Makunga grew up in Alice in the Eastern Cape, and attended a private boarding school in Grahamstown.
[1] He grew up in rural poverty and won a scholarship to study at University of Fort Hare.
Her work looks to identify the molecular and genetic regulation of the secondary metabolism in medicinal plants.
[10] She won the 2011 National Science and Technology Forum Distinguished Young Black Researcher award.
[1][3] Together with Tanisha Williams and Beronda Montgomery, she leads the annual Black Botanists Week.