Something big is sweeping through the economy – steadily but surely women are claiming their rightful place at the helm of major corporations in our country.
For a start, for example, the editor of this iconic paper, Nwabisa Makunga, has been at the helm of this important institution, ably leading it to its 40th anniversary.
At a larger scale, women are rising: the SA operations of multinational, Anglo American, have been in the hands of influential woman Nolitha Fakude, who has just been elected president of the Minerals Council.
Anglo Platinum, Anglo’s subsidiary, is run by a woman, Natascha Viljoen, and, a week ago, Kumba Iron Ore announced that Themba Mkhwanazi, its CEO, will be replaced by Nompumelelo Zikalala from January 1 2022.
Kumba chairman, Terence Goodlace, said: “Her appointment is another demonstration of our commitment as a business towards nurturing and supporting the success of women. We look forward to her leadership in advancing the strategic and operational aspirations of Kumba.”
This seismic change hasn’t been limited to Anglo. Exxaro, the coal miner, has announced that Mxolisi Mgojo, its CEO, will be replaced by Nombasa Tsengwa upon his retirement mid-2022.
The JSE, the company that runs Africa’s largest stock exchange, has been successfully run now by two women CEOs – first, by Nicky Newton-King and, lately, by Leila Fourie.
The gender agenda has been faster and widespread mostly in the public sector where major departments and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have long been led by numerous black female executives. For example, two of our most important logistics SOEs, Transnet and the Airports Company of SA (ACSA), are led by two outstanding black women, Portia Derby and Mpumi Mpofu, respectively.
We shouldn’t forget that our world-class sports stadiums – in preparation of hosting the Fifa World Cup in 2010 – were delivered on time and within budget by ACSA under the leadership of a black woman, Monhla Hlahla, now chairperson of Royal Bafokeng Holdings.
Daphne Mashile-Nkosi of Kalagari Resources, Tomato Serobe and Louisa Mojela of WIPHold, Anna Mokgokong and many other black women have been running their companies for years.
In what can only be described as testing the waters, corporate SA has been recruiting women, including black ones, onto boards and sometimes elevating them to the positions of chairperson.
This positive change must be embraced as a critical part of the journey towards real economic transformation. Women are a majority of our population, and it cannot be that they only become a majority of negative statistics – unemployment, inequality and poverty.
Not only do we need to mainstream the gender agenda, we also need to ensure that men become allies in the struggle for women advancement. This is not class suicide which is to be feared, but it is in our self-interest that as many women as possible are assisted to progress. When women win, we all succeed as South Africans.
For gender transformation to work, agents of change need to be deliberate in their strategy, tactics and campaigns. For example, it is retrogressive to just replace a woman with a man without making an effort of finding a suitably qualified woman.
True transformation goes beyond just colour and gender and other forms of diversity. Significantly, transformation is also attitude. If we accept this proposition, then it is possible to have progressive black and white men as agents for advancement of the gender agenda. However, for this to happen, these men have to be incentivised as allies.
In coming months, we have a magnificent opportunity to advance women empowerment. In the private sector, a few black and white male CEOs will be reaching retirement age or finishing their contracts. This is an opportunity for nominations committees of boards of directors to nominate women as successors to these men.
In the public sector, too, similar opportunities are in the offing. For example, the corporatisation of Transnet National Ports Authority should be an opportunity to empower women.
Similarly, the unbundling of Eskom, the energy utility, shouldn’t only be just about stimulating competition and separating balance sheets of generation, transmission and distribution divisions (to become subsidiaries), but should also be an opportunity to appoint women as CEOs and directors of these entities.
We need to keep this momentum going.
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