She was born in 1880 at the MacFarlane Mission in the Victoria district of Alice. She obtained a teachers certificate from Lovedale Girls School. In 1898, an experimental nurse's training school was opened for black nurses at the Lovedale Mission Hospital. In 1903, after completing her training, she was sent to Butterworth Hospital for further training, to prepare for the Colonial Medical Council examination. Makiwane was registered as the first black professional nurse on the 7th January 1908.