There are those who walk into boardrooms and inherit a seat at the table. And then there are those who build new tables entirely opening the doors so others can take their place in the sun. Shivani Singh is one such architect of possibility.
Her journey through South Africa’s automotive and manufacturing sectors is not just a story of titles or deals. It’s the journey of a woman who has refused to be written into the footnotes of history, instead claiming her space in the centre of the story and inviting others to join her.
As Chief Projects Officer at naamsa | The Automotive Business Council, Shivani’s days are spent at the heart of change translating the global shift to new energy vehicles into real, investable opportunities for South Africa’s people, supply chains, and innovators.
With a Masters in Economics and a sharp specialisation in industrial development, she is the rare leader who bridges numbers and narratives, strategy and street level delivery. She oversees everything from financial management and compliance to skills and business development, marketing and PR, and is a subject matter expert whose advice is sought by local and global C-suite decision makers. But beneath the credentials lies an unshakeable belief in what the sector can become a place where women and emerging leaders don’t just participate but actually set the agenda. Her impact is not theoretical. It is seen in steel and aluminium, in the new network of 120 public charging sites for new energy vehicles now being rolled out across the country, and in every supplier and young professional whose opportunities were unlocked because Shivani insisted on it.
When she speaks about transformation and localisation, it’s not in slogans it’s in practical, data driven strategies that uplift local content, encourage black and women owned suppliers, and build business cases robust enough to convince even the most skeptical executives. As a member of JET SEP Advisory Board, SABS Advisory Forum and Allan Gray Makers Advisory Committee, her contributions are shaping South Africa’s industrial and economic future by developing interventions that prepare the next generation for the demands of a just energy transition, supporting the creation of national frameworks that drive industrialisation through robust standards, and promoting artisan entrepreneurship and youth employment. Her work centres on anticipating future skills needs, building practical pathways for young people to enter meaningful work, ensuring that industrial growth is inclusive, resilient and ready for the opportunities and challenges ahead.
Shivani’s leadership of donor funded projects like the Automotive Supply Chain Competitiveness Initiative and High Gear has guided both large manufacturers and emerging entrepreneurs helping them to adapt to global standards while creating new pathways for black industrialists and women to thrive. In her world, economic justice is not a side effect, it’s a strategic lever. Her current mission? To ensure that South Africa’s NEV revolution does not import solutions, but builds them growing local skills, nurturing local content, and assembling the infrastructure of the future with hands and minds drawn from every corner of our society. Already, pillars, cables, harnessing, and even plugs for the charging network can be made locally, thanks to Shivani’s relentless focus on industrialisation.
There’s a certain poetry to her approach equal parts rigor and grace, idealism and pragmatism. She’s led in rooms where few expected to see her and transformed them by her presence. She’s navigated the old boy networks, but her legacy is in the networks she’s built for others.
Perhaps the most telling is her insistence on working with, not just for, government and industry. Strategic partnerships with fuel companies and black industrialists, buy in from development finance institutions, and the endorsement of every major OEM: these are the building blocks of Shivani’s blueprint for a sustainable, inclusive automotive future. In a sector where progress is too often defined by the churn of machinery, Shivani Singh reminds us that the truest engines of change are people, especially those who dare to lead differently. This Women’s Month, Uzenzele salutes Shivani not as a nominee, but as a vanguard. Her story is proof that South Africa’s industries will be shaped, and reshaped, by those who dare to dream, build, and include.
If you are searching for a model of what’s possible for a glimpse of how valor, intellect, and collaboration can remake an entire sector look no further than Shivani Singh. Hers is the journey that will inspire the next generation of leaders to do more than break barriers; it will inspire them to remove them entirely.