Lucia Mtshake Ntshona: The woman who brings brands, people and purpose together.
Some women walk into a room and wait to be introduced. Lucia Mtshake Ntshona knows how to make an entrance, bring the right people to the table and make sure the room remembers why they came. But reducing her to an MC would only tell a fraction of her story. She is an educator, entrepreneur, community builder and a woman who understands that a personal brand is not simply what people see on stage, but what they experience long after the event is over.
At HER Eastern Cape, we have been looking at the women building their names while creating space for others to grow. Lucia stands out because she has found a way to bring different worlds together, from corporate events and university leadership to community work and women’s empowerment. She knows how to connect people, align brands and turn relationships into opportunities. And perhaps that is what makes her own brand so compelling: Lucia is not simply the woman behind the microphone. She is the brand that brings everything together.
When we sat down to explore her journey, one thing became clear. The confidence people see today was built over years of leadership, service, learning and showing up before the bigger opportunities arrived.
Lucia’s story did not begin under event lights or on a glamorous stage. It began in the classrooms of Alexander Road High School, where she took Dramatic Arts and was later unanimously voted Head Girl by her peers.
University gave her another platform to grow. At what was then Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, she became deeply involved in student leadership, community initiatives and event coordination. In 2008, she was elected Secretary General of the Reach Africa Group (RAG), becoming its chairperson the following year. She also served as SASCO South Campus Chairperson and sat on the ANCYL Regional Executive Committee.
It was during those years that people began trusting her with the responsibility of bringing events together.
“When there was a function, they would say, ‘Call Lucia, she will handle it,’” she recalls.
She became the official MC for institutional events, pageants and student programmes, while completing Toastmasters International training to develop her public speaking skills. But her work extended beyond the stage. Through research and community projects, she engaged with people in different settings, including health and gender-based violence programmes. Those experiences shaped how she communicates.
Lucia Mtshake Ntshona: The woman who brings brands, people and purpose together.
“Connecting is not about being loud, it’s about being culturally fluent,” she says.
Speaking English, isiXhosa and conversational Afrikaans, alongside basic isiZulu, helped Lucia connect with people across different communities and professional settings. She learnt that communication is not simply about being heard. It is about making people feel understood.
As she puts it, “People didn’t just hear me, they felt understood. And when people feel understood, they trust you. And trust, my sister, is a business.”
In 2010, Lucia founded Khazimla Projects after noticing that girls in disadvantaged communities were missing school because they lacked sanitary products and health education. She approached the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber with an idea, and what began as a request for support developed into a social initiative that has continued for 15 years.
It was a turning point because it connected her ability to communicate with a purpose beyond personal ambition.
Her professional journey has never fitted neatly into one category. From 2011 to 2019, she worked as a teacher and subject head at Alexander Road High School. Since 2020, she has served as Residence Manager at Sarah Baartman Residence at Nelson Mandela University. She is also a part-time programme lecturer at Port Elizabeth TVET College, a role she has held since 2013.
Managing a university residence involves far more than administration. Lucia oversees operations, budgets, procurement, facilities, compliance, conflict resolution and student welfare.
“People saw me as ‘just a teacher’,” she says of how some viewed her earlier career. Others saw her residence management role as “just admin”.
But she knows the depth of responsibility her roles demand. “That is corporate-level operations,” she says.
Her academic journey has helped her bring that business understanding into her brand. After completing her qualifications in geography, psychology and education, she pursued a BEd Honours in Management, Law and Policy, followed by a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration. She is now in the second year of her MBA.
For Lucia, professional development is about understanding the value she brings and being able to communicate it clearly.
“I don’t just sell a bubbly personality,” she explains. “I sell a professional service.”
Like many women in creative industries, Lucia has had to navigate the expectation that exposure should be enough payment for her work.
“Exposure doesn’t pay for data. Exposure doesn’t pay for your PDBA,” she says.
The lesson was to stop describing herself as “just an MC” and recognise the full range of skills she offers. Her work can include consultations, script development, programme directing and post-event reporting, alongside hosting and public speaking.
That shift changed how she positioned herself professionally and how she approached negotiations. She learnt to set clear boundaries around her time, deliverables and fees.
“People respect your work when you respect your work first,” she says.
Her approach to relationships follows the same principle. “I don’t just network, I partner.”
Her long-standing relationship with the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has supported Khazimla Projects through sanitary product donations, venues, corporate mentorship and credibility. Through the Businesswomen’s Association, where she served as Vice Chairperson of its Port Elizabeth branch from 2018 to 2019, she connected with women whose businesses later became sources of contracts, collaborations and referrals.
For Lucia, meaningful networking is not about collecting contacts. It is about building relationships that continue to create value.
She believes in being consistent, arriving on time, following up after an event and remembering that behind every organisation is a person who deserves respect.
That commitment to people is also behind the wellness luncheon Lucia hosted on 24 October.
The idea came to her one evening at 10 pm in her residence office, following a student crisis. A young woman who was excelling academically reached a point of emotional exhaustion and told Lucia, “Mam’ Lucia, I am tired of being strong.”
The words stayed with her. Lucia recognised that this pressure was not limited to students. Women across different stages of life are often expected to keep showing up for everyone else, even while carrying their own grief, ambition, loss and uncertainty.
“As women, we are always hosting, always pouring. Where do we go to be poured into?” she asks.
The luncheon centered on Love, Loss, Grief and Ambition, creating room for honest conversations that do not always make it onto social media timelines. Lucia wants women to reflect on identity, confidence, personal branding and the experiences that shape them.
“I want us to have conversations that we don’t have on timelines,” she says.
Under the theme “Grounded Elegance: Own Your Voice, Own Your Space,” attendees experienced facilitated discussions, practical tools for personal branding and wellness, guided reflection, good food and sisterhood. Her hope was to create a table where women can speak honestly without feeling they must have everything figured out.
We asked Lucia about the experiences that remind her why she started, and two moments come to mind.
The first was in 2009, when she was 22 and working as Project Officer for Presidential Legacies at the Raymond Mhlaba Institute of Public Administration and Leadership. She helped coordinate a memorial lecture involving the office of former President Thabo Mbeki and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. After the event, a senior director praised how she had handled the responsibility.
It showed her that a young woman from the Eastern Cape could hold her own in important rooms.
The second moment was quieter. In 2018, she returned to a school where Khazimla Projects had donated sanitary products three years earlier. A young woman, now in Grade 12 and serving as Head Girl, approached her and remembered a message Lucia had shared about periods not having to interrupt a girl’s purpose.
“That is why I started,” Lucia says. “Not for the applause on stage, but for the whisper in a corridor that says, ‘Because you spoke, I stayed.’”
For her, that is the measure of impact: what continues long after she has left the room.
For Eastern Cape women who have a talent or passion but are unsure how to turn it into something sustainable, Lucia’s advice is practical.
“Start with what is in your hand, where you are, with what you have.”
Document your talent. Use your phone to create content. Volunteer strategically, build relationships, solve problems in your community and invest in qualifications that strengthen your skills. You do not have to wait for the perfect opportunity before you begin.
Lucia is also firm about not allowing geography to define ambition.
“Your location is not your limitation; your mindset is,” she says.
Her journey is a reminder that a personal brand is not built through visibility alone. It takes competence, relationships, service and the courage to recognise your own value. Lucia can host a corporate gala, manage the demands of student housing, teach aspiring professionals and create platforms for women to connect.
The microphone may introduce her to a room, but it is the work she does beyond it that gives her voice its meaning.
For more, visit: Lucia Mtshake Ntshona
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