STATEMENT BY THE RT HON PRIME MINISTER
DR B.S.S.DLAMINI
AT THE SWAZILAND BUSINESS WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARDS
AT THE ROYAL SWAZI SPA CONVENTION CENTRE
WEDNESDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2013
Master of Ceremonies
Managing Director and Board of Nedbank
Chief Executive Officer of REDI
Ms Christina Texeira
Competition Finalists
Previous Winners
Sponsors of the Awards
Distinguished Guests
The Swaziland Business Woman of the Year Awards is an event whose primary objective needs no repeating by me this evening. Let me start by simply saying how pleased I am to have had the opportunity to attend this annual event and what a significant encouragement it is to all our lady entrepreneurs and leaders in business.
I gather that this is the ninth time the event has been held and I am delighted that our homegrown management consultancy firm, REDI, together with one of our leading commercial banks, Nedbank, have stuck with the concept, and with putting their combined energy into its continued presentation. Well done, those two organizations!
The necessity to encourage women in business and leadership stares us in the face. Women throughout the ages, and still today in some societies, were historically viewed as suited only to doing the cooking, and looking after the house and the children. Well, fortunately, in most societies those days are gone and, in all likelihood, for ever.
True, the woman is better suited to domestic duties than her male counterpart. That will be part instinctive and part cultural. But increasingly, and especially over the past few decades, a woman’s role has broadened immeasurably as, indeed, has that of a man. It is no longer considered strange to see a woman in soldier’s uniform or flying a fighter jet. Nor is it so to see a man doing some of the cooking at home though undoubtedly some might hesitate when it comes to changing the baby’s diapers!
The emergence of women in business is also a modern phenomenon. And “phenomenon” is, I feel, a rather suitable word. The female of the species has convinced the male that she is not only as capable in business but in many instances more so. Certainly when it comes to dealing with a number of different tasks at the same time a woman does appear to have the practical edge over man. But the man, we must remember, is still last into the lifeboats when the ship goes down so he does deserve some special consideration.
Certainly the man’s role has changed extensively. It is no longer viewed as unmanly to see the man of the household doing the dishes just as it no longer detracts from his manhood to be seen shedding a tear or two at his team’s defeat in the World Cup soccer final.
But have our women progressed sufficiently in business within the Swazi economy? They are unquestionably a very substantial presence in the small, medium and micro-scale enterprises sector. But we are not seeing our ladies progressing through that E8 million per annum revenue level that would qualify them to be considered for the “Entrepreneur Award” in this year’s Swaziland Business Woman competition, hence the inevitable decision not to make the Award this year. We will need to examine the issue closely and identify the constraints to breaking through that barrier.
We must, of course, recognize that the choice of size of a business lies with the proprietor. If, in this case, a lady does not choose, for whatever reason, to increase the turnover of her enterprise up to and beyond that E8 million a year mark, then that is up to her. Our economy, as with many similar economies, is largely dependent for growth on the expansion of the SMME sector. Large scale industry is highly desirable but the biggest contributor to economic growth will be the SMMEs of our country. Even though they will miss out on the recognition from these Awards, two female entrepreneurs each happily operating at E7 million a year and making a satisfactory return from their efforts, is a very desirable state of affairs. We would simply like more of them.
The second Award, known as the “Corporate Award” is, as we all know, the one that recognizes the achievement or style of women in leadership positions in industry and commerce where they are not the owners. Every woman has her own special skills and, I hesitate slightly to add, also her shortcomings. A woman with entrepreneurial skills that include technical or marketing attributes will not necessarily fit in as head of administration of a large corporate entity. Equally, a woman financial director in a large corporation may not have the drive and self-starting skills of the entrepreneur.
The “Honorary Award” this evening is for the woman who has made a significant contribution, whatever the sector. This, again, is an important award since it is recognizing women who are in other spheres of activity outside the business sector.
Each individual has a place in our economy. And, indeed, in the broader society. We are seeing women leaders emerging in Government and the parastatal sector and, while Government strongly supports the emergence of women as leading professionals in the public sector it should be added that they are also there on merit.
Where I have to express, or rather, repeat a recent regret is in respect of the new group of elected members of the coming Parliament. Only one female Member of Parliament out of 55 constituencies! This is one issue that we as a Nation have to work through. There is a need to understand – is it a function of there being candidates of insufficient calibre or a reluctance among the electorate to judge a woman on her merits and not to succumb to ancient prejudices and assume she is not up to the job. Well, a strategy will be drawn up following an analysis of the matter in order that we can get a representative body of female elected members of Parliament by 2018.
Nevertheless, tonight is a time to again celebrate the achievements of women across the society spectrum and to express gratitude to the role model represented by Ms Christina Texeira who won the 2013 South African Business Woman of the Year Award, Corporate Category, in the last few weeks. Ms Texeira, we do congratulate you and tell you how important it is for our ladies to meet and interact with someone like yourself who has won such a prestigious award. You are most welcome to the Kingdom of Swaziland and we thank you for attending this evening’s function.
Our thanks also go to the many sponsors of this competition and, in particular, to REDI and Nedbank for their most significant contribution and continuing commitment to these Awards.
At this point I will conclude by congratulating the winners of Awards being made this evening. To the non-winners I will not spend too much time commiserating but put my efforts into encouraging you for next year. You are, at least assured that this is an annual event and a well-organised one it is too.
Thank you for inviting me this evening.