Women shouldn’t try to be superhuman as they fight for space in the male-dominated business world, but should celebrate their femininity as well, says Phuti Malabie the CEO at Shanduka Group.

Malabie said the role of women and transformation issues remained topical in listed companies as women were still underrepresented in these organisations.

“We should not try to be superwomen by trying to be good at everything. It’s impossible – that is why people are permanently angry. What we should do as women is celebrate our femininity. We shouldn’t try to be like men,” Malabie said.

The 40-year-old Malabie has been at the helm of Shanduka Group for over a year and joined the company in 2004.

The seasoned executive joined Shanduka as MD of Shanduka Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shanduka. Malabie was previously the head of the South Africa project finance unit at the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

Shanduka Group is a leading African black-owned and managed investment holding company established in November 2000.

Shanduka was founded by businessman Cyril Ramaphosa who earlier this year took over the running of the McDonald’s fast-food chain in the country. He has been awarded a 20-year agreement to run the 145 McDonald’s restaurants in South Africa.

A vocal activist for women’s empowerment, Malabie believes that the private sector has to work in partnership with the government in creating an enabling environment to promote gender equality.

“We need to create platforms for women in organisations. If you look at the number of senior women in listed companies, it’s low. It can be lonely up there, you don’t have other women to turn to,” said Malabie.

She is of the view that listed companies in the country were culpable when it came to women empowerment and transformation, as evidenced by the low numbers of women executives and the relatively minor roles they play.

A strong proponent of transformation, Malabie will later this month headline a women’s leadership workshop that will discuss key issues facing women leaders in the corporate world. Internationally acclaimed US-based leadership mentor Myles Munroe is scheduled to attend.

Malabie believes the gathering will be an honest discussion on the difficulties and hindrances that women face in leadership.

“We need to focus on entrepreneurship like other developing countries. If you look at countries like Brazil, entrepreneurship contribution to GDP is much higher, so we need to give it more attention,” she said.

Women’s empowerment issues have taken centre stage in the country this month with the Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Lulu Xingwana, revealing disturbing figures during the Women’s Economic Empowerment conference in Durban.

She said the many economic challenges faced by women arose from a long history of oppression on the basis of gender and race. Based on a narrow definition, South Africa’s unemployment was estimated at 25.7%, but among black women it climbed to 50%.

Malabie said it was from such a disturbing background that the whole country should drive the women’s empowerment agenda forward.

“If we are going to continue giving opportunities to one gender predominantly we are short-changing ourselves as a nation,” said Malabie.

She said everyone in the country should spearhead the transformation crusade, to inspire women in transformation and create a platform for networking as well as mentorship programmes.

Malabie warns other women not to pressure themselves with undue criticism, but rather prepare and look for opportunities.

“We are very critical of one another. You win a war by working hard in times of peace. Women should be disciplined and always improve themselves so that when opportunities come, they are ready,” she advises.

Under her watch, the empowerment group Shanduka went big in the fast food industry by snatching McDonald’s ahead of other possible competitors who were interested in the fast-food chain.

The company now has all McDonald’s South Africa’s assets in its portfolio.

The group is a truly South African entity with strong support for empowerment of black businesses. Among other investments Shanduka has significant stakes in large corporates, such as mining house Lonmin, while in financial services it holds a stake in Standard Bank.

Malabie refused to dwell on the question of nationalisation, despite the fact that the issue could hit some of the company’s business interests hard.

“I would rather you refer to what the chairperson Ramaphosa said on nationalisation,” Malabie said.

She, however, said she understood the anger behind the calls on nationalisation and the industry should do more to address the matter. According to Malabie, inequalities were the source of the discord.

“The key people affected are the youth – 60% of them are not working and a significant number of them have never been employed in their lives. It’s a completely unsustainable situation – they are crying out,” she said.

The nonlisted group has invested in the following resources; mining and exploration, forestry and paper products, packaging, chemicals, steel and ferrous, energy – including electricity, oil and gas – and related industries, property, financial services and strategic investments.

In the past few years the company has spread its operations on the continent with further investments in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Sudan.

Malabie said her company was investing heavily in entrepreneurship programmes through the Shanduka Black Umbrella project. “The Shanduka Black Umbrella project provides incubation to entrepreneurs with all aspects of business. With quality education and entrepreneurship we’ll achieve a lot,” she said. Shanduka has an estimated value of about R6.5bn.

Biography

Phuti Malabie is CEO of the Shanduka Group.

Phuti previously headed up the South Africa project finance unit at the Development Bank.

Prior to that, she was vice-president at Fieldstone, an international firm specialising in the financing of infrastructure assets. She joined the firm in New York in 1997 and later transferred to the South African office.

She is involved in a number of activities with youth and she mentors young professionals and students. Additionally, she is involved with the Dignity Day programme which is led by Young Global Leaders

Publication: The New Age Online