The latest edition of the TV magazine programme, CNN African Voices, is devoted to celebrating two notable African pilots, including the first South African female pilot, Asnath Mahapa.
Mahapa, a South African, was the first African woman to break barriers by becoming a pilot.
Telling her inspirational story of how she broke barriers by becoming a pilot on the programme, Mahapa said she had to defy her father in order to follow her dream of taking to the skies.
“It just dawned on me that those big things that we see in the skies, someone is actually in charge of them,” she tells CNN. “I thought if someone can fly this thing, that means I can also do it.”
After extensive training, Mahapa in 1998 realized her dream and became the first female South African pilot.
She also had a dream of inspiring and developing a new generation of pilots. Therefore, in 2012, she opened the African College of Aviation to help women who aspire to become pilots.
The latest edition of CNN African Voices also features another pilot, a Kenyan called Michael Purchase. A conservationist working to protect the earth’s most precious treasures, Purchase combines his passion for flying with his love for wildlife and the environment.
Purchase also talks about his work as a Conservation Officer at Loisaba Conservancy in Laikipia in the northern part of Kenya.
Catch CNN African Voices on CNN International at 9.30 a.m. on Friday. Repeat editions air at 3.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. on Saturday and at 11.30 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. on Sunday. Further repeats come up at 10:30 a.m. on Monday and 4.30 a.m. on Tuesday.