Philippa Larkin
An ecosystem approach to industry is a game changer for women-led businesses, according to Namhla Mniki-Mangaliso, co-chairperson of the Women Economic Assembly, Private Office of the President.
She was speaking at the 8th Gender Equality, Wellness, and Leadership (GEWAL) Summit, in recognition of International Women’s Day, held on Friday.
The summit was held alongside the annual Opening Bell for Gender Equality at the JSE with a panel discussion on “Building Inclusive and Sustainable Economies”.
Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe, the co-founder and CEO of the Motsepe Foundation, said: “Today, although we are celebrating International Women’s Day, we are pointing to the crisis of a lack of women, particularly in stock exchanges.”
She emphasised the importance of actively transforming economies, saying: “While women have made strides in education, true economic equality and leadership remain elusive. Our economic and business decisions must be underpinned by values of inclusion, collaboration and innovation.”
Looking at how to close the gender gap, Mniki-Mangaliso said a more collaborative approach was needed in working with industry to ensure more women-owned businesses were operating.
“South Africa has about 17 different economic sectors, but one of the shockers, for me, is the fact that most of South Africa's economy is owned by four or five large corporations per sector, which essentially means that localisation and ownership is very critical,” she said.
Mniki-Mangaliso said one had to take an intentional technical approach to understand the value chain for each of those related sectors: where the opportunities lay for women-owned businesses to enter that space and to be supported to operate in that space.
“The ecosystems of support of such aspiring enterprise development become critical,” she said. “Some of the work we’ve done in the Women Economic Assembly is to actually take this approach.”
Offtake agreements were vital and what industry could agree to.
Talking about manufacturing, Mniki-Mangaliso said: “Essentially, a company has X amount to spend. You need someone that’s going to be able to say, for example, you have an FMCG (fast-moving consumer good) that’s going to need X amount of products by such and such a time, and know where the women are that are doing the production. Know where the financing is… And then connect those dots so that that system is working.”
Busisiwe Mavuso, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, expressed frustration that there were no consequences or penalties to businesses to meet gender targets.
She said the Department of Labour issued an Employment Equity report every year, but it showed the numbers and how dismal businesses were at meeting those targets, without consequences.
“Business fails to do the right thing,” Mavuso added, saying that maybe a stick approach was now needed.
“We can talk until we’re blue in the face. We need to get to a level where those who are leading these companies are intentionally deliberate about making sure that they do the right thing… So when policy fails, why are we not moving in using the stick approach? Businesses need to be penalised; if you hit business in their pocket they actually shape up,” said Mavuso.
Itumeleng Monale, the JSE’s COO, said it didn’t matter what business you were in, one couldn’t serve customers on the outside if one didn’t have a mirrored kind of profile on the inside.
However, she noted that in the C-suite environment in the banks, “we are starting to see a lot of progress”.
From a sustainability perspective, two years ago the JSE issued guidances to help organisations – whether public or private, listed, unlisted, small or large – navigate the world of disclosure as pertains to equality, sustainability and governance. There were specific gender metrics in place, and those firms that disclosed these were more likely to get better investment.
“As a result, it almost behoves them to then act very deliberately to meet specific targets and metrics going forward,” Monale said.
Meanwhile, Karabo Motaung, principal analyst, Advocacy and Stakeholder Relations for the Competition Commission, said there was an opportunity to use some of the tools of the Competition authorities, which focuses on public interest factors in mergers, to not only look at historically disadvantaged individuals, but to increase the women ownership pipeline .
“Competition, authorities have the ability to impose remedies," Motaung said.
BUSINESS REPORT