Alumnus Wins Mail & Guardian’s Power of Women Award

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Medical School alumnus, Dr Samke Ngcobo, is this year’s Forty under 40 Health and Wellness category winner in the Mail & Guardian’s (M&G) Power of Women Awards for her company, Vocal Mentality.

She dedicated the win of this award to people navigating mental illness and those who are affected by it.

M&G, who introduced the Power of Women category in celebration of women turning the impossible into the unstoppable, said: “We pay tribute to the women who challenge limitations, shift narratives and lead with a purpose.”

Ngcobo is a passionate mental health advocate who is thriving despite living with Bipolar Disorder Type 1 for more than 20 years.

She is the founding CEO of the corporate wellness company Vocal Mentality (Pty) Ltd which was established five years ago as a platform that promotes mental health psycho-education and mental health advocacy - a dual platform of personal expression through the lens of “lived experience with mental illness” and sharing of knowledge in mental health from a professional perspective.

The company was recognised as a Top 5 Finalist in TransUnion’s 2022 Rising Star Awards in the Entrepreneurship category.
Ngcobo said she was truly honoured by the M&G’s recognition. “I feel encouraged to keep furthering my cause in mental health advocacy. Thank you so much to everyone who supported me through my journey.”

An international keynote speaker with numerous awards for public speaking, Ngcobo is the author of Reflections of a Convoluted Mind: A Journey with My Mental Illness - a book that was inspired by her desire to create awareness and understanding about the life of a person living with a mental illness from a narrative of someone living with mental illness herself. She felt that she could share valuable insights and also serve as a doctor. Her book won the Forty Under 40 South Africa Award.

Ngcobo said her UKZN Medical School highlight was the extensive depth of knowledge and experience she gained through exposure to patient care, and the formidable support she received from the academic staff during a tumultuous time in her training as she was faced with severe mental health challenges.

Ngcobo recently hosted an event: Celebrating A Mentality Milestone, in Johannesburg, where guests listened to insightful conversations from a clinical panel of psychiatrists, a psychologist and an occupational therapist, including UKZN alumnus and psychiatrist, Dr Bonginkosi Mafuze who was also a 2025 finalist in the African Health Excellence Awards Rising Star category, and UKZN specialist psychiatrist Dr Clementine Chawane.

•    Watch Ngcobo’s YouTube testament on what relapse, hospitalisation and recovery look like.

Words: Lunga Memela

Photograph: Supplied