POWER, PROFIT AND PURPOSE
WITH AFRICA’S CEILING CRASHERS
ADVERTORIAL BY FORBES WOMAN AFRICA 2020 LEADING WOMEN SUMMIT
All roads led to Durban in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province for
the FORBES WOMAN AFRICA 2020 Leading Women Summit that
brought together a star-studded gathering of female leaders and
A-listers from across Africa and beyond.
BY BUSI LETHOLEO
n March 6, at the fifth annual
FORBES WOMAN AFRICA
Leading Women Summit, held for
the second time in Durban, a gal-
axy of Africa’s stars drawn from business, arts,
sports, politics and public life, descended at the
Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Conven-
tion Centre Complex for a power-packed day
of talks and discussions that centered on one
topic: the advancement of women.
Ahead of International Women’s Day on
March 8, about 800 attendees hobnobbed with
some of Africa’s most powerful women in the
same room, at the one-day event themed ‘The
Ceiling Crashers 2.0: Power With Purpose’,
hosted by the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Gov-
ernment and presented by Mastercard.
The air was redolent with excitement as
the event opened to a full house with seasoned
dancers moving to the melody of Gram-
my-award winning artist Beyoncé’s song, Spirit.
In her opening speech, Nomusa Dube-Ncu-
be, MEC for Economic Development, Tourism
& Environmental Affairs, KwaZulu-Natal
Provincial Government, said the FORBES
WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit
is about reawakening the spirit of sisterhood
and strengthening the solidarity among African
women. “We are here to remind each other that
our fate is bound together. The summit gives us
that opportunity to recharge, redefine our steps
in the fight of the dignity of the African woman
irrespective of which part of the globe we may
be coming from.”
One of the opening keynote speakers was
Suzanne Morel, Country Manager, Master-
card South Africa, who provided insight on
unlocking new innovations and opportunities
for women in the global financial economy.
“Inequality and exclusion still holds girls and
women back in many aspects of their everyday
lives. While positive steps have been taken to
level the playing field, too much of the world
is still designed without women in mind andwithoutwomeninvolved,”shenoted.
In her welcome address, Renuka Methil,
Managing Editor of FORBES WOMAN
AFRICA and FORBES AFRICA, described the
summit as “a live 4D interpretation of the mag-
azines”, adding that “it has become pertinent
to convene and re-convene such gatherings to
increase the decibel on the progress women
have made and that it just cannot be business
as usual as we need to double our efforts in
catalyzing gender parity”.
During her talk on ‘Restructuring the
C-Suite model in the 4IR era’, Dr Judy Dlamini,
Founder, Mbekani Group, said “over time, peo-
ple have realized we’ve got to have an inclusiveculture;thatinclusivecultureis drivenbythe
CEO”.
One of the most popular panels on the day
was when mother and daughter duo, Dr Naledi
Pandor and Dr Aisha Pandor, stepped on stage
for an inspiring discussion on ‘How to raise a
CEO’.
Among other highlights, a one-to-one with
Miss Universe 2011, Leila Lopes, also an entre-
preneur, ensued, while award-winning South
African songstress Lira delivered a soulful talk
on finding her tune in business.
The summit’s most powerful segment,
called ‘In the Spotlight’, unraveled, featuring
inspirational women such as DJ Zinhle, BogoloDr Aisha Pandor, CEO & Co-founder of SweepSouth, and Dr Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s Minister of
International Relations & Cooperation on a panel titled ‘How to raise a CEO’Moderator Fifi Peters (left) with Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Olajumoke Adenowo, Glenda Gray and
Bonang Matheba during the ‘Africa’s 50 Most Powerful Women’s panel discussion