Thato Kgatlhanye is a social entrepreneur, author, speaker, and founder of Repurpose Schoolbags. She has a B.A in Brand Leadership Management from Vega School of Brand Leadership.
She is also the CEO of Rethaka (Pty) Ltd, a woman-owned business based in Rustenburg, South Africa. She started Repurpose Schoolbags at the age of 18, after studying and discovering that most of the school children in her community carried plastic bags to school. She designed a new set of school bags using recycled plastic shopping bags, and integrating solar technology and batteries to provide light for studying after dark, as the bag charges during the day.
Thato runs the company with 17 employees and numerous plastic bag collectors. She has been featured on CNBC Africa and Forbes. She has also won the ELLE International Impact Award.
We celebrate her