Stellenbosch University student, Amohetsoe Shale, is proof that you are never too young to dream big. At 23, Shale, currently in her second year of a master’s degree in science, recently started a company through which she hopes to pioneer affordable prosthetics.
It’s November 2025, at the seventh annual Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education Awards. The Top Student Womanpreneur Award is about to be announced. Amohetsoe Shale’s heart is racing.
Then the winner’s name is called out: “Amohetsoe Shale!”
She was at the end of her first year as a master’s student in Biomolecular Engineering at Stellenbosch University (SU), but Shale has already dreamt big.
Earlier in 2025, she founded Navu Mobility, a company that focuses on designing and providing affordable prosthetic legs for low-income South Africans.
“We haven’t yet sold anything,” says Shale. “We are a pre-revenue company, and the main goal now is to develop the product [a prosthetic leg], test it and make sure it is safe.”
Inspired by personal experience
The idea of starting her company came about while she was pursuing her undergraduate degree in Medical Orthotics and Prosthetics.
Shale is one of seven children. Her first encounter with disability was with her younger brother, who had meningitis when he was young, resulting in him having a contracture.
“I think I have experienced what it is like to live with someone with a physical disability as well as a cognitive disability, because my triplet brothers have autism. People with disabilities and their realities have definitely impacted me from an early stage,” she says.
Yet, she does not think that this was the main driver behind her career choice. Rather, it came through her exposure with orthotics during her undergraduate degree.
But now, through her company, she hopes to make a difference. She was able to fund her company through, among others, the Womanpreneur Award. A prize money of R25 000 was attached to it. She also won R100 000 at the EDHE Absa Top Student Innovator of the Year, where she was placed fourth. This initiative aims to nurture innovations of university students and academics.
Lastly, she won R10 000 as a runner-up in the Academic Research Commercialisation category at the same awards.
On top of the prize money, Navu Mobility also enjoys support from investors through Stellenbosch University.
“We have been able to make a lot of progress because of that. That has really helped contribute to the product development of my product,” she says.
“When compared to knees that the majority of patients and public hospitals can access, Navu Mobility prosthetics has better functionality because it has the polycentric rotation and achieves better movement,” she claims. Polycentric rotation is a mechanical design that mimics the motion of a human knee, she says.
Currently, she employs three interns: One that deals with marketing and operations tasks, a computer-aided design (CAD) lead and a chief operating officer (COO). She hopes to expand her business in the future.
A genius at a young age
Shale was born in Milnerton, Cape Town. Her family moved to Kei Road, a small town in the Eastern Cape, when she was a toddler. Having been promoted to grade 1 while still doing grade R, Shale showed academic potential at an early age.
“Amo examines all sorts of [things]. She would want to know where the moms of snails were and ask, ‘Why didn’t we dish food for snails?’,” her mother, Naledi Mbude-Mehana, says.
“I was called to school as she aced all the maths tests,” recalls Mbude-Mehana. “She was on top of her class. She once corrected a teacher who had drawn a rectangle on a chalkboard instead of a square.”
Nowadays, the family does not need to consult with a technician when some appliances are broken, Mbude-Mehana says. When a television, toy or any gadget gets broken, Shale is the first person her family contacts.
After seeing her matric marks, the family knew that Shale was going to succeed academically, says her sister, Ziyathandwa Shale.
“Amo has always been a straight-A student. We knew that she would be able to do whatever she wanted to. It’s funny how we just knew that she would be a parachute from there on,” her sister says.
Transitioning from a health degree to engineering
Shale did her undergraduate degree in Medical Orthotics and Prosthetics at Walter Sisulu University between March 2021 to December 2024.
Now she is enrolled for a masters in engineering. The transition has been a rollercoaster.
“Before, I was in a health sciences degree, doing engineering modules. Now, I’m in an engineering degree, doing health sciences modules. The framework is really different, and the writing structure is different,” she says. “People also expect different things in different disciplines.”
Family and friends have been her support system.
“Even if I fail, I always have a home and supportive siblings who I can go back to. I know that they would still love me. Nothing will change even if my career doesn’t become what I would like it to be.”
When feeling discouraged, she reminds herself that her skills were enough to get her through.
Life away from the books… sort of
Shale enjoys painting. She laughs and shakes her head. She does not think that she is good at it, but finds it as a great way to de-stress.
“I love reading. I have found that I am more empathetic and understand people more after reading a fictional book than a non-fiction book,” she says. “It was [Nigerian author] Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who said non-fiction tells you what happened, fiction tells you how it felt. It resonates with me because I am curious about human emotion.”
At primary school, they sometimes rewarded her with small amounts of cash as an incentive after coming out on top of her class. A philanthropist at heart, the first thing that came to her mind, when she received the incentive, was buying clothes for children at a nearby shelter.
“Of course, that money wasn’t enough, but we ended up filling up bags of clothes for the children’s home,” her mother says.
Looking to the future, Shale plans to get her company into the market after completing her master’s degree. She also wants to find doctors who would work with the company to expand the reach.
Her success, she says, stems from hard work and doing what she loves.
“There is nothing more satisfying than realising that you have built something and it is going somewhere.”