An intelligent young lady from South Africa, Thandi Princess Ngxongo, has gone from working on the farm to becoming an award-winning Chemical Engineer.
Ngxongo was born and raised on a farm along the Mooi River in South Africa. She worked and assisted her parent on the farm and became interested in chemical engineering around cars and farm machinery.
She developed a passion for cars and the industry and therefore decided to follow the path of her passion.
According to her, “I grew up as a kid playing in worn and ragged cars which were usually filled up with petrol and oil smell. I quickly developed an instinct for cars and the oil industry. I yearned for success in the male-dominated business.”
She enrolled at the Durban University of Technology and earned a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering. She later joined the petroleum industry, working with refineries and other oil companies.
Dissatisfied by gender-based inequalities and injustices in the petroleum sector, Thandi enrolled for a Master’s in Business Administration, and after that, she got her Doctor in Philosophy in 2022 with a research focus on women empowerment.