Marie Claire South Africa — January 2018

The iMed Tech free breast prostheses are given to
hospitals to distribute. When a woman has a mastectomy
in the public health system, she is usually referred
to a social worker post-surgery. The social
workers are best placed to assess and
allocate the prostheses according to who
needs them most.
Nneile was born in Lesotho but grew up
in Thaba Nchu, a small, rural town in the
Free State. Thaba Nchu has produced many
musicians and artists, owing to a focus on
arts development and creativity. Growing
up, Nneile spent a lot of time at Mmabana
Cultural Centre, where all the children of
the town would attend art, dance and music
classes. ‘We had a local hub where we had
creative freedom to express ourselves. You
could spend the whole day doing activities.’
Nneile visited the centre every day to draw.
After school, she wanted to be a journalist
and travel Africa, but her mother pressured
her to go into engineering. Nneile conceded
but wasn’t willing to give up her creative
side, so she trawled for creative career
options within the discipline. Her search led
her to the website of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). The diverse
directions in which that university’s students

report

SO, HOW MUCH

ARE WE TALKING?

R100 000 – R150 000

R45 000 – R50 000

R2 000 – R12 000

R800

were taking their studies excited her. The Central University

of Technology in the Free State was the only institution in

South Africa offering additive manufacturing applications in

the medical space, so that’s where she went.

Nneile founded iMed Tech in 2015, and

currently employs four women, with the

aim to keep employing only African women

under the age of 30. It’s a social enterprise

that is supported by CSI investment from

companies that see the potential of iMed

Tech’s innovative work.

Nneile was one of the five winners of

the World Economic Forum’s Africa Top

Women Innovators Challenge in 2016. She

says that, for her, the hardest part of being

an entrepreneur is not only the challenge

of building a company, but creating

opportunities for women in the tech space,

so they can build their own businesses in

the long term.

‘The beauty of innovation is that it’s not

restricted to labs in big cities – it happens

everywhere. It shows that everyone, from

anywhere in South Africa, is capable of

thinking big and creating noble changes

that could impact people’s lives. That is

the beauty of technology and the beauty

of innovation.’ mc