and the sci-fi thriller The Fix, alongside her ongoing part in the long-running series Legacy. Trained as a dancer and theatre maker as much as an actress, she brings a physical, layered quality to her performances that has made her a favourite of directors working across both Afrikaans- and English-language productions.
WATCH THIS SPACE: Fortuin’s move into international streaming projects, paired with her continued presence in home-grown theatre, suggests a career built for range rather than a single breakout moment — expect her name to keep surfacing in both local and global casting news.
CAPTION: TSHEPISO MOROPA
Tshepiso Moropa — The Collage Artist Rewriting Memory
Visual Arts
A Johannesburg-based collage artist, Tshepiso Moropa initially shelved her creative ambitions to study psychology and linguistics before finding her way back to art — a detour that now shapes the layered, psychologically rich quality of her work. Represented by THK Gallery, her piece The Flying Girl was among the standout works highlighted at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, one of the continent’s most closely watched art-market barometers, where new talent is scouted as keenly as established names are celebrated.
WATCH THIS SPACE: Collectors and curators are already circling the current wave of young South African collage and figurative artists. Moropa’s psychological training gives her work a conceptual depth that could carry her well beyond the fair circuit and into major institutional collections.
CAPTION: NATASHA THAHANE
Natasha Thahane — The Actress Turning Director
Film & Television
Natasha Thahane has spent recent years expanding her reputation well beyond acting, taking on directing work in addition to her screen credits and brand ambassador roles. Her willingness to move behind the camera — at a career stage when many actors are still building their on-screen résumé — reflects a growing trend among young South African performers who are refusing to wait for permission to shape the stories they appear in.
WATCH THIS SPACE: Actors-turned-directors often produce some of the most interesting work in any industry, precisely because they understand performance from the inside. Thahane’s next directorial outing is worth watching closely.
A Torch, Not a Throne
None of this is to suggest that the women who built South African media before them should step aside. Bonang Matheba, Connie Ferguson and their peers remain formidable, influential and, in many cases, still at the very top of their fields. But an industry is only as healthy as its pipeline, and this Women’s Month, it felt worth pointing the spotlight forward rather than only backward — toward the amapiano vocalists, teenage screen prodigies, sustainable-fashion disruptors and gallery-ready visual artists who are, right now, becoming the next names on that list.
It’s also worth naming plainly what compiling this list made clear: the pipeline of emerging talent is not evenly distributed across every South African community. Some scenes — amapiano, telenovela acting, Afrikaans music — are producing new names at a rapid clip; others, including South Africa’s Indian creative community, are visibly thinner on the ground in media, entertainment and the arts than the country’s demographics would suggest. That is not a comment on talent, but on opportunity, access and the platforms available to different communities to break through. It is a gap worth watching — and, ideally, closing — long before Women’s Month 2027.
A decade from now, this may well read as the list that caught them first.
