African Women Chartered Accountants (AWCA) spearheads solidarity among women in Sandton
A women’s conference was held in Sandton to discuss the inclusive way forward for corporate women leading successful lives.
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In promoting continued cohesion, synergy, and collaboration among women occupying spaces within the corporate domains – the Illovo-based non-profit African Women Chartered Accountants (AWCA) hosted a women’s conference and banquet to kick-start women’s month.
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The Woman of Substance conference and banquet was held on August 1. As many as 120 women from across Gauteng met at the Standard Bank Global Leadership Centre in Morningside for two themed panel discussions.
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The event began with a welcoming keynote by AWCA president Buhle Hanise who spoke on felling the invisible wall of patriarchy towards empowering women to further flourish, leveraging off on collaborative networks.
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The panel over: Collaboration for Change, on harnessing diversity in shaping tomorrow, featured insights from established solutions, economic trade diplomacy, and auditing specialists: Nyawa Dikwayo, Ntombi Mbele, and Bongi Ngoma.
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Dikwayo opened by encouraging the women in attendance to prioritise their education as a primary tool for self-empowerment, Mbele emphasised collaboration as a cornerstone to building inclusive, diversified, women-driven business communities, and Ngoma encouraged using collaboration as a tool for overcoming scarcity mindsets.
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The sessions were neatly woven together by the event’s panel facilitator Noluthando Mthonti-Mlambo. The second-panel discussion was on the evolution of leading women in South Africa. The panel was joined by Thebelihle Ngema-Mafuya and Nana Phiri from the corporate banking sector, and chartered accountant Zee Harduth from Duke Corporate Education.
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The conference concluded all the way at the Galleria in Kramerville later on that day, where all the women attended a fundraising banquet in support of the initiative to see women working together.
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