When Thandiwe Mogonwe co-founded KTMO Business Solutions in Welkom in 2014, she was a young
woman entering an industry where leadership and decision-making remained largely male dominated.
More than a decade later, she is the company’s CEO, and KTMO has grown from its Free State roots into
a multi-provincial skills-development business with offices in Welkom, Cape Town and Roodepoort
and accreditation across five SETAs — MICT, Local Government, Banking, ETDP, and Wholesale & Retail.
But for Mogonwe, the achievement is about more than building a successful company.
It is about changing the conversation around who gets to shape the skills that determine who gets
access to employment opportunities.
“Skills development isn’t neutral,” says Mogonwe. “The people who decide which
learnerships to pursue, which sectors to prioritise and how a training programme is
structured are making decisions about whose employability matters most.”
With qualifications spanning Marketing, Economics and Commercial Law, Mogonwe has spent the
past decade combining business knowledge with skills development to build
KTMO into a strategic
partner for organisations navigating South Africa’s complex training and accreditation environment.
Building Together
KTMO’s growth has been a partnership between Thandiwe and her co-founder and Managing Director,
Khomotso Mogonwe.
A Microsoft Certified Professional with six international qualifications, A+ and N+ certifications and more
than 18 years in the training industry, Khomotso leads the company’s technical systems, IT
infrastructure and operational delivery, helping turn the company’s vision into programmes that can
operate across provinces.
“Thandiwe sets the direction and makes the calls on where this business needs to go,”
says Khomotso. “My job is to make sure the infrastructure can carry that ambition.”
Together, the pair have built a company whose training portfolio spans areas including IT systems
development, cybersecurity, early childhood development, municipal finance and agricultural
production, serving public- and private-sector clients.
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A Women’s Month Story With a Bigger Question
For Mogonwe, Women’s Month should not only celebrate women who have succeeded. It should also
ask why more women are not yet represented in the rooms where decisions about skills, employment
and economic opportunity are made.
“I don’t think the industry needs fewer men in it. I think it needs more women in the
rooms where the decisions get made — not as a symbolic gesture, but because those
decisions are better when more perspectives are in them.”
Her advice to women entering business is equally direct:
“Don’t wait to be invited into the conversation. Study the framework. Know the policy
better than anyone else in the room. And build something in the place that needs it most
— not the place that already has everything.”
For Thandiwe and Khomotso, KTMO’s journey from Welkom is ultimately about proving that skills
development, business and inclusive leadership can work together to create meaningful
opportunity.
About KTMO Business Solutions
KTMO Business Solutions is a 100% Black African-owned and managed training, skills development
and accreditation firm founded in 2014 and headquartered in Welkom, Free State, with offices in Cape
Town and Roodepoort.
The company is accredited with the MICT, Local Government, Banking, ETDP and Wholesale & Retail
SETAs and works with public and private-sector clients on accreditation, learnership design, and
training and development practitioner support.
