She is the Director of Earthlife Africa Johannesburg (Jhb), an environmental justice and anti-nuclear organisation. Makoma is a strong campaigner for a just and fair society. She has been active in social movements tackling issues of gender and women’s rights, economic and environmental justice.
Her commitment to climate justice in South Africa has led civil society to win the first South African climate change legal court case against the government and the reversal of the nuclear deal by the South African and the Russian government. For her efforts, she received the WWF Living Awards Honourable Mention in 2017, the Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa in 2018 and the Nick Steel Environmentalist of the Year 2018 amongst other accolades. In December 2020, she was appointed commissioner to the Presidential Climate Commission, a body charged with supervising and facilitating just and equitable transition towards a low-emissions and climate-resilient economy in South Africa.