At just 30 years old, Phamela Makhoba from Katlehong in Ekurhuleni takes on two global crises with a single innovation, tackling SA’s housing shortage using discarded fashion waste.

Inspired by billionaire Mark Shuttleworth’s ethos that “nothing is impossible”, Makhoba merges architectural training with sustainability to develop Texiboards, durable, eco-friendly building panels made from recycled textiles.

I studied architecture at TUT, and then I worked in interior design. I got this great opportunity in my final year where we were allowed to have an open brief, and you could design any house you wanted in any location. That’s when I started learning about issues in Africa, and that’s when I discovered the East African floods. I designed a house that was DIY-friendly with local materials that is amphibious. It could float during floods and settle on land afterwards. That project really touched me – it was the first one I felt had purpose and real-world impact.

I used to take back roads to work and saw so many informal settlements. I kept thinking, I feel like I have the education to solve this problem. I started researching ... YouTube, books, case studies. Then working in interior design, I learned about construction materials like MDF boards and timber. I started questioning: why “fibre” boards, and can we use other fibres? That’s when I discovered the fashion waste crisis and realised I could use one problem to solve another. It’s about seeing problems differently and reconstructing solutions that are better for people, their pockets, and the planet.

The idea is to introduce innovative prefab housing to informal settlements. The process starts with cleaning and treating waste clothing, then mixing it with a lime-cement binder, and pressing it into boards or sheets. We’re still designing the main machine to produce the boards, but we’ve achieved sample sizes. These boards can be used like plywood or MDF for building and furniture. Challenges? Major brain drain – we struggled to find engineers who’d help without multi-million contracts. Also, integrating waste pickers into our supply chain is hard – it’s not clean, and recycling is a business in itself.

Absolutely, it’s scalable because we aren’t reinventing the wheel. Builders are already familiar with the materials we’re mimicking. Once the machine is done, this can become a manufacturing plant placed across the Global South – in South America, Africa, and India. These are all regions battling housing crises. Plus, teaching modular building skills to communities could empower them to lift themselves out of poverty without traditional education barriers. I want to see places like Uganda and Kenya turn fashion waste into hope and power, giving people dignified homes and meaningful work.

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