South African transgender activist, artist and media personality Yaya Mavundla has been named a winner of the Mail & Guardian Power of Women Awards 2026 in the Arts, Film & Media category.
The recognition places Mavundla among a distinguished group of South African women whose work, leadership and contributions are shaping society. The Mail & Guardian’s Power of Women initiative, now in its 20th year, celebrates women across sectors whose work demonstrates leadership, transformation and meaningful impact.
For Mavundla, the award represents more than an individual achievement. It is a significant moment for transgender visibility in South Africa’s creative, cultural and media landscape and an opportunity to draw attention to the voices and experiences that continue to be underrepresented in influential spaces.
“This recognition means a great deal to me, but I receive it with a sense of responsibility rather than simply celebration,” says Mavundla. “For me, before even winning my very first award in 2018, the Feather Award, visibility has never been about being seen for the sake of being seen. It is about what becomes possible when people who have historically been left outside the room are finally allowed to enter, contribute and lead.”
Mavundla says as a transgender woman being recognised within a major national women’s platform carries particular significance.
“I am so grateful to Mail & Guardian for seeing us, recognising us, and affirming that we as Transgender women deserve to be part of society equally, with the same opportunities, dignity, and recognition as every other woman and citizen. I do want to mention if this recognition marks a first for a transgender woman within the history of these awards, then I want us to understand what that actually means. Being the first, and being the only one in the room, is not a flex. It is a call for urgency. It should make us ask why it took this long, who is still missing from these spaces, and what we need to change so that the next transgender woman does not have to be the first.”
She adds: “We still have a long way to go before everyone is in the room. Representation cannot be something we celebrate only when one person breaks through. The real measure of progress is whether the door stays open behind us, whether institutions actively create space for different women, different communities and different lived experiences to participate and lead.”
Mavundla has consistently used her public platform to challenge narrow representations of transgender lives and to advocate for greater visibility, dignity and belonging. Her recent work has included cultural and creative projects centred on transgender representation, including her role as curator of Brave Beauties at Constitution Hill, an exhibition documenting and celebrating transgender women and gender-nonconforming people in South Africa, hosting Global Black Pride Ceremony & Excellence Gala Awards in Paris and partnering with Dutch Airline KLM for World Pride in Amsterdam.
Her advocacy has also emphasised the importance of understanding transgender identities within African cultural contexts rather than treating them as foreign or newly arrived identities. In a 2026 interview with Sowetan, Mavundla spoke about the importance of transgender people being able to claim both their cultural heritage and their gender identity without having to choose between the two.
Addressing conversations about women’s spaces, Mavundla is equally clear that the advancement of transgender women should not be framed as a competition with heterosexual or cisgender women.
“I want to be very clear about something: transgender women are not here to take heterosexual women’s spaces in society. We are not asking women to disappear so that we can exist. We are asking society to understand that there is room for all of us.”
“The struggle for women’s dignity, safety, equality and opportunity should never become a fight between women. There is no liberation in creating another group of women who must prove that they deserve to belong. My presence does not diminish another woman’s. Her success does not threaten mine. We can make room for one another, we should never allow negative comments from society to influence us backwards.”
For Mavundla, the Mail & Guardian recognition therefore becomes part of a broader conversation about what meaningful inclusion looks like.
“I want this award to be bigger than me. I want a young transgender girl somewhere in South Africa to see this moment and understand that the rooms she has been told are not for her can, in fact, become rooms where she belongs. But I also want the institutions controlling those rooms to understand that inclusion cannot depend on exceptional individuals constantly fighting their way through the door.”
“I am grateful to be here. But I don’t want to be the only one here. I want us to get to a point where nobody has to be the first anymore.”
The Mail & Guardian Power of Women initiative describes itself as an annual celebration of South African women across diverse sectors, recognising individual accomplishment, leadership, peer and public recognition, and a willingness to give back to society.
Mavundla says she accepts the award on behalf of the communities, women and transgender people whose stories continue to push South Africa towards a more inclusive understanding of representation and power.
“This is a beautiful moment, but it is also a responsibility. I accept it with gratitude, with pride and with a commitment to keep opening doors, until we no longer have to ask who is missing from the room, Happy Pride Month!.”
