OHANNESBURG, South Africa 2025 – Lefa Makgato is a Samsung success story through and through. Hailing from a South African town called Tembisa, Lefa has risen through the ranks to direct Samsung CSR programs throughout the Southern and East Africa. In her position, she is responsible for uplifting students from diverse backgrounds, providing them with whatever type of support they need. This can range from technological capabilities in classrooms to programs that provide platforms for future leaders to put their most innovative solutions on display.

Apart from her hard work, ingenuity, and unparalleled determination, what is unique about Lefa? It’s the fact that she is herself a beneficiary of Samsung’s CSR initiatives.

Since the end of high school, Lefa recounts Samsung being by her side on every step of her journey. Now, having been directly impacted by the company’s programs, she is committed to paying it forward to what she calls “a generation of Lefas” — promising students who can achieve their full potential once they’ve been equipped with the right resources and support.

After all these years, Lefa recently made her first visit to South Korea, where she toured Samsung Digital City in Suwon. While she was there, we sat down with her to learn more about the role Samsung has played in her personal and professional journey, as well as her commitment to creating opportunities to little Lefas all over the world.

Solar-Powered Internet School Introduces Lefa to Her First Computer

In 2012, Lefa was in her final year of high school, preparing for graduation, but her school in Tembisa did not have access to the Internet, or even computers, for that matter. With university applications being conducted solely online, Lefa recognized that this put her and her classmates at a serious disadvantage. However, that very year, Samsung delivered a Solar-Powered Internet School (SPIS) to her school. This provided the local students with the digital tools necessary to take the next step in their academic careers, and for Lefa, it marked the first time she had ever touched a computer. As a result, the SPIS opened up entirely new possibilities for her.

“It was like a shipping container with 21 desks in it and 21 desktops,” she recounted. “And I got to experience my first encounter with using a laptop at the age of 18, with the solar-powered internet school. That was my first direct exposure to Samsung, and I took that opportunity and never looked back.”

The PCs provided at the SPIS were a major boost to Lefa’s studies and were even instrumental in her university applications. Having matriculated from high school and completed her university applications, the next stop on Lefa’s journey was the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in Pretoria.

As a Marketing Management major at TUT, Lefa quickly gravitated toward CSR, which she’d been exposed to in a learning module. Having experienced the power of CSR as a direct beneficiary, she knew the ways in which CSR could make the world a better place. Through her studies, Samsung remained a supportive force, inviting her to lunch prior to graduation.

“I’m the first to graduate in my family, and the first to also get formal employment, actually.” Lefa said.

Lefa’s undeniable work ethic shone through in her agency work, and pretty soon, Samsung took notice. In 2017, a CSR coordinator position opened up, and Lefa received a call asking whether she wanted to take it. She jumped at the opportunity, utilizing her deep knowledge of the company to ace the interview and get the job. The position provided Lefa and her family with the type of financial stability that they had never previously experienced.

“It was a real game changer. I went on to renovate my mom’s house,” Lefa recounts.

It had always been her aspiration to run with Samsung, and once she got the opportunity, she carried this mentality with her — one in which she always strove to improve the lives of those around her.

A Career Defined by Paying It Forward

Since she was hired by Samsung, Lefa has been paying it forward by affording students the same opportunity that she was afforded twelve years ago, firsthand. Now, she leads the Samsung CSR department in Johannesburg, and is responsible for Samsung Innovation Campus, Solve for Tomorrow, and a broad variety of offerings throughout the region.

Samsung Innovation Campus has been up and running for three years in Africa, and in that time, more than 350 students have benefited from the programs. At Samsung Innovation Campus, students have received critical training in coding, programming, and artificial intelligence. Courses have been accredited, allowing the students to receive credit at a partner university. Students are then able to take the skills they have learned and seek employment.

“Through these programs, ‘a generation of Lefas’ are exposed to opportunities to have jobs at Samsung as well” Lefa mentioned. Samsung Innovation Campus now has branches in Malawi and Lesotho, with another slated to open in Kenya.

In South Africa, Solve for Tomorrow places a particular emphasis on targeting underserved youth, specifically public schools that are generally in the most rural areas. Lefa and her team conduct workshops at these schools and give them support, and, although Solve for Tomorrow is a STEM-based skills development program, her emphasis is on showing the –learners a different side of life. Apart from learning skills, students are given a platform to showcase their talents, allowing them to feel heard and seen when they might otherwise not be.

“I think when we start with most of our beneficiaries, you can see that they’re very shy — that they lack confidence in themselves,” Lefa said. “But after we conduct design thinking workshops, the students that we experience afterwards are totally different from when we first met. They’re more confident, they’re more bold. They feel seen, they feel heard, and that is the effect that Solve for Tomorrow has on these kids.”

Lefa describes many of the projects presented at Solve for Tomorrow as incredible. One that stuck out to her in particular was last year, when a group of students from the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal came up with an ingenious solution under the theme of “Environment.” Since they lived on the coast, they identified microplastics harming marine life as an issue in their community. With that as their target, the students developed an aquatic robot capable of detecting, attracting, and removing microplastics from the ocean. The project won third place, but two months later, the team was invited to showcase the robot at Stockholm Junior Water Prize 2025 in Sweden.

Lefa recognizes this as a big deal, she said “the students were able to present their idea outside of Africa and learn that they are more than just students — they are innovators who are now positioned to drive the future.”
It’s an aspirational case for young innovators that come from disadvantaged schools in rural areas — where instruction is not carried out in English. This is a clear indication that these Samsung initiatives are bringing real, quantifiable change.

Lefa’s work benefits communities beyond Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung Innovation Campus. Samsung’s employee volunteer program allows employees a great deal of flexibility in choosing how they want to give back to the community, so pre-COVID, Lefa’s team partnered with Habitat for Humanity to build 10 houses for families who had never previously owned houses. The team went on to build an additional three houses in KwaZulu-Natal, with one house standing out to Lefa in particular. It was presented to a 96-year-old woman who had never lived in a house in her entire life.

This is why Lefa finds such deep fulfillment in her work.
Growing up in a small town, she did not use a computer until she was 18. Through the SPIS program, she not only launched Samsung’s CSR initiatives but also discovered her own purpose in creating meaningful change. Today, Lefa is dedicated to empowering a “generation of Lefas” around the world, inspiring others to turn opportunity into impact.

Find out more about Samsung’s CSR initiatives at https://csr.samsung.com.

About Samsung Solve for Tomorrow
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is a global competition that empowers students to address real-world challenges in their communities through STEM. By fostering creativity and critical thinking, the program encourages students to innovate and develop impactful solutions to local and global issues.
Through hands-on projects, participants gain the skills and confidence to tackle complex problems, transforming their ideas into actionable solutions. The program nurtures the next generation of leaders while strengthening the global community by connecting young minds across borders to share knowledge and inspire collective progress.
To learn more, visit https://csr.samsung.com/en/program/samsung-solve-for-tomorrow.

About Samsung Innovation Campus
Samsung Innovation Campus is a global education program that helps youth build advanced IT skills and practical capabilities to unlock better opportunities. Through structured courses that cover topics like AI, big data, and IoT, as well as hands-on training and expert mentoring, participants gain the tools to thrive in the digital era. Tailored programs are available for underrepresented groups including women and girls, and people with disabilities, to expand access to IT education. Graduates pursue various career paths including IT employment, tech-driven startups, and social impact initiatives.
To learn more, visit https://csr.samsung.com/en/program/samsung-innovation-campus.