Tswelopele Mohapi Is Writing Her Own Story in Sports PR

In 2025, Tswelopele Mohapi walked into the gsport Awards as a guest’s plus-one. She left the room with a goal she set for herself that night. “I made a goal, I was like, I’m gonna be nominated soon for this,” says Mohapi.

Within a year, the 23-year-old communications and activation professional was a finalist in the Woman in PR and Sponsorship category at the 21st gsport Awards, carried there by multiple public nominations. Today she is an account executive at sponsorship and marketing agency Playmakers.

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She says that first evening as a guest “just altered my brain in terms of what I can achieve”, and the nomination that followed gave her something she rarely allows herself.

“I don’t necessarily see what I do or what I achieve as achievements and it’s always for me it’s like I needed to do this and it’s like I don’t see it as like a big achievement and I think being nominated for 2026 was for me like my pat on the back,” says Mohapi.

“I think that kind of helps with your imposter syndrome of thinking that you don’t necessarily belong in a certain space.”

Tswelopele means progress in Sesotho, and for Mohapi the name carries the voice of her late mother.

“It was kinda like her final message to me, just telling me to keep going, keep progressing, even though she’s not alive anymore,” she says.

Her mother had her as a teenager and kept studying while raising her, building a career and a life of her own. Her grandmother spent more than three decades in retail and kept looking for ways to learn and grow long after she retired.

“My granny was in retail for like 32 years, but the life that she built for herself was immaculate,” says Mohapi.

Those two women taught her that nothing about her future is fixed. “I am truly the writer of my own story.”

“I can decide who I want to be today and I can decide who I want to be tomorrow and nobody can tell me otherwise,” she says.

Mohapi’s career began on the touchline rather than behind a desk. The institution where she studied introduced her to the organisers of the Engen Knockout Challenge and the Engen Champ of Champs, and she spent three years volunteering at the youth football tournaments, helping with team management and learning how a tournament works from the inside.

It was there that she understood the role communicators play in an athlete’s moment.

“So as soon as I understood that I’m also part of the storytelling through communications, marketing PR is when I was like okay this is what I want to do,” says Mohapi.

She saw that getting the right media to an event could change a young player’s life. 

“Who knows? They’ll see the next star right there.”

She was still volunteering in 2021 when Engen introduced an Under-20 girls’ division to the Knockout Challenge, and she remembers being inspired by the platform it created for young women footballers. 

The tournament offers the same prize money and awards in its girls’ and boys’ divisions, an example Mohapi holds up when she speaks about how women’s sport should be valued.

Her volunteering opened the door to an internship at BMT Specialists, where she returned to the same Engen campaign as a PR intern and rose to account manager.

“I wasn’t always a confident individual, you know.”

“It definitely put me in spaces where I now needed to like trust my my instinct and trust what I’m doing,” she says. She credits the agency with the foundation of her career.

“I pretty much owe my entire career to BMT Specialists because they believed in me when I was literally like still volunteering,” says Mohapi.

She has since moved to Playmakers as an account executive, a step she says she feels fully equipped to take.

Ask Mohapi what women’s football should take from the men’s game and she turns the question around. The talent is there, she says, and the real work lies in how the sport is named and seen.

“I also believe we have a responsibility as a society to challenge how we position women’s sport,” she says.

When friends assume that a conversation about basketball must be about the men’s game, she corrects them: she is talking about Angel Reese.

“Why don’t we just call it sport?”

“Why don’t we just call it football, basketball, and then follow up with the question like are you talking about the men’s or the women’s?” says Mohapi.

She believes the tools for women’s sport to take off already exist, and that the shift has to begin with women themselves.

“We’re at the door, we’re knocking at it,” she says. “We need to bet on ourselves first.”

She urges women in sport to plan their careers with certainty. “Women in sports should look at their careers as when as opposed to if.”

The first person to back Mohapi’s career was a man, Thabang Mazibuko, and she has made it her mission to play that role for young women. “When I look at my career, the first person to believe in me and empower me was a man. And I’m trying to change that for most women,” she says.

She looks for a place for young women in every project she works on. Olwethu Mbanjane volunteered under her at a football event, went on to volunteer at the 2025 gsport Awards on Mohapi’s recommendation and now holds Mohapi’s former internship at BMT Specialists.

“I’m proud to mention that Olwethu is doing amazing at BMT and I can’t wait to see what she has in store even further,” says Mohapi.

She is also collaborating with five women in PR as they support one another’s growth, and she makes a point of putting women journalists at the forefront in her media work.

Mohapi first came across gsport in 2020 or 2021, and she says the platform gave her a sense of belonging in an industry where women remain few.

“When you’re in a minority, you need a community.”

“The community that gsport is creating for women is impeccable,” she says.

Her ambitions stretch well beyond South Africa. In high school she set herself the challenge of learning a new sport every month, learning the rules and following codes as far from home as lacrosse.

“I wanted to be a shape shifter,” says Mohapi. She names the WNBA among the global platforms she hopes to work on, and she would take South African culture with her, along with the understanding that comes from being both a woman and a person of colour in the industry.

Her message to a 15-year-old girl who dreams of a career in sports communication is simple.

“Your dreams are way closer than you think.”

“Every single time I look at what I’ve achieved and how I got there, it was always closer than I thought,” she says.

Her second piece of advice is the one she lives by. 

“Hold yourself to the highest degree.”

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Main Photo Caption: Woman in PR and Sponsorship finalist Tswelopele Mohapi, who rose from youth football tournament volunteer to account executive at Playmakers while opening doors for other young women in sports communication, joined the class of 2026 at the 21st gsport Awards at the Wanderers Club in Illovo, Johannesburg, on Saturday, 8 August 2026. All Photos: Supplied

Photo 2 Caption: Inspired by her late mother’s final message, Mohapi proudly carries the meaning of her Sesotho name, Tswelopele, which translates to progress.

Photo 3 Caption: Volunteering at the Engen Knockout Challenge gave Mohapi her first taste of storytelling in sport before an internship opened an agency career.

Photo 4 Caption: Calling for women’s sport to be named simply as sport, Mohapi believes women must bet on themselves first to change how the game is seen.

Photo 5 Caption: Returning to the gsport Awards after attending in 2025 as a plus-one, Mohapi describes her nomination as a well-earned pat on the back.