Border hails businesswomen

Six of the Border region’s leading businesswomen were celebrated at the weekend at the 13th annual regional business achiever awards in East London.

Despite the winter chill, the awards ceremony was a grand event hosted by the Businesswomen’s Association (BWA) at the Venue@Hemingways.

Among the guests were Buffalo City Metro deputy mayor Xola Phakathi and his wife.

About 400 people celebrated the 17 finalists from various industries including financial, health, education, transport, beauty, development and manufacturing, hospitality, publishing and social services.

Six winners emerged from the finalists. Nelisiwe Mbenekazi, terminal manager for Transnet Port Terminals, won the corporate category.

Shereen Noble, deputy business executive for the East London division of the Auditor-General South Africa, claimed the government category and Dr Rema Mathew, chief medical officer for the department of paediatric oncology & haematology  of Frere Hospital, shone in the professional category.

Karen Whiting, director and founder of manufacturing clothing company Sondelani Sports, walked away with the emerging entrepreneur award.

Celia Theart, managing director of marketing, public relations and publishing company Intengu Communications, and Pateka Mtintsilana, manager of Loaves and Fishes Network, secured the entrepreneur and social entrepreneur categories respectively.

Mbenekazi said the awards were an empowerment of women and a great way of showing the world that “anything that men can do, women can do too and sometimes even better”. “Equality is still a struggle, so awards like this are great because they focus on women’s appraisal. It shows that we can be trusted with senior responsibilities and it’s so exciting to be recognised for the work that I do,” she said.

Noble said she was honoured to receive the award and hoped to inspire her children and other young people, and that it was “an exciting feeling, as inspirational women rarely get the recognition they need”.

Mathew said she would use the opportunity to encourage as many young people to join the public service as possible.

“I am honestly just doing my job, so it is really such a humbling feeling to be recognised like this,” said Mathew.

Whiting said: “It’s an honour, because there are so many other deserving women out there but I will definitely use this opportunity as a platform to grow my business – that way we can create even more jobs for people.”

Theart said she felt overwhelmed by the accolade because “you never know if you will win, especially with so many women so much more deserving than me”.

Mtintsilana, whose organisation feeds children from disadvantaged households  as well as providing healthcare, said her passion was for the development of her community.

Judges for this year’s awards were Daily Dispatch marketing manager Suren Packery; Wendy Pennacchini from Clark and Laing Inc; Sasol Abbotsford owner Pumza Gcanga; Frere Hospital CEO Dr Rolene Wagner and Mark Currin from Nedbank.

Award-winning vocalist Berita Khumalo was MC for the evening and performed a few songs from her latest album, Songs of Empowerment. She performs live at the same venue on Friday.