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| Who are South Africa's top 10 women? |
| December 24 2004 at 02:34PM |
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Talented, brilliant and leaders in their own right, these are South Africa's forces to be reckoned with: Mtoba is the first woman national president of the Association for the Advancement of Accountants in Southern Africa. She is also a board member of the SA Chartered Accountants. Not only is Mtoba an excellent businesswoman, she is also a wife and a mother of two children, Ziggi, 14, and Viwe, 9. Mtoba is acutely aware of the challenges women face. She says top businesswomen tend to become lonely and isolated as there are fewer of them - and, unlike men, women create fewer chances of networking. Nthati Moshesh Award-winning actress Nthati Moshesh has won the Canadian equivalent of an Emmy Award - a Gemini award for best performance by an actress featured in a supporting role in a mini-series. She acted in a Canadian mini-series, Human Cargo, as a mother who loses her son in the Rwandan civil war. She said she found her role challenging, but being a mother helped her play it with feeling. She has a three-year-old son. Moshesh's award testifies to the profundity of talent among women in South Africa. Coming so soon after another daughter of the soil, Charlize Theron, won an Oscar, her award disproves any claims that this country has no great actors. She recently resigned as co-host of a television talk show, Motswako the Mix, to concentrate on acting. Moshesh recently finished shooting another television drama, Home Affairs, which will be shown on SABC from next month. Human Cargo will be shown on M-Net next year. Moshesh has acted in local dramas such as Soul City, Gazlam and the Afrikaans soapie 7de Laan. She is also a stage actress who has acted in plays such as John Kani's celebrated Nothing But The Truth. Leleti Khumalo Actress Leleti Khumalo made headlines around the world this year by playing a mother living with HIV and Aids in the critically acclaimed South African film Yesterday. The film was awarded the inaugural Human Rights Film Award at the 61st Venice Film Festival this year. And next year, Khumalo could revel in the same red-carpet treatment that Charlize Theron enjoyed this year - the film has been selected to be South Africa's entrant for the 2005 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Picture category. It is now being widely speculated that Khumalo is set to join the cast of the local drama Generations from March 2005. The rumour is that SABC1 has hired the star to appear in the soapie as part of an effort to win the ratings war over e.tv, which is to screen a new nightly soapie, Scandals, in the same time slot as Generations. Khumalo first won fame 13 years ago when she played the title role on stage in the musical play Sarafina. The play - written by her husband, Mbongeni Ngema - went on to become a Broadway hit. It was later turned into a film in which Khumalo starred with Whoopi Goldberg. Masingita Masunga Shoprite/Checkers SABC2 Woman of the Year Masingita Masunga scoffs at people who think being disabled is a problem. The Gauteng-based Masunga, 21, is living proof that disabilities can be overcome. Masunga was one of nine women to share the title of 2004 Shoprite/ Woman of the Year. Her success has not come easily, but she has been quoted as saying: "I have always been a fighter and never allowed anyone to discourage me." Masunga has cerebral palsy, but overcame the outward signs of the nervous disorder, which affects speech and movement, to establish an organisation that motivates men, women and youth alike. Her company, Tinyungub-yiseni (be proud) Talent Promotions, has given physically disabled people throughout South Africa an opportunity to make valuable contributions to society. Tinyungubyiseni staged SA's first beauty pageant for the disabled, the Miss Confidence SA competition, and promotes Nyeleti - Star Beyond Limits, a music competition for people with disabilities. Courageous Masunga is an ambassador for National Youth Power Against HIV and Aids, a youth organisation fighting the disease. Natalie du Toit Paralympic swimming champion Disabled swimmer Natalie du Toit proved she really is South Africa's golden girl as our Paralympic champion in Athens, winning five gold medals and a silver. Even before swimming a single stroke, the 20-year-old from Cape Town was in huge demand for interviews from international media. When Du Toit eventually took to the pool, she left Athens not only with a cache of medals, but with one Paralympic and four world records. Du Toit's leg was amputated below the knee after a scooter accident in 2001. Traumatic as that was, she was the one comforting family and friends around her hospital bed after the tragedy. The courageous young woman did not hide the fact that she would have loved to compete in the Olympics, but she came of age as a Paralympic swimmer in Athens spearheading and inspiring the SA team. Du Toit's achievements this year follows a long list of firsts: in 2002 she made history when she qualified for the final of the 800m freestyle at the Commonwealth Games. This marked the first time in history that a disabled athlete had qualified for the final of an able-bodied event. Charlize Theron Oscar-winning actress Tears rolled down her face as she accepted the Best Actress Oscar this year. The grateful star told the world: "I'm going to thank everybody in South Africa, my home country. They are all watching tonight and I'm bringing this home next week." In Hollywood it was February 29, a day for leaping: here the time was 7am, March 1, and many South Africans were leaping too. True to her word, the Benoni girl was soon back in SA with the Oscar she won for her role in the movie Monster. Even Nelson Mandela made time for Theron, the first South African to win one of the top six Oscars (Best Actress and Actor, Supporting Actress and Actor, Film and Director). He, too, had her shed a tear as he praised the former farmgirl's achievements. Theron - who was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 2000 - had to gain almost 14kg and make herself as ugly as possible for the role of serial-killing prostitute Aileen Wuornos. Her work and dedication had also earned her the coveted Golden Globe in January and a Screen Actors Guild award in February. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, foreign affairs minister Since her schooldays, Dlamini-Zuma has been found at the forefront, and today she occupies one of the country's most influential offices. She has been minister of foreign affairs since 1999 and, during her tenure, the continent has witnessed the launch of the African Union and the opening of the Pan African Parliament in South Africa. The country also hosted the World Conference Against Racism and the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Her leadership in foreign affairs issues has won her international and local awards. With her busy schedule, Dlamini-Zuma receives primary support from her mother and her four children. The minister, who worked underground for the ANC and above ground for the South African Students Organisation, was appointed the first minister of health after the 1994 elections. During her tenure, she passed the Tobacco Products Control Bill, which prohibited smoking in public places. She was awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from both the University of Natal (1995) and the University of Bristol (1996). Patricia De Lille First woman political party leader She is South Africa's first woman to lead a political party - the Independent Democrats. The party, formed early this year, went on to contest the April national elections. The Independent Democrats attracted more votes than the Pan Africanist Congress, the party she defected from. De Lille has been described as one of the real characters of the new South African parliamentary politics. She is feisty, determined and a great public debater. And she is known as one of the hardest working parliamentarians. Being a member of a small political party increased her workload way beyond that of most other parliamentarians. She has a reputation for not shirking work but, in fact, thriving on it. De Lille was recently a state witness in the Schabir Shaik corruption trial in Durban. Her interest in politics began 16 years ago as a member of the South African Chemical Workers Union. Later she would rise to become deputy president of National Council of Trade Unions. In 1989 she was elected to the national executive council of the Pan Africanist Movement (PAM), a wing of the PAC. Naledi Pandor minister of education Naledi Pandor is truly an educationist at heart. The education minister is a qualified teacher who has taught at a number of schools in other countries. She obtained her degree in History and English at the University of Botswana and Swaziland in 1977 and then completed her master's degree at the University of London in 1978. Before being appointed to her current position, Pandor was involved in educational issues and lectured at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Pandor also lectured at the University of Botswana before she joined UCT in 1989. In 1996 she was appointed a member of the Cape Technikon Council. After the first democratic elections in 1994, Pandor was elected to parliament, and in 1995 she became a whip and then Deputy Chief Whip of the ANC. She also chaired the subcommittee on higher education within the Education Portfolio Committee. In August 1998 she became the deputy chairwoman of the National Council of Provinces and in 1999 was elected chairperson of the NCOP. Maria Ramos Chief Executive Officer: Transnet The accomplished economist and former Businesswoman of the Year (2001), Maria Ramos, took up the reins as chief executive officer of Transnet at the beginning of the year. This former director-general of the Treasury was rated by Fortune magazine as one of the most powerful women in the business world. In an explicit determination to save the parastatal from perpetual decline, she spared no words during the presentation of interim results for the six months from April to September. She said the public had been misinformed in the past by the manner in which results were announced. Within a few months of assuming her duties, she had suspended several top managers. The United Transport and Allied Trade Union applauded her for suspending the managers. Ramos said she would introduce a system of transparent reporting of results that would reflect truly administrative improvements without resorting to the "deft use of smoke and mirrors".
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