Some of the most critical conversations women can have are often the ones we totally avoid. Brave Collective is creating space to have them together. Rachel Kolisi, Carla Venter, Khensani Nobanda and Lihle Ngxokolo-Nqini are all going to be there. On the 5th of August in Bryanston!
Johannesburg, South Africa (24 July 2026) – Women are often told to know their worth, own their power and back themselves. It’s become a familiar message, especially around Women’s Month. But what happens when you’re the first woman in your family to navigate investing, building wealth or making big financial decisions? Where do you learn the things nobody before you had the chance to teach?
That’s the conversation Brave Collective wants to put front and centre when it returns to The Forum in Bryanston on 5 August for its eighth annual Fortune Favours the Brave gathering.
This year’s theme, Own It, isn’t about appearing confident or pretending to have all the answers. Instead, it’s about being brave and taking the next real step. Taking ownership of your value, your voice, your finances and the life you’re building, and figuring it out as you go.
It is a message so relevant in South Africa, where the ability for women to fully participate in financial life is a relatively recent chapter in our history.
There are women alive today whose mothers couldn’t open bank accounts, own property or sign contracts in their own names without a husband’s consent. While the laws have changed, confidence with money, investing and financial independence isn’t something that gets passed down overnight.
“What I have come to understand is that Brave Collective is not really an event,” says Sharman. “It is a room for the first generation of South African women who legally get to own the lives they are building.”
But inheriting the right to build wealth isn’t the same as inheriting the knowledge of how to do it. Being brave enough to take that step further and empower yourself with that knowledge is what brings growth. It’s the core stuff, like knowing what a TFSA is, how to start investing, or how to have conversations about money without feeling intimidated.
That’s why Brave Collective still leans into the word brave.
“It takes bravery to build wealth when nobody in your family line ever has,” says Sharman. “It takes bravery to sit in a room of 400 women and admit you do not know what a unit trust is. It takes bravery to say the number out loud.”
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That’s what this year’s programme has been designed to do.
The one and only Rachel Kolisi will kick this year’s event off by sharing a deeply personal talk, Falling Forward, about rebuilding after life’s hardest seasons.
Financial educator Carla Venter will present a masterclass focused on financial confidence, long-term independence and changing the way women think about wealth.
Khensani Nobanda, Nedbank Group Executive for Marketing and Corporate Affairs, will explore leadership and stepping into decision-making roles with confidence.
MaXhosa Africa Managing Director Lihle Ngxokolo-Nqini will take to the mic to share her insights into building a proudly South African brand with global reach and what ownership looks like in the creative economy.
Building a life you’re proud of isn’t only about what’s in your bank account. It’s also about believing you deserve to take up space, surrounding yourself with people who want to see you succeed, and having the practical tools to make confident decisions along the way.
Women’s Month is filled with well-deserved celebrations of women and their achievements. But it’s also a chance to create spaces where women leave with new knowledge, practical advice, fresh perspective and perhaps even the confidence to ask the question they’ve been too nervous to ask until now.
If that’s what Own It achieves for even one woman in the room, it will have done exactly what it set out to do.
What: Fortune Favours the Brave. Own It.
When: Wednesday, 5 August 2026
Where: The Forum, Bryanston, Johannesburg
Doors Open: 07:30
Programme: 09:00 to 13:00, followed by lunch
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