OPINION: Mabelane’s record should serve her well at BPSA

Priscillah Mabelane

Priscillah Mabelane

Published Sep 8, 2017

Share

Until recently, the name, Priscillah Mabelane, didn’t ring a bell for most of us. But after South African news outlets ran headlines like “First black female to head multi-national oil industry” (IOL) and “BP appoints first black female CEO” (eNCA) last week, it does now.

Before taking charge of BP Southern Africa (BPSA) on September 1, 2017, Mabelane spent six years serving as the chief financial officer at BPSA. Before that, she directed operations for BP’s UK retail business - this after occupying key senior roles at the Airports Company of South Africa, Ernst & Young and at Eskom.

However, I must confess that before I researched her impressive credentials and work history, my prejudiced imagination went to work trying to decipher BPSA’s “angle” in making this appointment.

Also read: A dream come true for new head of BP

It isn’t that I don’t appreciate that black women are capable of leading top-tier technology-focused corporations, but rather that I’m not entirely convinced of corporate South Africa’s commitment to backing the success of black chief executives - male or female.

After all, it’s telling that even in 2017, the occurrence of black executives running major companies - tech firms in particular - continues to be slightly more common than black leopard sightings in the Kruger National Park.

You might encounter one if you’re lucky. But let’s face it, with that unique cat’s habitat shrinking and their numbers dwindling due to indiscriminate poaching, sightings are rare. Most people have to make do with seeing a black leopard that’s been bred in captivity and kept behind bars at a zoo.

There is a growing list of high-profile black executives - that includes the likes of former BCX chief executive, Isaac Mophatlane, former Liberty chief executive, Thabo Dloti, and former Dimension Data executive chairperson, Andile Ngcaba - who are casualties of a business ecosystem which appears to prey on black business leaders.

One can only imagine how much more challenging corporate survival must be for black women occupying C-suites roles within corporate South Africa.

Nevertheless, several earnest opinionistas I follow on Facebook have eloquently spoken out against the mainstream media spin on BPSA’s apparently progressive pick for chief executive - arguing that highlighting Mabelane’s race and gender serves to minimise her professional accomplishments and reduce her important appointment to a token gesture. I agree with this perspective. I also don’t. You see, I’m yet to have the pleasure of encountering a wild leopard. And I can assure you that should I eventually spot one while on safari, if it happens to be a black one, my followers on Twitter and Instagram will never hear the end of it.

The inconvenient truth is that BPSA’s appointment of a black female chief executive is newsworthy for many reasons - some of which uncover the depressingly prejudiced state of corporate South Africa. Eunice Baguma Ball is the Ugandan founder and executive director of the Africa Technology Business Network.

For more than 10 years, Eunice has worked at the intersection of tech and social enterprise - leveraging her engineering background to build a solid reputation as a tech and innovation specialist. In a recent interview for African

TechRoundup.com, Ball factored in on the state of African women in tech and commented on some of the cultural hurdles women continue to face, in what is still largely an unwelcoming male-dominated industry.

Challenge

She reckons that to this day, women carving out careers in tech on the continent continue to face the challenge of being hemmed in by limiting societal norms and regressive gender and racial power dynamics which have long informed the professional roles women have been expected, and in some cases even permitted, to take on.

The folly of allowing societal prejudice to permeate the world of business is laid bare by a statistic drawn from the McKinsey Women Matter Africa 2016 report, which makes a strong business case for greater gender diversity in senior leadership positions.

According to the research, companies with more women in executive positions tend to be more profitable - by as much as 20percent. And yet, still, prejudice against women business leaders persists.

During the podcast interview, Ball cited similar studies and expressed the need for Africans to double-down on storytelling efforts that serve to back up the inarguable data showing just how impactful women in business can be.

Also read: Minister of Energy congratulates new BP CEO

She is poised to publish a book called Founding Women in December 2017, which aims to put the spotlight on African female founders who are building technology businesses across Africa and the diaspora; by documenting their experiences and insights. Young African women can certainly use more relateable female role models to inspire them to reach their full potential as innovators and tech leaders.

Meanwhile, a couple of months ago, a Zimbabwean molecular biologist named Marlene Mhangami was appointed to the board of directors at the Python Software Foundation (PSF) - making her the first African woman to occupy a board seat in that organisation. PSF is a non-profit corporation that holds the intellectual property rights behind one of the the world’s leading computer programming languages, Python.

Initiatives

PSF also hosts the annual North American PyCon summit, along with other Python conferences around the world. In addition, they support Python-related development initiatives via their in-house grants programme and directly fund special projects.

As per the organisation’s regulations, Mhangami was nominated for the position by one of PSF’s board members and went on to fend off 22 other candidates to land herself the available seat. The dynamics of her appointment demonstrate how people with progressive mindsets and an enabling environment are key to helping female African talent exploit critical network access to achieve career success.

So, as Priscillah Mabelane takes the reins at a company that continues to try and live down the embarrassing role it played in causing the worst oil spill in US history - the Deepwater Horizon disaster that happened in the Gulf of Mexico on the fateful night of April 20, 2010, - I take solace in the fact that if her track record is anything to go by, they’re lucky to have her.

Andile Masuku is a broadcaster and entrepreneur based in Johannesburg. He is the executive producer at AfricanTechRoundup.com. Follow him on Twitter @MasukuAndile and The African Tech Round-up @africanroundup.

Related Topics: