Programme Director;
The President of the South African Council for Businesswomen, Ms Thelma Mathamelo;
The past and present leadership of the South African Council for Businesswomen;
The Executive Mayor of Mangaung Local Municipality, Councillor Playfair Morule;
Mme Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde;
Honoured Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am pleased to be part of this important gala dinner of the South Africa Council for Businesswomen. I thank you for affording me the opportunity to share with you this historic moment.

This is indeed a historic moment because; for the first time in the history of this organization, you have elected a black President, Ms Thelma Mathamelo.

I take this opportunity to congratulate Ms Mathamelo and wish her well as she executes the important task of taking this organization, which has an important role to play in advancing the economic empowerment of women, to even greater heights.

I also take this opportunity to applaud the South African Council for Businesswomen for taking the bold step of appointing its first black President.

By taking this step you have demonstrated your commitment to embrace the programme of change and transformation in our country.

You have sent a strong message that as a collective, you recognize the role that all South Africans, regardless of race or gender, can play in the reconstruction and development of our country.

You have made a statement that; precisely because the task of building a better life for all, especially for women, is not easy, black women need to be at the center of this effort.

Indeed you have embraced the need to accelerate further the process of renewal in all sectors of our society.

On this important occasion, I wish to urge members of the South African Council for Businesswomen to remain steadfast on the path of transformation that you have chosen for yourselves.

I urge you to, both in word and in deed, ensure that the programme of transformation filters down to all levels of human interaction; in your communities, in your places of work, places of worship and most importantly in the way you conduct yourselves as business people.

Let this be the start of a genuine process of transformation that will allow us as South Africans, black and white, to stand shoulder to shoulder and pronounce to ourselves and to the world, that ours is a country united in its diversity, working together to achieve shared prosperity.

Programme Director; the women’s struggle for emancipation in our country has for many years served as a source of inspiration for the attainment of our liberation.

Throughout their involvement in the struggle for liberation, the women of our country continued to demonstrate unequalled political will and determination to engage in activism, to survive and be victorious.

Their actions showed and encouraged their male counterparts how not to loose hope, but to engage in the struggle fearlessly and without compromise.

Through their bravery and sacrifices, they kept the flame of freedom alive, making it possible for all of us to believe that tomorrow will indeed be better than yesterday and today.

Even as the road appeared long and winding, they never gave up on the dream of a free, democratic, non racial, nonsexist and prosperous South Africa.

Mobilized by the clarion call; Wathint’abafazi, Wathint’imbokodo, their actions taught us that our liberation as a nation would be incomplete without the total liberation of women.

As we today engage in the important task of reconstruction and development, we look up to the women of our country to provide the kind of inspiration they did during the struggle for our liberation.

We look up them to nurture and inspire present and future generations never to give up on the ideals of a free South Africa, where all who live in it enjoy freedom, equality and dignity.

Indeed women are better placed to lead us as a nation, as we endeavour never to give up on that dream that saw us overcome adversity and replace fear with mutual trust, stagnation with progress and despair with hope.

It is the women of our country who can boldly say that; as a nation we must never give up on our dreams
Even as we face daunting challenges, brought about amoung others by the global economic crisis, we must draw comfort in the knowledge that tomorrow will be better than yesterday and today.

In all aspects of human endeavor, we must draw on the courage and lessons from the many brave women of our country, that indeed we will weather the storm and that the end to our challenges is near.

Even as our businesses appear to stumble as a result of the global economic challenges, we must not loose focus of the objectives we have set for ourselves.

Working together with various stakeholders our government has put in place measures to ensure that we cushion our people and the economy from the negative effects of the global economic crisis.

These measures together with the sound macro-economic choices we made in the early years of our liberation are expected to minimize the impact of this crisis.

As economists continue to analyze the impact and extent of this crisis on the South African economy, we can draw comfort that some economic indicators are pointing to the fact that the worst may be over.

What is clear is that the full impact of this crisis may take time to understand and quantify.

We must therefore remain vigilant and continue to work with all stakeholders to find appropriate responses to the economic challenges facing us.

As government we remain committed to the objective of further growing our economy, creating decent work and improving our investment in infrastructure.

We are also seized with task of ensuring that we develop appropriate skills, necessary for us to transform our economy and move it to a higher growth trajectory.

We look forward to working with organizations such as the South African Council for Businesswomen as we implement these programmes so that together we can continue to build a prosperous country.

I once more congratulate Ms Mathamelo on her election as the President of this organization. I have no doubt that under your leadership this organization will grow in leaps and bounds.

As government we share your vision of advancing the economic empowerment of women and we look forward to working with your organization.

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

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