Saray Khumalo has shared her secrets on how she shattered barriers when she conquered Mount Everest ahead of Momentum’s “She Owns Her Success” campaign.
The campaign encourages women to own their success and shatter barriers.
Last Friday, Momentum flipped the “M” in Momentum to a “W” which reads Womentum to officially kick off their women’s month movement.
Khumalo, who conquered the world’s highest mountain last year on her fourth attempt, said it took her a while to come to terms with her achievement as women are not really taught how to celebrate their success.
Khumalo said: “I was on a bus with a colleague when we had this conversation about not being apologetic about your success and I related so much to it because I went to Everest about four times before I summited it.
"Every year I’d come back and people were fine with me saying it didn’t work out. When I came back successful in 2019, they were okay for me to be celebrated but not too much.”
It has been 65 years since a fierce band of brave women marched to the Union Building demanding equitable rights, yet women are still faced with many socio-economic challenges.
Progress has been made but society still has a long way to go in addressing inequalities with sustainable solutions
Momentum felt it was time for women to stop being apologetic about their success and to boldly stake their claim at the influential tables they occupy. Last year was a call for women to be courageous in their pursuit of and achievement of success.
“This year, we want to extend this movement into action where women not only celebrate their success, but more importantly - share it with other women. Sharing learnings and experiences can help the next generation to shatter even more barriers,” said group chief marketing officer of Momentum Metropolitan Holdings, Nontokozo Madonsela.
Khumalo believes her success story must encourage the next generation of women.
“I was raised in a generation that girls don’t go around saying ‘look this is what I did’ and if you do, not loudly which I think is wrong. We are at a time that I should be able to own my success and not be apologetic for being successful because then what am I telling the girl child,” said Khumalo.