Women Economic Assembly (WECONA) Mining Indaba Side Event

very much. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, please be standing. Can you kindly please locate your seat? And can I also ask our delegates at the back if I could have your kind attention, please? Thank you very much.

The Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and People with Disabilities of South Africa, the Honorable, so that we can proceed in respectful silence. I do appreciate that so very much. For the Minister of Small Business Development, the Honorable Stella. Minister, thank you for being here. The Consul General of Angola to South Africa, Her Excellency Elsa Capo Vincent. The Deputy Chairperson of the National House of Traditional and Leaders. The Director General in the Department of Small Business Development, Madame Mandini. To the Chairperson of the Social Ethics and Transformation Committee, Madame Katu. To the Acting CEO, to our Reconciliation Chair, Madame, and Madame. To all of our Deputies, Directors General that are present here this afternoon. To my brother Kito, the CEO of 22 on Sloan, our host today, that is Mr. Okuku. To Work as Provisional Lead and Mining Sector Lead. To my media brothers and sisters, our colleagues in the womb, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. A very warm and humid welcome. I do understand that we have a beautiful problem, uh, this afternoon, and that's the problem of oversubscription. Uh, and it speaks volumes to the significance of the conversation this afternoon. But a big welcome to this recon event on the sidelines of the mining indaba. My name is No Shabala, and it's an absolute privilege to be serving you today as your moderator.

No one in this room needs convincing why we gather here. We're all here in response to the clarion call from the Women Economic Assembly, alongside her partners, to face up to the reality and the challenge that while mining remains one of the most significant contributors to economic activity in South Africa, to industrial development on the continent, and of course, as a driver of export out of the country. The reality is, many women continue to face market and financial barriers that not only limit their participation but at times even lock them out completely of both participation and ownership. This is a narrative that we are all familiar with, that I do not need to go any further into.

The opportunity this afternoon, though, is to confront this tension and this dichotomy head-on and to step into the conversational arena with the intent to make visible the practical pathways for women's economic and meaningful economic inclusion in the mining sector. And so, what you'll hear this afternoon is a focus on the question of what does it mean to have broader and deeper opportunities for women? When we raise the issue of funding, what does that look like in terms of the accessibility of that funding and the catalytic nature of that funding? If we locate our courage to speak to the to the issue of ownership, what does this look like in a sector that by its very nature has always adopted the posture of exclusion when it comes to women? And then finally, one of the issues we are going to touch on in one of the panels is how do we bring a gender lens into this conversation such that we are able to talk about the safety of women in this sector as well. And so, we're in for a treat. If we can survive the heat, we are really going to be in for a treat.

The first of these is that we're going to have both our ministers talk and tail for conversation. We're going to lead by leading into the conversation that will be led by a keynote contribution from Minister Chikonga. And then we begin to work our way through our program such that we land at a place where Minister locates us in the lived reality of women entrepreneurs in this particular sector. But what about the middle? You might be asking. This is where the robust conversations where we begin to, uh, push against and stress test the questions of funding, of opportunity, of safety, and that's going to be in the format of two back-to-back panel discussions that are going to be taking place here. So, a massive thank you to our speakers whose lived experience and insight we're going to be tapping into this afternoon.

Before I make way, allow me just to make the following housekeeping announcements, please. The facilities, the ladies and the gent. So, out of the main doors to my left, uh, if we need the facility, you're more than welcome to take a breather on the balcony should you wish to do so. Um, we're going to extend the space as best as we can. If you are looking for the Wi-Fi, you will notice that the Wi-Fi is on the various pillars in the building. Just locate a pillar and you will find the Wi-Fi there. And we want you to be online because not only do we have thousands of people who have joined us on our streaming platform, we also want to amplify this conversation as best we can. We're using the following hashtag. You might see them on the big screens on either side of the room. #RecallFromPitchToPutt, because that in essence is the carrying call. #WomenInMining and #GSBGAtWork.

I do want to then, with that, create the space for us just to anchor ourselves in this space and why we're here by inviting you to turn your attention to the screen as we take in this short audio-visual on the corner.

Welcome to Empowering Women in the Economy, the WeConna journey. In South Africa, women comprise 51% of the population but own only 34% of formal businesses. The Women Economic Assembly, known as WeConna, is dedicated to changing this by empowering women entrepreneurs across key sectors like agriculture, energy, and automotive. In South Africa, women's participation in the labor market is about 46%, with a significant gap in leadership positions. UN Women's Generation Equality Action Coalition highlights the critical need for economic justice and rights, aiming to increase women's economic empowerment worldwide. This segment explores the importance of procurement in fostering inclusion and transformation and the pivotal role of economic justice initiatives. Despite numerous challenges, women are breaking barriers and leading change across various industries. In agriculture, they constitute 47% of the workforce, yet face significant obstacles such as limited access to land and financing. With determination and support, women farmers are transforming the industry and driving sustainable growth. In the energy sector, where women represent only 17% of the workforce, they are pioneering clean energy innovations, contributing to a more sustainable future. Similarly, in the automotive industry, women hold just 21% of senior positions that play crucial roles in shaping the future of mobility. From innovative transportation services to advancements in autonomous vehicles, access to finance remains a major challenge, with women entrepreneurs receiving only 27% of business loans. To address this, WeConna is partnering with key stakeholders to create opportunities for women-led businesses to grow and succeed. Inclusive procurement practices and intentional support are unlocking the full potential of women in supply chains and industries. By fostering innovation, diversity, and sustainability, women play a vital role in building a more equitable economy. Together, we can continue to empower women and shape a brighter, more inclusive economic future. Thank you for joining us on this journey. Stay inspired, stay informed, and support WeConna's mission to empower women in the economy.

It also creates the space for us to reflect on the program. So there is much to celebrate, and so I encourage you to be fully present in your celebratory posture as well today. To extend the official opening. Now, uh, we have the privilege of having both of our recon co-chairs with us, and we're going to invite co-chair Madame Putin to extend the official opening. Can we give her a round of applause, please?

Program Director, I'm going to stand on the protocol that, um, okay, I'll stand on the protocol that has been observed. However, I would like to welcome Honorable Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Honorable Minister of Small Business Development, the Chair of the Transformation Committee and Ethics Committee, Madame Oliver. In her absence, I heard her. The Board Chair of Los Nanda, Women of the Corner, our strategic partners, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is a privilege to welcome you to this Western Cape Women in Mining side event on the margins of the Mining Indaba. This meeting of mine is not just a symbolic gathering but a physical one, given the importance of the sector and to the forward for greater inclusion in the sector. Advancing women's economic participation is the key driver of growth and job creation. Recent estimates by the World Bank suggest that removing barriers to women's economic participation could raise global output by 15 to 20%. This is a very recent study, and they are launching this report now, two weeks' time. In the research conducted by the council, you are in the room. Thanks for coming. In 2023 to 2024, confirm the low procurement opportunities for women-owned businesses. Out of a total of 271 billion spent in goods and services, only 5% and 8% were spent on women-owned businesses and the and respectively, demonstrating the agency to address the situation. In addition, women account for 20% of the total workforce in the mining sector. Why this reflects slow progress? Why this reflects slow but still progress from the level that lowest 3% two decades ago? It clearly signals now that gender equity remains an unfinished business and a serious concern for the Women in Mining strategy for 2025 to 2027 has made a bold commitment towards fostering gender equity by committing to achieve 30% female representation across the mining sector and ensure that 40% um constitute management roles within that time frame. Furthermore, they set the target for themselves: 40% professional procurement from women-owned businesses, with a particular focus on those that exist 50% owned by women. These promising targets remain targets and aspirational until they are fully achieved. Therefore, require a collective action to realize and to meaningfully transform the sector and foster sustainable growth through inclusive um sensitivity and innovation. It is in this spirit that we invited each of you to firstly reflect on the progress made so far. Secondly, to think through how can we for the barriers that limit the success of women in the sector, and thirdly, create bridges through forging collaborations to create the change we want to see. Today's theme, "The Future from Peace to Which," was carefully crafted to capture the essence of our conversation tonight, especially as we explore how we increase women's participation across the entire mining value chain from exploration, extraction at the mining site through processing and beneficiaries to exploring how to leverage on the mining adjacent sector such as logistics. We have created a program with where the discussions will highlight one viable mining and mining adjacent value chain opportunity. Two, we are aware that the Department of Transport has opened to private operators. This presents a critical opportunity to advance inclusive participation alongside the efficiency and the competitiveness that the department is aiming to achieve. I would like to acknowledge the progress made by Transnet. It is evident that we are moving forward. Industry and support to accelerate the strategic trajectory of success. Our engagement today, however, seeks to understand whether and how opportunities arising from this reform are benefiting women-owned, led, and youth enterprises. Number three, safety remains a major concern for women in mining. In incidents of extortion and women reportedly being asked for sexual favors in exchange for contracts continue to respect. We will hear about safety strategies that can be adopted to end. Ladies and gentlemen, is the platform that brings diverse actors from government, the private sector, civil society, and entrepreneurs to accelerate the inclusion of women in the industrialization of our economy through the supply chain. In a nutshell, we continue to pay particular attention to how mining houses, public sector, state-owned entities can move beyond commitment to practical implementation that creates impact, including measurable targets, supply development, enforcement of safety, and ethical business environment for entrepreneurs. As we gather in the Western Cape, which is not always considered a primary obstruction, particularly when compared to other regions in the country, yet it does host important forms of minerality, including industrial minerals such as limestone operations. More importantly, it plays a strategic role in the broader mining value chain through downstream services, environmental and engineering expertise, logistics, transport operations, shift services, and regional trade. This for the Western Cape, a critical connector between extraction, exports, and markets across the startup. In this broader value creation context, women's participation remains strongest in the services and supply chain. But challenges facing in assessing finance, procurement opportunities, and long-term conduct that enable from discussing with business women and from my vantage point across corporate board, industry, and policy engagement. The constraints are structural to move women-owned businesses from the margins. South Africa must focus on structural integration, which includes guaranteed market access, particularly through public procurement and large corporation work and possible commitment. Patient employers' capital, combining grants and guarantees rather than relying on data alone. Institutional coordination where departments, DFI, municipalities, and regulators operate within a single delivery framework instead of local industrialization pathways, but especially in the manufacturing and infrastructure that enables small firms to participate in the small areas like important measures, report and celebrate progress through the presidential index for supply chain without anchoring women-owned businesses in the real demand. Support programs remain transactional. And let me conclude by expressing my gratitude to you for making this event possible. To the we for holiday season. If you look around the room and you see anyone who's sleepwalking, it's probably one of the. And to my co-chair for her ability to carry everything with grace and laugh at ourselves for wanting to do everything, and we actually do do it. South Africa's challenge is no longer one of intent but integration and currency to reform. If women-owned businesses are able to fulfill their roles as engines of employment and inclusive growth, the ecosystem must shift from support to coordinated demand and focused intervention. Only then will women-owned businesses move from the margin into the of the South African economy. Open. If you consciously choose to be a positive influence in the world, you will always find an opportunity to make a difference. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Um, one of the things that co-chair tried to do is that she opened up with this song. Everybody got on their feet, and then she was the first one to say "ba," but nobody wanted to "ba" her by then. Thank you for bringing the energy, and what an appropriate song, uh, to bring into the space. A song that resembles breakthrough and progress. But more than anything, co-chair, thank you for your reminder that you've given us that we have to move from target to transformation. We've got to move from dialogue to delivery, and that we can't just focus, we don't have the luxury of focusing on just the mining sector. We've got to look at the adjacent sectors as well, and come at this particular challenge in a coordinated, demand-led, and data-driven response. Thank you very much. Let's give her a big round of applause.

It's my absolute pleasure now to yield the floor, uh, to our official sponsor, and to invite once again, one of the people that we've acknowledged upfront, and that of course is the Chair of the Social Ethics and Transformation Committee, Madame. Let's give Madame a big round of applause.

Thank you very much, Program Director. Let me honorably greet our leaders that are with us. Minister and Minister of Women. We appreciate your presence today with all the leaders that are with us, and thanks to the Program Director as well for your outstanding leadership in front of us. schooling who are trying to survive the mines keeping us busy. Thank you so much. On behalf of I come here humbly to welcome and appreciate your presence to our call to support corner today. We're here as the board, as management, with one specific movement to ensure that businesses in South Africa, especially small businesses, are sustained and grow, as the minister will be here to share that with you. We're very honored to be with you as leaders such as our wonderful minister. We appreciate your presence here, and also your finance, and as well as also the ecosystem that we have today. This gathering, this is what he has said. It's just about collaboration and intervention. We can't do it alone. You have to do it as a team. It reflects a commitment beyond conversation to actually unlocking a tactile partnership that we want to ensure by supporting you today. Our system mandate is very clear that we are here to support ideas, to ensure that growth and sustainability is the way to go. We view this platform as a very important platform for further learning and core creation. We're very proud of being the main sponsor for today, not only in terms of the financial contribution, but actually to ensure that we are able to interact and network with each other, and let bills flow for small businesses, especially women-owned. To the courtes, we assure you of our continued collaboration and our strength in terms of relationships that we create with structures that are led by the Department of Women and for years ahead. We look forward to working together with you as we training with our minister in ensuring that this sector doesn't only survive but actually sustains, produces. Without wasting time, let me actually say it again. As we just said, let us continue to try when things are tough. He has spoken about what happens in the mining sector, but think about the sector that you're involved in. Continue to pester on, keep that business. Our leaders are making sure that we are creating legacy and also do not say no long to serve on government structures that are here to support and ensure the South Africa that we're living in is able to grow the economy. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, uh, Madame Daku, and thank you for the way you have reinforced one of the really powerful sounds we've heard this afternoon, that gender equality is an unfinished business, and in your address, reminding us that the only way we get to completion is together. We appreciate your message.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, before we get to our panel discussion, we are in for a treat. It is my absolute pleasure to not stand between you and the Honorable Minister Chunga, who at this moment delivers her keynote to us. And as she comes up, just a reminder that this is an opportunity for us to anchor ourselves in the systemic and the structural challenges and to be reminded that policy is the attempt to redefine the playing field and the arena. And so we welcome the minister with that mandate in mind.

Thank you very much, Director. Let me recognize Minister of Small Business Development, of New Captain of the Mining and Transport Industries, representatives of the Department of Minerals and Petroleum Resources, Duty of Small Business, as well as the Duty of Women and Persons with Disabilities, distinguished leaders of women-owned enterprises, development finance partners and investors, representative of SIC and African Union delegates, comrades and friends. Good evening. I greet you today not merely as a minister of the republic, but as a daughter of his. Injustice, and yet through the defiance of extraordinary women, continues to yield the harvest of freedom. This year, 2026, marks the year that is the platinum jubilee since 20,000 million mothers, grandmothers, factory workers, domestic workers, teachers, and nurses marched to Union on the 9th of August in 1953. They carried petitions alongside the weight of this nation on their bed. And when they stood before the seat of upper power, they declared with one of your women and thousands whose names history. These are the women on whose shoulders today. Their march was not merely a protest against it was a declaration that women would no longer be put in the story of liberation. To every woman in this room, we are a living continuation of that march. The road from the Union Buildings in 1956 led directly to this convention center in town in 2023. The question is no longer whether women belong in the economy, whether women belong in the economy. The question is how rapidly we can dismantle the barriers that still hold us back from participating meaningfully in the commanding of this economy.

Program Director, let me now turn to the magnificent end that lies beneath our feet. An endowment that by any measure of is the foundation of shared prosperity for all South Africans, especially women. According to the most recent data from the Department of Minerals and Program Resources, South Africa possesses mineral ore valued at more than $2.5 billion US, with 16 commodities ranked in the top 10. We hold the world's largest known reserve of platinum group metals at 88% of global reserve. We possess 80% of the world's manganese, 72% of global chromite reserves, and that is before we count our titanium, vanadium, coal, and iron. In terms of product, we are ranked 5th in internationally in mining contribution to GD at current rate. Our PGM, that is platinum, coal reserves will last for the next year. Our coal reserve for 200 years, and our gold reserve for 27 years. In 2023, the PTM, platinum group metals, gold, iron ore, coal together accounted for 81% of total mineral sales, 84% of export sales, and 87% of mining employment, with alone responsible for all mining jobs. Contributed a further 14% of total director. This level of endowment cannot be reconciled with a mention that has some of the highest unemployment rate in the world. Why do women who constitute 51% of our population still face disproportionate exclusion from the sector that generates this work? Why do communities on top of platinum and mang? This is not the absence of wealth. The issue is the absence of women at the table where decisions about wealth are made. The current money to achieve 40% procurement from women-owned businesses is not a charitable. It is an economic imperative. It is a recognition that when women participate fully in the mining value chain, from exploration to extraction, from processing to the entire economy benefit. Research consistently shows that gender-diverse companies outperform their peers, that women reinvest a great proportion of their earnings into their families and communities, and that included economies are more resilient economies. I'm confident that this assembly will characterize and elevate the voices of women not only as beneficiaries of mining policy but as architects of the country's mining strategy. Women on mining ports. Women must lead. Women must own the supply chain that move our minerals from to the Women's Economic Assembly must lead the world.

Program Director, Program Director, we are meeting at a pivotal moment in global economic history. A race is underway, a race that will determine which nation or nations prosper and which nations are left behind in the 21st century economy. It is the race for critical minerals across the world. Developed and developing economies alike are scrambling to secure domestic and external supplies of critical minerals to bolster their manufacturing capacity and global competitive. The United States has its critical mineral strategy. The European Union has its critical raw material. China has spent decades building. India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, all are in the race. And what are they racing for? Racing for the minerals that power electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, advanced electronics, aerospace technologies, medical devices, and defense systems. They are for manganese, for vanadium, platinum, lithium, cobalt, graphite, titanium, and rare earth elements, minerals that South Africa and our African neighbors possess in extraordinary abundance. The upstream and downstream value chain activities for critical minerals hold enormous opportunity: economic growth, industrial expansion, job creation, skills development, research, development, and innovation, and of course, recycling. More importantly, these minerals are called to play a crucial role in meeting sustainable development goals and net zero emissions. And this is the urgent warning to this: without appropriate strategic intervention, mineral producers like South Africa could remain as oil suppliers while most of the captured local. In simple terms, when you export raw, we are exporting the very wealth the women of 1956. We are contradicting the freedom charter. We're expecting the lift women-headed households out of poverty. We're exporting the tax revenue that could fund crashes and mining communities. We are, in essence, exposing our future. The criticality of minerals is determined not merely by geological abundance but by strategic significance, technological application, and the risk of supply. South Africa is blessed with abundance, but abundance without strategy is simply a resource wearing a different. This is precisely why women's participation in the critical mineral economy is not a consideration. It is a strategic necessity. Women bring different perspectives to resource management. Women are more likely to advocate for community benefits. Women entrepreneurs are often more innovative in finding niche applications and developing economies. If you are curious about winning the critical minerals race, we cannot afford to run it without Program Director. The critical minerals and metal strategy for South Africa lays out a comprehensive road map for the most important economic transition of our generation. The shift from being a raw mineral supplier to becoming a manufacturing town. This requires moving and exports to down, and I stand here today that this will not succeed without the full and deliberate inclusion of women and of persons. Why women must be at all of have read this strategy. The first pillar of the strategy is about the core of our industrial process and cost processing minerals within South Africa rather than exporting. We are targeting high sector energy storage and liberating our manganese and to become original manufacturing hub, hydrogen and fuel cell using our dominance in PGM to manufacture. Every single one of these sectors represents a massive opportunity for women entrepreneurs and women-owned from manufacturing components to providing specialized logistics, from laboratory testing to digital monitoring. The second pillar is on research, development, and innovation, and the strategy for national critical minerals research and innovation focus on systems-based and next-generation technology, a dedicated commercialization master, and I'm sure the minister of, and I call on every woman in this room to ensure women researchers, women innovators, and women that have in line for this opportunity. The technology that defines the 21st century must bear the fingerprint. The strategy emphasizes differentiated electricity for mineral processes, the revitalization of our network, and the development of dedicated corridors and green. Explaining this, women-owned construction firms, engineering consultancies, and logistic companies must be deliberately included in this infrastructure investment through targeted procurement and capacity building. The fourth pillar is financial and fiscal incentives. The government proposed balance strategies, credit for research and development, and high taxation system. All of these instruments must be designed with gender responsiveness. While ignoring the 1% of the population that has historically been excluded from the sixth one development, manufacturing requires a fundamentally different skill set from our strategy for curriculum alignment and collegeuring certificates, assembly, and advanced material and critical mineral workforce planning initiative. I want you to dedicated programs for women in mining engineering, chemical engineering, and data science. We need mentorship that women take young women from university to mind. We need assistant training programs that remain in the wrote where the future is being program. No country, however, can build a 21st-century manufacturing system alone. The critical strategy recognizes that South Africa must serve as an industrial hub, integrated with our neighbors and the broader African continent, and true to the women of Africa. This building of regional partnership is no consideration across our lives in manganese and the Democratic Republic of Zambia, and I mean Tanzania and Madagascar, significant reserves for Zimbabwe is a key source of collective region hold of the world's critical mineral reserve required for nothing but together, we collect everything. The strategy proposed with regional mineral not between neighbors but collaborating to process these materials into intermediate and final product within Africa, coin investment partnerships where South Africa acquires 50 states in regional mining operations while contributing technical expertise. And so, the African Continental Trade Area offers a framework for creating a unified market and economy of skill needed required for GA infrastructure, mining regulations, and reduced logistic costs across borders. These are the building blocks of a competitive manufacturing in Africa. Minerals to build Africa's future, then Africa's women must be Africa's mineral Afric. I call on the women, I call on the women of the of Zambia, of Zimbabwe, of Zambia, Mozambique, of Tanzania, and of every nation to join hands with their South African sisters in pushing this regional partnership. Women across already form the backbone of informal reg. It is time to formalize, to finance, and to scale their participation in the formal mineral. Where must become a continental platform, not only a South African Women in Mining Fund that supports women entrepreneurs from the pit in to the port in, from the lithium field in Mino to the plant of the eastern, the cooperation agreements and regional framework, and by the critical mineral strategy must have women's economic empowerment as a ngot, as an as director. Allow me to where I began with women of 196. When those 20,000 women, they were told they were being unreasonable, they were told the economy was not their domination, they were told at the time that indeed they were minor, they were told to go home and wait patiently for changes. As a matter of fact, they were. But they refused. They must, and they changed the history. Today, we face a different set of barriers, but the spirit required to overcome them is the same. The mining sector tells women to wait. The finance tells women to be patient. The global supply chain tells women to be grateful for the margin. And we must refuse. We must from we from exclusion to ownership. We must we from raw to manufacture. We must from surviving. And will not stop until the promise of the Freedom Charter, the ding of the Declaration, and the defiance of the Women's March are fully, completely, and irreversibly realized. South Africa on 2.5 trillion dollars of mineral wealth, the critical mineral is accelerating the global energy cons of the future, electric field. The question before this assembly is simple: Will women be the key in this transformation, or will women be the architect, the engineers, the entrepreneurs, the investors from the leaders? Who answer is clear. The government answer is clear. My answer is she for the future. She processes for the future. She man for the future. She for the future. She live for the future. From it to the future.

If you're not on your feet, I don't know where you've been. I I feel like I was in an economics master class and in church all at the very same time. Can you please give our honorable minister a resounding round of applause? We cannot run the race with half the team sitting on the bench. Women have to stand up and show up as the architects, the builders, the collaborators, the engineers, the investors, the entrepreneurs, the collaborators. Here's to receiving our permission to be unreasonable. Here's to receiving our permission to be impatient. And here's to the green light that no more will be settled for the clowns. Honorable minister, thank you so much.

Sure. I feel a bit of a revival. I hope I'm not the only one in the room. Um, behind me, I kept hearing, and there's nothing like, uh, in the African context that says it's really landing. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I think, uh, the soil has been tilled. We are ready for our first panel discussion. And we're going to have these discussions, uh, back to back. Uh, we're going to try and to be as concise as possible in the moderated piece so that perhaps we have time to take one or two questions from the audience, um, before we make our way, of course, to, uh, our second keynote of the afternoon, and that of course is, uh, listening to minister. So, we're going to be moving this podium in a second. I'm just going to use it to invite my panelists to come and join me. Uh, to my panelists, your microphones are on your seats. Uh, as soon as you're seated, we're going to get the panel discussion on the road. This first panel is our conversation that is really focused on the question of the opportunities in the mining sector and of course, taking on the question of safety of women in the sector as well. I'm pleased to welcome to join me by taking their seats, Madame Western, Chairperson of the National Treasury General, that is of course, a South African woman in mining. Madame. Can we give Madame a big round of applause as she comes up? Thank you very much. Allow me to also welcome the Acting DG, um, in the Western Cape, looking after Economic Development and Tourism, Madame Elsa. Are you with us? Thank you very much, Elsa. Let's give her a big round of applause. We're joined by Dr. Masho, Executive Director, looking after Corporate Affairs at Harmony Gold. Uh, Doctor, are you with us? Thank you very much. We appreciate you, sir. Allow me to also call on Madame Nero, Executive Head of Sustainability at Exaro. Madame Mon, are you with us? Yes. Let's give her a big round of applause. H in the title, it was written designate in brackets. I don't speak of designates. It's already done. That's that's how we move. Um, we heard about the logistics sector. So I want to create way now for Madame Chambi, General Manager, looking after Strategy at Transnet Rail Infrastructure. Madame TBI, are you with us? Uh, I I'm doing a quick scan from Transnet. Yes. Thank you very much. Let's give her a round of applause. It's a very big panel, as you can see. And then finally, um, it's my absolute pleasure, especially because the minister spoke about the importance of one of the pillars being research and innovation, that we have a Chief Research Operations Officer, uh, at the Mining Health and Safety Council, Madame Pila Brokco, uh, who joins us today. Can we give her a big round of applause as well? Might I kindly ask, uh, that the podium is removed. Thank you, sir, for your kind assistance.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's a very big panel, but we're going to try to be as concise and to the point as possible. The intention of this conversation is to anchor ourselves in what's practical and what's doable, um, rather than speaking to the theoretical and the semantic. And so, I'm going to start off by, um, actually coming to yourself, Madame, uh, Fa, when you talk about the mining value chain, from where you sit, where are you seeing the most meaningful opportunity, uh, for women right now, and what would you say is responsible for those opportunities opening up?

Director. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm here representing the woman who is in the rural from the rural areas of Limpopo, from the rural areas of Bumaraya, from the rural areas of the Eastern Cape. I'm from the East. Next to my next to my village, there is a mine, a coal mine that has not been operating now because the voice of the community and the women was not taken into consideration. I'm here representing multitudes of small businesses that are women-owned that are sitting there not having a clue of what is happening when there is a mining indaba. Presenting the multitudes of women who died holding money and not knowing what to do with them. I'm representing women right now who got money but they do not have fund to operate or operationalize those. Stand here representing women at the local of the mining company and the mining open do not have access to opportunity in those mort from ownership to operations and depreciation. I'm glad minister when we are saying we are exporting, we are exporting our minerals in their form, as we are exporting job opportunity because if we were to process those minerals, if we were to manufacture, we would decrease unemployment by a huge margin and then we buy those minerals inflated. There are opportunities in the supply chain. I think for many of the women that are here, we take it light when we consider supply chain. Take for example, a mine that is feeding 17,000 employees a day, three meals a day. How much is that? Yeah. So sometimes as women, you are looking at being a mine owner instead of looking over for us. So toilet paper example, everybody to paper on a daily basis. How many toilet papers would you have to supply to each mine? As a as an in that community so that you can sustain yourself, you can sustain the community, you can sustain your family, and then after you have entered into the money, then you start growing. And then so the the opportunities are there, but sometimes we are not looking at the right place.

Thank you. I think that's a great point, and yes, it does deserve a round of applause that, um, that while ownership remains important, um, the opportunities extend beyond the question of ownership, and we need to be stress testing the broader supply chain to unlock those opportunities. I'm going to make my way back to you, Madame, but let me go to Elsa next. One of the things that Madame Ty said, uh, she highlighted that we find ourselves in the Western Cape. This is not necessarily a mining province per se, and there in the opportunity for us to talk about, uh, some of those adjacent opportunities. When you look at the work that the, um, that the department is doing here, or the province is doing rather, which levers are you looking at to really, uh, pull and crowd women in to mining opportunities, uh, especially adjacent industries like logistics, like services, and maybe even some of the beneficiation opportunities that Madame Feka was raising?

Thank you very much. So honored to be here today. Thank you very much. So, um, having I grew up in the tree states, so I'm very much aware of what my attribute for for a whole range of communities, especially in the Western Cape where we mostly in terms of like we stand minister mentioned the range literally, um, spot on in terms of opportunities, but critically for us, um, it's about how do we craft in women entrepreneurs and businesses into the value chain, whether it's logistics, whether it's services, whether a range of these aspects. And one of the, I'm going to mention five key points. The first aspect is how do you increase positive? So we have a strategy for growth for jobs, which is really around how do we build a one trillion rand economy in the Western part by 2035, and that requires us to remove barriers for businesses to grow, whether you're female-owned business or male-owned business, we have to remove those binding constraints, what's making it for an entrepreneur to function. The first aspect is in terms of public procurement. Um, as a market creation leader, we often get this wrong as government in terms of really pushing procurement. So in 2024-25, about 34.6% of our provincial procurement, that was 6.8 billion, went to women-owned businesses. That wasn't by mistake or by chance, but by design. So it's critical that you are supporting businesses in terms of how do I grow my business? So what does a business need? You need business sales. You need more, and you need to have reliable value plans to be able to transact into other areas, and that includes like you mentioned, logistics, maintenance, professional services, etc., which was mentioned with regards to the role that we play in the SIC region.

In South Africa, we have some of the skills in engineers, architects, um, etc. And those skills are one of our service exports. It's very valuable. It's how do we support that? The second element in terms of our strategies in terms of placing a strong emphasis in terms of either doing business. We've got a particular, we set up a a unit called the website production unit. It's been around probably for about six years. It basically has come from cost where business can say, "I'm having trouble with XY Z," and often times the problems which government creates. I'm not getting this permit through, this is taking long. I'm not getting an answer. I'm not getting a response from national government right to local government. So the red tape reduction unit is focusing on how do we make it easier for businesses and giving a a voice to to the business community. This third element is about prioritizing industrialization and value adding for women-owned firms, specifically in terms of beneficiation. This is a lever which I think is getting more attention nationally, which is about our Special Economic Zones in the Western Capital, primarily I want to mention our Sana, which is more focused in terms of oil and gas manufacturing, but it's now entering the race with regards to green hydrogen. We have a lot of green hydrogen investment happening there, as well as Atlantis, said focusing on EVs, etc. So at how do we actually provide in women entrepreneurs to make use of these facilities in investment about, um, export, but we've got a range of support programs for for entrepreneurs in terms of you need to grow market out, you want your business to grow, you cannot just focus on the domestic market, you have to be able to scale and address later. And finally, it's about in terms of the circular economy and looking at other, um, You were mentioning it earlier, minister, but the green in terms of recycling, beneficiation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Elsa. I think, uh, it does deserve a round of applause because I think one of the things that comes to the surface is the comprehensiveness of what needs to be in place for the whole system to work. So it's really, um, it's insightful when you hear that we need to be thinking about access to markets while at the same time, how do we reduce red tape, at the same time thinking about how do we move into the region? So it is all these levers in play almost simultaneously that shift the system and not just one of them, and that I think is a really big insight. Dr. Masho, let me come to you. I mean, we, one of the things, um, we've we've heard already, and I, I don't doubt we continue to hear, is around Recon's own target of 40% procurement, um, target in order to really get women-owned suppliers, uh, in the door as participants. Let's look at that from a Harmony Gold perspective. Um, where are the most immediate opportunities at Harmony Gold to bring women-owned suppliers in to participate, and where are you seeing the greatest traction?

Thank you so much. and mining. I think the question needs to be asked differently. So we need to be looking into the whole concept of what progress has been made thus far, and then we come back and say, what can we push for more? If one were to look at the mining industry, it's an industry that has been many dominated by men. All that domination has been the white males that have been sort of calling the shots. Okay, they are the people that know where to find whatever services they were looking for. There has been a network that were created over that time. And when you talk about transformation, you're talking about sharing the cake from people that have been historically benefiting out of the system. Now, you can't say I'm going to transform without being intentional about it. What do you mean when you say being intentional? At Harmony, something that we have learned over the years was this concept of coming up with policies that would be addressing transformation. You don't just come up with policies just to create your world. You come up with policies that are underpinned by actions and targets that you're going to be following through to deliver on those policies. But then it's not just about also delivering on those particular targets. What many people tend to do is just to be compliant.

Yeah.

And if you are going to be working toward being compliant, you'll never make a difference because we do the bare minimum. So when we go out as Harmony, we basically are saying we want to go beyond what is being measured by whoever is measuring it.

Yeah.

What have we achieved thus far in terms of what I'm saying? We have come up with what we call a robust economic transformation plan. Once you can go back and audit and say, "Where did you start? What did you put in place? How can you measure the rand value?" Our son says, when we talk about transformation, transformation, and he would say, "How many families have you enabled to go into them just going through the commons? How many have you empowered to go into say, how many families have you empowered to take their kids through university?"

Yeah.

Without having to rely on somebody else. That is basically how you then measure the transformation that you're talking about. And now, what we have done is over the past seven years, because we started looking into really nation that impact where it matters most. From 2019 to 2025, 6.7 billion rand was spent with black-owned women companies. Black women-owned companies. And we're talking of empowering about 370 suppliers that are women-owned in the different communities. Now, how do we then ensure that I had to give you the example of papers?

Yes, maybe it's a good place to start. However, you're not going to move the needle if you just look at the small kind of businesses in the communities. You need to be identifying women that have got the muscle that you would empower in terms of growing them into the core of the business. What we have done thus far in terms of our track record, we've been able to bring women into the system and make sure that they be they are integrated into the supply chain of the top 10 commodities, which is basically what what we're saying in terms of sort of coming back to say, where are the opportunities remaining? When you talk about your top 10 commodities, you're talking about mining services, you're talking about mining support products, you're talking about construction services, you're talking about IT services, electrical motors, engineering services, general consumable products, general skill products, mechanical repairs, and capital project services. Before you take the microphone for me, let me answer the question.

that you haven't asked me. Are we here yet?

Are we making like the given the first time to accept that we are not where we need to be, but we are not where we supposed to be. And let me pause here. Thank thank you very much uh for for for that response um and giving us uh a tangible example of what it looks like to go beyond compliance and to giving us those some of those real numbers 6.7 billion rand 370 suppliers and of course the challenge to say we can do more than just do the catering we can do more than just toilet paper but there in comes the second panel discussion which is how do we then unlock the funding to create the women with the muscle that Dr. Masho speaks about.

Let me then move on to Madame Nero because one of the things or one of the pathways Nero is that we look to um supplier development programs to create these pathways into uh the business as you've heard Dr. What have you seen as characteristics of supplier development programs that are exponentially successful at creating womenowned businesses of muscle and significant scale that can really step into the opportunities that we've been speaking about?

Thanks. No, good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Dr. I was going to quote a couple of numbers until you went to do this billions and I had to quickly just Google what's the market cap of how many gold we are saying so my numbers are very so in brackets it's got designated and there's a bit of context here three months ago I joined this business this company called Exar for those who are in the know is planning 20 years this year. So in 2006 Yeah. So we can start for um

2006 um young entrepreneurs under the leadership of Sonosi came together and they had a dream to finally as black young entrepreneurs to own um mining reserves. Um they had women in the team. One of them is a prominent magnet in the manganese business and sure we can clap for that as well. So this is the company that I joined three months ago and a bit about Exaro. Exaro is a diversified resources champion in Africa and beyond. We've got footprint in Mumalanga. We've got footprint in inco and this is where our base commodity is which is coal. Um we've got equity shares with um at kumba with sushian iron ore company. Um we also have a zinc equity share as well in the black mountains and just the other day we also acquired 60% of a mine which is a manganese mine. Um this is one of our ambition and part of the strategy to acquire our transition minerals and manganese um us going into the galahari manganese is a step towards that. Our vision as exaro is to power lives in Africa and beyond.

Dr. when you spoke about the what you have spent to date on um on the black businesses. Yeah. If we look at Axaro from 2018 to date, we spent about 1.1 billion rand just on ESDs and 40% of that it has gone to women and between 2018 to now we've learned a lot of lessons and we've had to come up with a framework that's been guiding us in the past few days just to make sure that the sustainability in those black women owned businesses. So the one thing that we've also learned is that it doesn't help that we go and we put women in businesses without the real need and without the real demand. >> There is no sustainability in that. So what we have done is we first identify opportunities. These could be in direct procurement or it could be subcontracting and that's where we then start with the with the women. We then go into a second phase with which is the pre-development or the readiness phase. We also realize that women businesses do not fail purely because of the lack of um potential. They just fail because some of them they are not procurement ready. And at this stage we then go and we support the lady or we support womenowned enterprise to obtain technical certifications. help them meet compliance standards and we just help them to strengthen their uh abilities so that when we go through the RFP processes they submit a a a competitive uh proposal once we've done that we feel that they are now halfway through we then enter the financing space and what we offer a um we offer a grant sorry and you also offer um interest free loans. That's where we've been quite successful. And coupled to that, we also go into non-inancial support, mentorship, coaching um and financial governance guidance so that we we create a fullyfledged um um supply. The one thing that we also pride ourselves when in we handhold a bit and this is purely because we understand how important it is to position women as people that deliver. So people that um want production performances in the mining sector when you speak to people and you say I've got a woman who's capable tracks volume. So we make sure that we do a lot of handholding just to make sure that we then end up with track record which means then we can continuously recontract and they can then scale their business. So that's the one thing that we do. We have identified that we're not going to do this once all >> this is a cycle process and we then take our graduates through this project through and through again.

I just want to share an example of a lady that has really done that for us. Um we've got Abigail Kilar. She is in the Limpopo Back um area. Abigail in 2021 she had aspirations to have a logistics business. She applied for um for a loan interest free loan of about 7.5 million. She acquired her first truck. In 2023 she came back again. She asked for 11.5 million and she subsequently increased her fleet. Um as we speak right now she is initially when she joined she was subcontracting with the main uh logistic company she is now directly contracting with the uh with the mine under her business she's also now further subcontracting the ladies within the water um sector orange drink just to touch on how she's grown between 2021 today she's moved from a turnover but of a turn over of about 2 million to about 100 million. So this is just a woman that was intentional and she followed through with our program. We we tend to talk about the mining value chain and mostly we came from portra has another element which is the mineral succession program. We've got land. Some of the land we we've had to rehabilitate from previously opening holes to now closing the holes. At this point in time, we've got about 10,000 hectares of land that's been used back and we currently have about 138 commercial farmers and all 54% of that is women. So this is basically what we've done just to make sure that the programs are sustainable.

>> Thank you so much. Um and you know I I'm allowing my panelists to give us the the breath that they can I'm asking you to bear with me because it is important that we're not um operating at sound in these conversations and to really hear the substance of what's coming through. uh we're going to go a lot tighter in the next round. But I I do do appreciate that. Um I think one of the things that was also really meaningful hearing from you now in the process. Um you know one of the things that Madame Ky spoke about is the idea of moving from a demandled perspective and how you use that as your starting point then to procurement readiness then to technical certification before financing. Um, and I think that's useful to understand the process and I do want to thank those who are trying to help us with the order in the room. I do appreciate that very much. So then madame can be oh before I move on by the way when I don't know if you noticed when started she highlighted to us that no she's just arrived that's why the designate is there very very soon it will be gone. So she says I've just been here three months give me time and it will be gone. So I noted that. Um let me go to Madame um Tami next. Um I want Tami just to spend a minute or two on just concrete practical examples of opportunities that shift in the adjacent industries. Right. Um we've been speaking a little bit about some of those but knowing that you're coming from transnet I think it's a great opportunity for us to shine the spotlight on the listics adjacent industry and for you to surface some of the opportunities there. Can I just ask you to press the orange button underneath alternatively to swap out the microphone?

>> All right, let's pass down. There we go. Yes.

>> Yeah, Thank you very much and good afternoon to you and honorable ministers and the the guests. Um uh we really appreciate the opportunity as well to join the panel. I'm obviously not directly from the mining industry. However, As transnet, we are a huge part of the the family of mining because without our logistic system, the product that get mined by all the miners is is not going to be able to get out of the country and be exported. So maybe just to start for those who are not familiar with um transet and what we do um we have seven operating divisions within trans focusing on logistics um from support. So we are very closely operating inside with the mines just adjacent to the mines and then we our train then moves through the port where the product then uh gets on a vessel and then gets exported to uh wherever the destination is. So if we don't perform in terms of transportation and the logistics system then the um the output of the mining industry is also diminished in terms of the the income that can be generated even indirectly the jobs that can be created um within the mining space. So yeah, we we we really an integral part of the of the logistics system. Our um rail system which is really the backbone of of this mining um integration can take up to 250 million tons of um mining products and traffic um in a year. But at the moment I think last year we um this year we aiming to do we're aiming to do around 180. We might finish um somewhere around the 170 mark um just uh because we are dealing with quite several challenges within the the chain which I think is where also some of the opportunities for for our ladies to participate in um also lie um we move um coal we move manganese we move um chrome magnetite those form about 90% of that 250 million times that we we move on the on the network and then in some parts of the network it is shared with what we call general traffic um general traffic which is your container and your manufacturing um type of products. So from that perspective yeah we do serve quite a big range of commodity suppliers.

Now, in terms of tangible opportunities, they they range straight from when the product comes out of the mine when you then load it on the train um and then all the way down to to the port. So, if I can just compartmentalize um and I think a lot of people don't understand our operations to that level of detail. So, I'm just going to spend a bit of time there. In the loading site, uh we've got what we call rail sizes. Um because only way for a a um for the mining product to get onto a train. It needs to um be loaded using specialized equipment. So yes, so rail sidings are big terminals next to a mine where you then um can can then load your product. the opportunities we create across the entire geography um of of our operation. We operate in all the provinces basically from Lal um in all the provinces. There's there's some port systems to all the different ports in the country. There's about eight ports that we export to. Um those operations are basically terminal operations. >> We concession them out. So there is there is an opportunity for everyone in the room to actually participate as terminal operators. we needed really to just bring loading equipment um generally kind equipment and have operating staff very minimal amounts um that are required and then have a willing investor. I was just asking my colleagues around how much would be required in terms of um um investment there. It ranges between five 5 million to uh uh 50 million depending on the size of the operation that we're doing and the the income levels are quite low there. So it's a very easy one to to get into. when we move from the sidings and then go down to the main system now what we call the main line system we've just uh opened access which is a huge polic policy shift that has just happened in the rail train where we are allowing private operances to come on board and to start running trains it used to be just transnet that runs the trains so we've now open the market to say anyone can actually run trains um there you will need a bit of investment but again we allow people form consortiums um and um at the moment we've awarded business to about 11 new operators in the space. Most of them did not have a rolling stock um which is the locomotives and the wagons which is the beautiful heart of the investment. But because there's global interest in this um it really doesn't matter if you're a woman or a man in this instance. What you need is to be able to access investment and funding and maybe have the skill to to sell because off the back of the policy change investors are willing to actually give um people um the investment we are seeing. So we're working very hard to collaborate and to train people up in terms of how do you actually get yourself ready to do that. Again, if you are able to talk to investors, there's not a lot of money that you require out of your pocket to do the work and we work with um people that

>> Madame Kami, thank you very much. I'm going to pause you there, but I think again some really practical um you know directive opportunities and where they sit. I think one of the things that really stands out for me is also getting a sense of the ticket size in terms of the investment opportunity because when we're talking about Madame Tari that Nero was talking about and the numbers you begin to realize that it is doable though those numbers are um can be raised and that's within the investment appetite that exists. So, as as I come to you, I want us to begin to transition into the safety conversation because one of the things that we said we wanted to talk about in this panel was not only opportunities, we also wanted to talk a little bit about the safety. Um, so I'm going to come to the pillar first and then as I come back to everyone with their final comments, I'm going to ask you to be very sharp and very brief and concise in this final round of questions. Um, but you know when you when you in particular um look at the current research um around safety risk in mining. Does it have a gender lens? Is it differentiated to give us a sense of what this looks like in the universe of women? And is there a particular narrative or storyline that's emerging that you could share with us?

Thank you very much and good afternoon ministers and um members. So what you find is that these um gender differentiated risk that show up in three areas. The first point is how is the work design? Secondly, what does the workplace assume about the worker? And thirdly, how safely can people concern >> and what they find is um from research that we just recently finalized um that overexertion and ergonomics is one of the major safety concerns for women. So this results in fatigue. You get physical and mental strain. you find injuries of women, muscular disorders and as well as long-term occupational health um impact. So some of the contributors for this specifically and we talking about the workplace environment is the high workload, the heavy manual lifting and handling that women have to have to do the long traveling distances to and from the face. We also You have poorly designed PPE, inadequate facilities as well as a loss of respect. There's discrimination and then there's also difficult work life balance that women face in particular. So the next one I'm going to be read is the psychosocial safety which includes harassment as well as GDP and statistics about this is still on the ground because women don't always report due to fear of discrimination stigma their career and we also find that reporting systems vary from mind to mind and the structures that support are still not strong enough. So from this well design you can see that when tasks are routinely manual or heavy or even poorly designed it can result in a woman being vulnerable where men would like to sexual favor to do a woman's work. So those are just some of the factors. Thank you.

>> Thank you very much for that because I think and it does deserve a round of applause um because it really shines a spotlight on the danger of just pushing for participation but not really understanding and going as far as the nature of that participation and what needs to be in place. I want to come to me and Dr. very quickly while we're in the safety part of the conversation, but I want to extend it beyond the internal employees to locate it in terms of how are you thinking about safety for women entrepreneurs who are engaging with your business. Dr. Merc let me give you an opportunity to to go first. How where does that fit in in the universe of um what is important to harmony as we think about safety and how you engage with women entrepreneurs in the sector

>> part of the transformation has got >> my my apologies to my ask once more um what tends to happen is that the acoustics is such that the noise is elevated on stage so at some point we can't hear ourselves speaking so if you could kindly just keep it down. We really really appreciate it so much. Thank you so much. Go ahead.

>> Yeah, thank you. Thank you. What I was saying is part of transformation um it's a whole issue of ethics and if if we talking of transforming whether it be the workplace or it be the suppliers that are coming >> into the organization. We should as a foundation have an ethical kind of an environment. There's no woman that needs to be subjected to inclusion into her privacy just because she's supposed to get a business deal. that is not correct and it's something that as the the mining industry I'm not just talking about harmony I'm talking about art mining industry we are very decisive about that >> and so as much as we protect our employees our women employees going underground we will also protect our women entrepreneurs that are coming into the space. That's where we start. So that you have what you would call a hotline that if you were to come to my office and my says that will be yours if you come to my hotel room at this time the woman can blow a whistle on me and I need to be tackled to be dealt with. Okay. Yeah,

>> but number two, there is this element of >> sometimes we don't have people asking for for sexual favors that people come advantage and they say can we make use of your name so that we can get business. Yes. We basically say to our entrepreneurs, our SME, do not allow yourself to be used.

>> Yeah.

>> Because on paper you see that they say this woman owns up 20% or 30% of the company or even 50% of the company, but the woman doesn't even know how much the company has in the bank. The woman doesn't even know what are the the workings of the company. At the end of the day, the woman is earning a salary of 5,000 rand out of the company that is said to be 51% owned by that very same woman. So we deal with

>> Dr. I I I have a little bit of a time constraint. I've got minister who needs to leave. So I do apologize that if I'm being a bit short with you right now. Please accept my apology. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna come to you with the same posture because I'd like for you to build a little bit on that by commenting for us. What is the link between doing some of the things that Dr. Mashiko speaks about and the sustainability of women's mining businesses? Is there a link that when we have hot lines, when we operate from an ethical position, are we contributing to the sustainability of those businesses over time?

quickly mining industry and safety is they are partners. So um in 50 years ago we used to have close to 500 fatalities a year as coal industry we also used to be we had high numbers of recent in 2025 we had coming from 2020 24 we had six fatalities we only had one >> it's not something to be celebrated I just wanted to highlight that to say we have learned to keep people safe where women are concerned and womenowned enterprises development is concerned and I spoke earlier about sustainability is that the framework that we've developed we are trying to take away vulnerability because when a woman is illprepared they tend to be vulnerable and our processes tends to then take away that just in closing we believe that safety is a growth ener that Dr. Mach has spoken about is in mining industry we've looked at the best practices and we doing that because we believe it's a growth and a thank you for raising the point about vulnerability and I think Fatila you would agree with that because that's exactly the point that you had raised for us again maybe madame t as I come to you one of the things that fat says to us is you know we need to look beyond just participation so when we look at the logistics sector where you yourself. How are you thinking about pushing for the participation of women and for their safety at the same time? How do you ensure that those were not traders and are actually things that are mutually reinforcing?

So from a safety perspective I mean we've got the on the rail side we've got the rail and safety regulator that keeps us quite in check in terms of what are the requirements if you are entering into our logistics they really quite detailed and they've got a lot of guidelines for women entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs in general. They will not let you get onto our operation unless you meet certain uh safety requirements and they work very closely with you to put together a safety management system and they monitor um the performance. same on the marine site with the maritime um safety association of South Africa. Same guidelines as well. But um as as from as we hear from the mining industry, we actually started an initiative with them recently to we are coming to the mines actually to benchmark because our not as good as as they are. Um I must mention in our space the the biggest challenge is that where we work um you've driven along a railway line throughout the country, it's in the open.

>> Sure.

>> So, there's a lot of vulnerability in terms of the safety of women. Even in those siding operations and the yards where the teams are are put together where you see there's a lot of women management working there. Um, they work in the yard sometimes. So we we've started to um improve on on the lighting and things like that. But there's a lot that still needs to be done to to come up with innovative ways in which um we can protect the women but that awareness from entrepreneurial is required so that the women can be prepared

and that standard awareness is a great place to be starting and and madame I'm going to end off with you because I think you bring us to a close as we think about scale but you know let me close off the safety conversation with you. Um one of the things that one would want to is the extent to which we're using safety data to to flow into the operational environment and to make and that to influence the kind of decisions the likes of Dr. Marco and Nero would be making is there enough of of that flow of safety data into the operational environmentally um safety data could be used is currently being used as a control It's not just a fire exercise but what we could improve is to aggregate our data. So get a better understanding um by gender, by job task, work area for example time and then we also need to shift our focus from indicators which is events that have already happened to leading indicators which are early warning signs. And once identify the need. We can start monitoring and bringing visibility to the issues at hand and then to really make it operational. It's all about adding it to monthly dashboard monitoring these putting accountability having responsible people and then spending money where the data fails the error really.

>> Yeah,

>> thank you very much again. I think very practical. I I love the unspoken proactivity that in you know doing those actions we bring into the operational environment because one is working with live data almost in real time. So let let me begin to wrap up this conversation. Madame let me come to you assuming that we have addressed some of the opportunities that we've spoken about on the panel and we've addressed the safety issues. If there's one thing that you are still hearing women crying about from where you are, what is the one thing that you think would make the lived experience of women entrepreneurs in mining authentic program director I think I won't mention one because it can be one. There's just a few that need to be mentioned because as entrepreneurs when I indicated the low hanging fruit on the supply chain, we want women very industry. So not every woman will be able to do to be able to be a a significant player without the support that they need from the government and also from the DFI. So the issue here is how do we access funding so that we can be able to be involved in the operation to be involved in the beneficiary to be involved in the processing that is One thing that needs to be happen but funding alone without supporting those entrepreneurs in terms of the skills of running their businesses it will like you are pouring money into budget because they will come back again for for you to build them what is proposing and what they've already started with Bumang economic development and also the small scale miners in Pumalang is to establish a mining incubator. that money incubator when you've got a you will be you will be going through the processes getting the support they will support you to get all all the licenses all all the you get all the reports that are getting up until you are ready to to go and operate that is why we need that because these is small minor. They do have but those are meaningless. There is a small scale right but it is meaningless because it cannot cover all the cost that you need for you to be investment ready or to be ready business ready to operate. So that is the first one. I think the second the second intervention that we need from government is the funding needs to be a little bit fun I did say in the morning because not all of us have the capacity to be big money giants But we need to increase the scale of the blockchain miners so that we can c the illegal mining that is taking place. So if we can get the funding to be such that you will be able to cover your rehabilitation fund all those licenses that you need until you can be able to set the setting cost up until you can open it. Having that having a son that is going to leave you halfway is as good as nothing. I'm going to last. I'm challenging you, Minister of Women. 10 years ago, the the government set up a lot of competitions. There were women in mining, women in construction, women in agriculture, women in transport, women in oil and energy. There was a lot of money that was invested. If you are saying we have we have not moved, you need to call us to account. What happened platform can't do mining without aging without contracting without energy. So you need to call us to say here are the projects or here are the projects women collaborate now. We need to start collaborate and do not among each other. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. For a second there, I thought Madame I was asking for a commission. We are okay for now. Closing comments. Closing comments from you. Where is there still work for policy to do? Because if we think about the universe of what we've discussed, there are still gaps. You've just heard Madame Faza pointing to many of those gaps. Where should if we want policy to be targeted and specific what are some of the gaps we need to close on?

Thank you very much. So in closing this this keeps literally to what I'm trying to say about it's not just about building more women into the value chain scale is the challenge like you said policy needs to firstly address the gap in terms of growth capital. Sure. If you keep the contract values small, you keep them shortterm, they don't have the balance sheet to go and apply for funding, a crisis there is that the funding mechanisms have changed. That's the other element. We need to look at blended financing, guarantee instrument, contract back funding. So the funding must change to match the business. Second key is in terms of the contract structure as I mentioned and you need longerterm contracts and supply aggregation to help them to be able to have that balance sheet to scale because this is a very very expensive capital in terms of industry then it's in terms of the technical operational the quality must shift from generic enterprise support there is so much support for startups in this country but the issue is we need more mediumiz firms our economy is vulnerable because we've got a high failure rate of startups we do not have enough mediumiz firms go and look all across the The medium size is guys where we get innovation where we get new technology developed and for that medium size they need different they need different instruments and importly it's about market concentration. So the mining supply chains are dominated by certain industries again because there's barriers and it's not always a bad thing but there is policy can help by opening procurement pipelines supplier clustering etc. We have to approach things differently. It's a value chain approach and it's risk inclusion. So I want to end it up with in short inclusion gets women into the value chain but scale requires policy that reshapes markets risk growth and rewards long-term participation and that shift is what we need to make. I think it's a great place to close the conversation. Thank you very much. I'm going to I'm going to release my panel. I'm going to ask my brother who's assisted me with the podium to please bring the podium back. We're going to have a picture opportunity. I'm going to ask you all to take a stand in the front as they take a picture and I'm going to flex my moderator superpowers by rejigging the program just slightly. We're going to make way for Minister Denni um to address us and then we're going to take the final panel before we make our way to the vote of Senate. Um thank you very much. Yes. If we can just have you step into the line.

>> Ladies and gentlemen, can we get a final round of applause for this panel, please? They were excellent. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. A big round of applause. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, can I um ask us to please make way now as we receive our second keynote um from our Minister of Small Business Development. Can I ask us to kindly please locate our seat? Thank you very much. Yeah, I think that's fine. Can I ask a round of applause for Honorable Minister, please? Thank you so much, director of the program. I know it looks like it's been a hectic day because you started somewhere. We are here, but I promise you, you're not you are not going to regret why you're here. This is an important platform and the engagement that you are having to enhance that the work enhance the work that we've already started. So just give a few minutes so that we can really tie up personally you know with those holes that needs to be quietened so that we can really get to see what are these beautiful things we're talking about and who are the bene established of course acknowledge my counterpart dear sister the minister for women um youth and people with disabilities in our country. I just tell them the protocols. So I want to mention one by one. Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Beneath our story lies an immense wealth that has built industries, powered economies and sustained livelihoods for generations. As a body, we stood here daily talk about the journey that our parents traveled leaving their homes in order to make sure that they can make a living for us and the next generation. Yet the true measure of our democracy is not found in mineral reserves alone but in who participates meaningfully in the economy they sustain. Because we need we are taking pride on what has been brought for us. The court has freedom on the right that we enjoy. But there is that is missing that must give effect to section 22 of our constitution. Not going to tell you what it says. We're going to go and read section 22 of the constitution. Today we confront an undeniable reality. Women's full participation in mining, in ownership, procurement and leadership remains an unfinished business with all the rights that we enjoy. For more than a century, mining has saved our nation's economic destiny. It has driven industrialization. It has strengthened the export of survey committee as minister did say. Yet women, particularly black women, have remained on the margins of ownership and value creation in this sector that is so strategic. This engagement is convinced by recon alongside the African mana is therefore a strategic conversation about moving from intention to implementation, from dialogue to delivery. Advancing women's transportation from P to P speaks directly to our transformation agenda not only as a country but as the reason the continent and the globe from exploration to beneficiarating from logistic to export market women must be owners producers and leaders in this economy that we are building. Of course you're going to say we voted for you. What are you doing to make sure that happens? I want a Mr. government you are fully committed to this building of ensuring that women occupy their rightful place. Minister articulated in terms of the numbers the GDP contribution by the factor the ownership by women and the participation that is there. I'm not going to go much on those. I just want to talk what matters in relation to the responsibility that we have as your government that we put into power. We've got to make sure that we break past dependency in two key areas. The first one as I said earlier is that we must benefic to back three and two when you have access because we know the first market is us. That is why the amendments by the department of mining that talk to the mineral resources bill aim to correct this by promoting local beneficiation and industrialization ensuring that more raw materials are available for locally available medicine at commercial prices. We've seen this many a time that as much as we would love all the bling, all the products that are produced from the minerals but as they go they come back to price and we are on that cannot afford those. Therefore, it is important that we shift the narrative that we have been beginning to see that South Africa is gradually moving away from being an industrial economy to a services economy. We've got to wake up and make sure that we change how we do things. That mineralized bill is critical and it requires your support if we are to change how things are happening in our country, in the continent and of course in the globe. The critical mineral strategy that was developed again by the department also focuses on growing our industrial processing capabilities for the green and digital time. If you're looking at the mining sector, it cuts across so many industries. Therefore, you cannot only confine your resources and into one aspect. You've got to look at everything that those mind they also respect the climate change. They've got to appreciate that new technologist. They've got to make sure that people are safe and they've got to ensure that those that are in the environment they're able to participate in the very things that we're talking about. If we forget about that and focus on one aspect, we're going to see an overperation in the industry. This is why diversification becomes critical on the work that we do. The second aspect is that we must make mining more inclusive. Again, I go back to the law. I said you voted for us. I want to make the law to enable you to then design instruments. And I know that you don't even participate when we design those laws. I'm not going to ask how many of you have responded to the deal that has been amended. I'm not sure how many of you have responded to the business licensing bill that we amended and how it impact on your own sector and the transformation fund that Minister was busy consulting with. I do hope that you did participate because if you did not it means that your sector will be left behind. This is why we took a conscious decision when you adopted the constitution to say South Africa must adopt a different type of democracy, an activist approach, a participation. So that before we pass a policy, the people would have made inut before we pass the legislation that you have made in others they make inut and then make sure they come back and complain. So this legislation here to ensure that we promote local mining community. We've got to make sure that it protects the laborending areas that must benefit more because if you look at so many areas that have been involved heavily on mining, they are going many and I listen to the beautiful things that you said here. I said minister can I ask you a question then the director asked me if all these things we're talking about are happening where are these people why are we talking about high employment rate and I don't know what people are doing so well as they explain here my dearest family right not doing right but great things that are happening people are benefiting unemployment rate is too high women are excluded in the mining economy these corporates are closing places for medium and small enterprises what what what is it that we did not we must make our voices heard This is why as a department responsible for the development of small businesses we said we can't keep quiet. It cannot be that we keep quiet for us to say to make that we can express ourselves and fight for what is due to the people that put us into power for the people to make sure that others generate profit but most importantly for the people who deserve to enjoy every economic right in our country. That is why through our agency would supported many I shouldn't say many few small businesses that are in the sector. I want to thank you person because there's a lot that requires support and you look at my budget just like in this budget we always complain in cabinet I have 2.9 billion rent to support the MSME of our country and yet the NDC says out of the 11 million jobs that South Africa must create by 2011 9 million must come from small businesses and that's why 2.91 and I've not heard you protesting you I've not heard you saying government you've got to learn resources personnel the business development support that is required the contact support that is required dealing with unemployment requires all of us to work together which means there's a need for a change in mindset of how we respond to policies including redesigning new policies. If we are to tackle unemployment, we must start exploring the 24hour econom and this industry. Mining is a typical example because most of the functions that are happening or the opportunities that are in the mining industry, they need to be noticed late. You've got to mine by night. In the morning, you do whatever that needs to be done. And that's an entire saying that requires to make sure that our policy environment enables that so that it's able to design instruments that must talk to that. If you get awarded a contract at 400 p.m. you wouldn't be able by 10 p.m. to respond because we would have created a system that enables you to be able to do that to say we are not limiting to what we're here to make man. But that requires collaboration that is deliberate, understanding of the opportunities that understanding of the ecosystem, the regulations and therefore the capabilities of the individuals that are participating in that industry. That is why we provide both non-financial and financial support to businesses. We've got a number of incubators that we have in the northwest. We have the SIPA platinum incubator which support MSM is because we may have great ideas, we may start businesses, but if we don't understand the entire ecosystem of the industry, it means we still going to miss out on certain things. And this is when they will kick you out and say you are not compliant. You are not this. You don't need that all the English that they come up with. Which is why we see the need to have specialized or sectorbased incubators that must be there to assist businesses that are involved in the mining space and make sure that you provide both the pre-investment and the post investment support before we put money so that they can be sustainability and liberty so that when we go to them and they speak nicely here and start asking so where is your 3% of enterprise development going to are you compliant as exam? I'm not going to do that today. We need to provide support towards buying the yellow fleets and if we do as the agency we give loans blended loans that go up to 15 million rand a working capital that goes up to 15 million rand of course I said finance as I said others they need the yellow be processing equipment including wash I know that at times these funds are not sufficient that is why we work with E because it is a DFI that is also responsible for financing small businesses of course they go above 50 million up to 50 million this is government le interventions I'm not going to the private sector as yet then you find IDC coming to complement that we are doing and you have agreed as the two ministers that there's a need for us to collaborate starting from the designing of the transformation fun that was announced by the president and this we do because we must increase access funding so that you also look at access because you can focus on access if there's no funding then it's not going to mean anything you can focus on funding but if access is not there we're not going to achieve hence we say out of every rank that we are saying must support or must go to loan there must be at least 20% that is invested for less development support because our people continue not to access the fund even when they are disempoes on copper, zinc and base metals and of course we continue to establish incubators. We partner with universities to establish the centers for entrepreneurship. We partner with TET this morning. I mean after cabinet I met with the minister of higher education and training to say how do we bring in all these resources where we need to because we find people they are educated but they don't know how to trade the education they've acquired. Help me find people stoping the corners. Hi, I'm a graduate. Hire me. It's a big I'm not talking about BA. Excuse me. BA people graduate on the street. I'm an I'm this and that. And then we are talking of shortages of skills. But everyone is expecting that government must employ them. Everyone expects that government must therefore give them opportunity economies over worldwide even government about 25 to 30% of the GDP the rest is private sector which is why it's important to understand the ecosystem that you are participating so that you challenge the laws to say these laws of yours are inward looking government. They're not helping us to tap into the opportunities by the private sector because the private sector they introduced one which excuse us without saying it's not for you. You can read it and you see this language I said I don't qualify but they do not think but because you can pick it up right but how do we utilize the power that we have

To challenge the policies of the private sector itself, that you cannot continue to close out people that must participate in the same economy in order to complement what you are doing. That it is critical time that we advance the baby saying.

So, if you continue protecting the view that you have from you are killing the economy because people will not be employed. And researchers bring them as the ND said, jobs are going to come from small and medium enterprises. So, we're not doing this for fun. We're doing this because there's a need to a need to make sure that the land are most people. Because when people are employed by my entrepreneurs, they are able to go and buy from my entrepreneurs and then be able to pay taxes and therefore we pay for social services, roads and everything the entrepreneurs are complaining about. But most importantly, we're able to increase funding that must go to small and medium enterprises so that they can do what they have to do.

In total, we have about 20 in here in South Africa as the portfolio. I'm not talking about the ones of the private sector. We have 50 branches throughout the country. I'm giving you this information because many of times I get people asking me whether I would be like, "All right, you please go because you are the one that knows your business."

We have a variety of interventions just like the bank has. Now, if you're not certain about which product you need, I'm unable to help you and I will do what I do best to think, please, because I can see you have access to internet, hence you are chatting with me on this platform. Just go on our website or go to your nearest office, ask them for the product, for them to give you the bro. Read, read the qualifying criteria, see which one talks to you because my business advisor will not understand what works for you. But because there's information that we are, you are even able to say, "Actually, what you have put here is excluding us. This bro, this information and the product design does not talk to us. Please change. Tell your team to change because we are here to respond to your list." Then we go and change because we are not business people, we are policy and funding system. We in ourselves to deliver on your view through an integrated model. We are putting women entrepreneurs at the center.

On the man financial side, our entrepreneurs continue to receive market access support, incubating, coaching and digital enablement, technology transfer and export development. Because if you have a good product, as we are saying, let's collaborate as the region, as the continent and the globe. It means you need particular and certain content that you must have for you to say, "I'm going to be doing this with Zimbabwe, with whoever that you are talking about." If therefore you do not understand the policies of that country and the regulations, it means you will not survive in business. Or you will be like the other farmer that we supported from Northwest minister and you got him a very big contract to supply this and I'm excited. I go around talking about. Now, we've got these farmers that are from coopered to provide 100 because they are selfish people. They didn't even think about going to others that they wanted the money for themselves to the point that they lost the business. And this is the mentality that we must. Everything to be yours. If it's not yours, you might as well not be there. You've got to learn the business of doing business. That in business, you cannot do it alone. You need service because when those opportunities arise, if they say you want 50 bags of potatoes here in Cape Town, they like so much bags of potatoes every so that you don't lose out.

It's painful that I continue to engage with the industry and I will ask them when I'm not, "Why do you take from people?" I mean, like there's a lot of land and they tell me the sad story, "Your people do not meet the requirements and they cannot meet the demand." And what are you talking about? My people go there for one contract that is advertised. 35,000 people doing for that contract. They don't think that they must work together and a consortium or a cooperative to say, "We will be here so that even when government comes to assist us with a business support, already we are organized." But you have noted. You don't partner with people who wake up every day. It's raining, whatever they go and do something, whether something is going to give them profit or not, they don't know. But they have faith in what they decided to do because they're going to make a difference. They're not going to sit and wait for the run at 370 rand. They're going to make a difference. They're going to utilize their seed. They will learn from others, but they're going to produce what they can produce. And this is what we're calling for.

If we are to be successful in challenging the stereotypes, we need women to be organized. If we talk about women in women in terms of business, I know I does not mean that you only do that when business is established. And then you say, "I want to venture into that. I buy 20%. I pay 10%." We can't be seeing the same women on everything because now I'm going to call them to say, "These women that were empowered, why are they not putting money to invest in other women-owned businesses? Why are we complaining about access to funded by government who understand the challenge that women go through? Where are those women? What are they doing?" You will not hear. So, we have a for women funds. With this funding, with that, we don't rent. And I said to the team, we are going to go out there. We're going to leave this in offices. You're going to engage with women to say, "How must we design the funds?" Because we've been coming up with funds, others are not performing well, but most importantly, they're not reaching the intended bene. Because I talk to someone right when I look at the criteria that requires 500,000, bring 10,000. Do you have 50,000? Nov getting. Why you want to? Because the mind that I can do this, taking an opportunity to save government from spending on them on when there's not going to be return investment. But they want to make a difference. If they need 2 million, like in the mining space, definitely you need for exploration, those 2 million, 5 million. Where are they going to get it from? Those are the fine things that says, "We don't need you." And we must challenge. You must challenge when we say we've got to do away with the red. We need you. All the regulations by government, all the laws by government and the private sector to say, "These are not talking to us." But this is not may have another constitution. It is your right to don't defame the work that other side. Don't don't like that that voted no longer vote. But even though they voted, it ends there. You vote and then you go home. Nothing follows up. What is the program of action? What improvement is going to make? Then you come back later. That's all. And then decide whether or not you want to murder me on that. But we don't even know what is my mandate.

We've got to take interest in what we do. And taking interest in what we do is when we begin to educate ourselves about the environment that we are trading in. It is very important to understand sector dynamics for you to be able to link why do we have to go to work? Why does minister do the work that he does and many other minister? You must understand the global quality, how are they impact? I don't want you to be politicians when I do because people believe that every time I tell them about taking interest in following, they think I want them to many my job. I I don't need you. I need you in business because you must make profit. You must be able to hire people so that they can vote for you. You vote in citizens. But for you to make those projects, you've got to make sure that the policy that I designed talks to you. The funding instrument that we design talk to you. The curriculum that is for our children talk to the realities of our country. The that we think in modern leagues, how do they impact on us so that we able to plan and say, "This is a risk to South Africa." Although we are not in Ghana, but those wars that are happening, they affecting us. This is how they're going to affect us. Many people did not understand why we got involved in the Russian um saga that we have been planned for that standing. What does we hung until they saw the prices of food of oil going up and then they never underdo. I hope they do now that it's important that we must take because we are not living in an island. We are part of the group. These are our neighboring countries. We trade with them. Therefore, when there's uncertainty, then it will spill over to us. That's why we adopted the government of nationality. When people said we're not giving you any majority, we stand up. We said, "40% of South Africans have given us the money is the responsible thing because although they do not give us majority in terms of above what they give us 40% to say yes, those that we are putting there and in that leadership." It requires us to appreciate that even at policy level, we may have differences, but we all agree that we've got to build an inclusive economy. And that all parties in the agree to which what we trying to do, bringing all parties, bringing all citizens to say, "Let's work together to achieve that." So the barriers that we are talking about will be addressed by both of us, yourselves by identifying them and then we take them and identify to say, "Cabinet, Mr. President, there are these barriers in minister's department, in this legislation, so and so does not assist the women of our country to participate minister in the economy. Therefore, let's the legislation." And we must support it.

When we return and the portfolio, we seek the partnership with your f. We want to work with you because we see you as a powerful multisectoral platform that align points in capital and market and that also enables dialogue. It translates into delivery. People complain that we like them to like meetings. If we don't engage like this, how are we going to go and improve? How are you going to know that this opportunity talking about so that we can hold them accountable to say, "You said this is what you are doing? We want to see the people that are benefiting or what is it that they don't have so that we help them to have it opportunity?" We have a responsibility and yes to make sure that business is also we must make them ready not only for investment but also for market readiness. This is why we know very well that this partnership is going to be long-term and impact driven. Do it. We will institutionalize procurement pathways. We will strengthen gender-responsive financing. We expand supplier development, integrate count and mining into national pays and established credible monitoring frameworks. Our commitment to women's inclusion is better strengthened through continental and global partnership. You have seen president last year with minister when they signed um the the 8 billion US. Did you see? You didn't see that the money that has been we agreement with the African exporting project, the kingdom about 8 billion US. And then we still going to sit down and say, "So much to women-owned businesses, youth-owned businesses, especially in the medium, small and and micro level." You must take interest in those. Remember I said you pay attention to what happens globally. So when we bring those networks as we go up and down where they are asking questions, they're going to say, "I spent 50." You must know that's why they came here and put my money. If we don't engage, these investments are not going to come here and we are not going to travel. But we have a responsibility to to bring in South Africa investors. So, we are not sitting here that 8 billion is what you must look at together with the 100 billion. Now, that 20 billion that we are doing with with the department of change industry. You see with that transformation cannot be off. Inclusion cannot be postponed. Empowerment cannot be optional. It must shape how we do business. It must guide how we allocate capital. It must define who sits and decision-making tables. Don't say, "Why am I going to work?" I'm going to work. On the table so that they can come down. When women participate fully, communities thrive. When women own productive assets, households stand. When women lead enterprises, jobs are created. The inclusion of women in mining is not optional. It is an economic necessity, a social justice imperative, and core to our country's growth strategy. Let us move from toying to the court. Not with exclusion but with equity. Not with barriers but with breezes. Not with promises but with performance. Together, let us let us build a mining economy that reflects our democratic values and unlock the full potential of women. I don't want to come here and repeat the same thing next year. I wanted to know how many women benefited us of everything that you have said here today. I know I get paid to talk, but my talk makes sense when there's ext. Thank you so much for a standing ovation indeed. Oh, so much has been said. Um, honorable minister, thank you so much. Uh, one of the key takeaways for me is the call for an active citizenship, a fully participative participative democracy where we are commenting on the bills and shaping uh the policies through the channels that are made available to us. Thank you very much, Minister. Um, ladies and gentlemen, as we transition towards the tail end of our program, let me first start off by saying thank you so much for staying the course. I know it's many given the number of engagements have engagements even this evening and so this final panel that we're going to have is going to be very tight and very concise. I'm going to try to the best of my ability to land it in 20 minutes. One of our speakers um will have to leave in the next five minutes. So I do want to quickly call up the panel so that I can give them an opportunity to have their say before they depart. Um, and that as we transition of course into a conversation on the actual funding opportunities. We've heard a lot of reference to the money. This is a conversation about the money. So let me appeal to you not to leave at this point because this is the conversation where the rubber hits the road. So please do stay and also be reminded that we do have a networking cocktail uh straight after this. So let me invite Madame Lingga, global markets head looking after strategic partnerships at Standard Bank. Uh madame are you with us? Thank you very much. Thank you for staying. I know your time is tight. So we've got Sten Bank. Uh let me invite up the bank. Uh Mr. Palto, the head of enterprise development. Uh thank you very much. Always struggles with so I try to avoid it but I can't um we've heard you being referenced quite a bit. Can we please invite Mr. D the chief executive officer? Let's give him a big uh round of applause please. We also have uh DG in the department of trade industry and competition which has been referenced quite a lot. DG thank you for being here. Uh that is Dr. Susan Long. Let's invite DG. And then finally um the PIC is also here with us. Um and we have uh Madame Heidi Sternberg who is a secret fitness in mining. Heidi, thank you for being here. Let's give a round of applause. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm asking for the very last bit of attention just for the next 20 to 25 minutes as we get through this panel. If we can just bring our audio levels down just a little bit so that we can then get into the conversation. Thank you so much. Can we please move the podium again? Um, thank you very much. Uh, Madame Linda, I'm going to I'm going to um I'm going to just ask one question of each uh panel. So, I'll give you the opportunity to go first. One of the things as we were preparing uh for this conversation that you were very passionate about is the idea of building ecosystems and and that really speak to unlocking funding for entrepreneurs but also supporting entrepreneurs holistically. Tell us a little bit about how Senate Bank thinks about building those ecosystems um as a way of coming into this conversation. >> Thank you. Um firstly, I'd like to thank um we corner for organizing this as long as we continue to have dialogue that >> Just a second, just a second please ladies and gentlemen, kindly kindly if we can just just more minutes. Thank you so much. Please go ahead. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to say thank you to for Hello. Thank you. Um, firstly, thank you to for organizing this. I always say as long as we continue to have dialogue and that means the conversations are happening. And secondly, thank you the honorable minister. I always see every wonder. I thought clearly not. Um, but thank to you for coming here today. And um let me before I come back to what we I want to talk about about collaborative ecosystem, I think it's an opportune time uh if you read the news, everything you hear from the DLC and rare earth minerals that are important to the west but that mean United States um if you look at what happened from Germany. Allow me to read this because this is important. And the reason I'm reading this is the question is where are we as women um the conver what I saw was from the chancellor. They said, "Germany has made the mistake of ignoring Africa while others secured the critical minerals of the future. That ends now. My government will no longer send delegations. We will send engineers and capital to Africa. If we want Germany to keep producing the best cars in the world, our supply chain might start with sovereign and fair agreements in Congo, Namibia, and South Africa. Our industrial sovereignty depends on our presence in Africa." They're talking about I don't know if you read that, but this is resource nationalization. And I'm going to come back to this question. And I only speak the team should know better. Uh I just open up a meeting with the minister of minerals from the earlier. We were talking about manganesees. I think if you know anything, you know that South Africa produces 38% of mand for the global economy. South Africa is the largest producer of manganese. Gabon is the second largest and produced 2012. So that means South Africa and Gabon are responsible for 60% of the global production of manganese, 60. I can assure you now, the US gets 60% of their manganese from Gabon. That's why they were in the in Gabon. And my question is, I've heard us talking about catering, talking about paper and other things. Where are we and where do we want to be? And I'm not discounting anything that has to happen along the line, but I'm just saying, where are we and where do we want to be in this critical conversation? Because now everyone is eye in Africa and it's resource nationalization. I'll come back to the occasion that I was invited here for. So, we hosted an event last year and the reason we hosted it was to really get all of us together. The honorable minister spoke about funding, spoke about the private sector. Uh we said, let's come together in a room. How do we collaborate with Stan Bank and others to make sure that we build sustainable and successful women businesses? The reason for that is we and I want to make sure that I leave you guys with a question of guide and the question of reporting is that when we met with the UN women the other week and I always bring my colleagues in BCD and enterprise development and I said to them, "Speak to us as an entire organization so that we can see how we partner holistically because we need to leverage everything that we have to partner with you and we can see where we go." And interesting what it's after doing. How many women are we all funding? Because we all come up with numbers, right? >> Yeah. >> And the reason I want to bring this up and I thought I was going to talk about something else, but allow me to be provocative. I think it's in the bank and numbers don't lie. If you talk about sustainable finance, if you Google it now, you will see exactly what funds on book that is on balance sheet and off balance sheet. What's going on? Does all of them. Why are we not doing the same for women? Why we're not doing the same? And the reason I'm asking that is data does not lie and reporting if it's standardized will allow us to check where are we and where do we need to go? Because here and my conversation wise to say, I'm listening to the minister speak and I always say when I attend places, I always ask myself, "When we leave here, please give me time, what is the so what of today? What are we going to do differently when we leave?" And what I'd like to post, please allow me the prospect, potentially there's an opportunity to engage is all these women groupies we corner with all of us on engage private sector. And the reason I'm saying this is I happen to operate across the continent. I can assure you was a big institute director in terms of women leadership in the industry. Nigeria started working 20 years ago with the central bank governor 20 years ago. We have 12 in Nigeria. And I'm saying that because those who make decisions at the top inform what happens at the bottom. But I'm going to come back to another thing that I wanted to ask to talk about is that what we wanted to do was how do we partner to support and make sure that we're not all focusing at training because women are overtrained. We're not all focusing, you know, how do we make sure we do enough at the right level? If outside finding five of you are not the same woman where the data that comes into that. So mine is one is that I I think there's an opportunity to engage with the private sector as a whole as a collaborator. And then I'm going to come back to number two that I wanted to share. And then I know that I I've oversteet my limit. I had the opportunity to work with the African Development Bank. On the 30th of January, we were hosting and launching what is called Napa. Napa is a new African financial architecture. The current president of Abd wants to use South Africa as the gateway, firstly to mobilize capital. That means that continent has the capital, it's fragmented. If you look at how much we have, over 4 trillion dollars, it's fragmented. How do we come together to reduce risk and then how do we scale? In that meeting, I had the pleasure of working. We had simulators funds, asset managers, everybody in the room. That's a platform that's already been built. My question is, one, why are we not going there and making sure that women are in that agenda? Our Finance minister said, "We need to make sure that women and youth are included. It has a potential to uplift the GDP. It is risk. It does risk our future." So why are we not participating in those? And the reason I'm saying that is there's a national dialogue. There's a continental dialogue that is being led by one of the biggest that is AAA rated on the continent that speaks to bringing together the continent as one. What are we doing to make sure women and youth are part of that conversation? And I'm not saying this because, you know, I'm just saying there's a point of where we move from talking to what we need to do differently. If we speak time and time again, what do we need to do different? For me, the question I think is there's a conversation to be had, maybe get us all in that and then see how do we move forward. Sorry, I spoke too much, but uh the students are Sorry. Thank you so much. Thanks, Madame Lea. And I think that I think the two the main point there is I'll be moving from a data dependent perspective um because that's what drives coordination and organization. I'm going to jump all the way to Heidi u for the next piece and you'll let me know whenever you need to run. Yes. Let's give a big round of applause. as she depart. Thank you very much. Um Heidi, you have one shot, one voice. So let's uh uh make sure that we can get um as much in as possible. I'm interested in two things very quickly. How do we make sure that we are doing a better job at positioning women for institutional capital? And then the second thing I'd like you just to comment about is tell us a little bit about the PIC's new early stage mining fund and how the women in this room connected with it. Sure. Thanks so much everybody and I'm going to try and be brief but when I thought about this, you know, the shift from developmental capital to institutional capital doesn't have a gender difference. It's not about men or women. I think we have to look at it quite holistically and we don't understand the capital logic. Capital like urgency, capital like um um times help be made in place. It lacks risk adjusted returns. It lacks governance. It sustainability and its care downside protection. And those things are not Melbourne. So it certainly not go across the across the value chain. So women entrepreneurs often get channeled into developing capital not because their businesses are weaker, but because advantage of social outcomes and rather than create business. And I think the message needs to be that this is a strong business that also has developmental impact and not the other way around. So I mean, we all know good fundamentals of a of a good business need to be audited financials need to be clear economies of scale and capital visibility. And these are the fundamentals that need to be in place right from the beginning. Um, I think more important also from a governance perspective, there needs to be an active board. They need to be um clear decision-making and succession clarity. And these things will all give the institution invested that, you know, the government or the the project that is being presented will have good financial outcomes in the at the end of the day. Because not against women, but it but it takes a part of an understandable story and that comes to the end of the story. >> Yeah. So that's just really quickly in a nutshell. I think more importantly, I'd like to talk to you about our moving the early stage mining fund in South Africa. You know, we can talk about beneficiation and all those nice things, but if there's no exploration, there's not going to be any mining and then there's not going to be any beneficiation at the end of the day. And seriously, so little um capital is going into the early stage exploration um sector of in South Africa. We've got a clining 400 million fund run done by the IDC and the DMRE. That's absolutely great. So, we need 12 billion per year going into the system. And so we really really are a long way off that mark. So this is where the PRC comes to fall. We're not looking at really early stage exploration like the IDC um junior mining fund is looking at. We're looking at later stage projects that are at least at a starting stage and up to including the funible feasibility. Because we see that this is one sector that really does need funding and there's very few funders in the market to take the project from you know, from discovery up to all the bankers that I'm sitting with you on the panel are able to invest in. And so this is aimed specifically at that. But I think I need to make It was mentioned that that our client wants this to be um into a fund of funds. Okay. Yes. So we looking at capitalizing mining funds in South Africa to come to the party to come um and uh apply for funding at the PC. Obviously, the PR can't be the only funer. So we're hoping to capitalize a lot more money into it. We've got a 1.5 billion rand fund at the moment and we're hoping to only sort of be 20% of the funding. So hopefully this will at least catalyze three or four billion rand into this very very topical 13 sector. Thank you very much. I think that's really encouraging. It does deserve a round of applause to hear that there are attempts to really look at funding that is beyond just early stage exploration and looking at other opportunities in the value chain. Let me come to you uh and and and put the one question that I'll give to you this evening. Um, and that is when you look at the DTIC funding and other incentive instruments uh in the market targeted at mining. Um, which proven to be the most effective and how do we get a greater uptake for women uh in this? >> Uh, thank you so much. Uh, and all protocol observed. Good evening, Minister. I think one of the key things about access to funding, the DT offers an incentive as well as the loans through the DF. But then I guess one of the key things is that collaboration is key. So what we normally do, we work with the either the banks but mainly with the gfi to to establish women own women empowerment funds. But then from the point of view, we do have we do prioritize women owned businesses especially. But then we support beneficiation. I think what what Heidi touched on is that IDC offered for Junior for exploration, but what is key is that the key thing is that we cannot keep on exporting dust, but we need to then provide to actually beneficiate. So the manufacturing support program support beneficiation of that as we as we go to the electric cars and just transition. We want to see women own businesses participate in that. We do have several support. I think one of the key one is the manufacturing support, but also the recently the recently announced program by the president is aimed at supporting women owned businesses to be able to participate in export market especially in Africa. We had the women protocol, women empowerment protocol. But what is key is that while we offer funding, the key thing is access to market. And I think one of the key things is that how do we close those barriers? So the noninancial support offered by the NF IDC and SEPA is very important. And the one key thing is access to capability that most of most of us we ignore because the minute you then say to a women own what you've seen is that most of them that have been supported they end up being asked to provide certain things and then they end up either being cancelled or or being like sort of discontinued. So what we have and what we are working on is that we are looking at access to capability in partnership with SEA in partnership with different entities because we do not want to see women in mining failure. Then the other key element is that we need to also make sure that as we transition through critical minerals, we need to make sure that we include women. It becomes inclusive. We can't implement a a mining strategy or negotiation strategy that does not have women. I think one of the other other elements is what ministers already touched on. You see with the transformation fund, we looking at aggregating various funding because the the problem is not access to funding. The problem is the women knowing where to go when they require funding, where to go. They will get a loan from a bank. They will get another loan. But then knowing that the DTIC or one of the enterprise and supplier development offer a grant, they are able to then blend that. So the fund is aimed at collaborating with private sector, the public and private collaboration to make sure that we increase access to funding. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, and again, you you bring to the surface a blended financing approach um that not only speaks to a broad transformation agenda but particularly to beneficiation and inclusion. I want to build on that um a little bit with yourself please uh Mr. Dani because the question I'd like to bring to you is the NF has been mentioned a few times today. uh one would imagine that one of the balancing act you've got to hit right is commercial viability and transformation at the same time. Talk to us a little bit about how that's going and how what what advice would you have for the woman entrepreneurs who should be knocking on the NEF stores to unlock more funding? >> Thank you very much and pre um I think One of the encouraging aspects of this particular dialogue is the diversity of the participants. You look for instance the conversation that happened with Harmony and now we're having the funding because if we are going to talk about sustainability for women businesses, you have to actually balance the access to market with the funding because before we talk to the sustainability of the business as whether the funding is going to be sustainable or not, you need to look at whether these businesses have access to market and do they have diversity of market and and that is why I'm hoping that after this conversations there will be those partnerships. We do need partnerships with the likes of Harmony and other mining houses here for us to be able to provide the necessary support that is required by women owned businesses in order to be successful. Now when it comes to sustainability of funing, I think minister that we actually touched on this in terms of what government can provide through the various CFIs. We've got we've got the NES, we've got the IDC, the PIC and so on. So ensuring that there is that availability of funding and also in terms of the instruments which are available. But you you should not only be funding this through commercial loans. >> You need to have comp compression instrument, you need to You do need to have equity instruments as well. You need to ensure that you take care of what the minister talked about when it comes to own contributions. Businesses particularly businesses that are growing do not have access to own contributions. This is why even on the commercial side, some of the clients that we fund to ensure that they are sustainable, we actually work with the bank. We work very closely for instance with my colleague here from APA. We force partnerships with the banks to make sure that there is that seamless collaboration because there is a reason why you have DFI. There is a reason why we have the bank and those institutions. We need to understand that we are not in a competition, but we are in an environment or an ecosystem where we work together. And as institutions, we need to be the ones who structure those arrangements because the entrepreneurs are not able to do it themselves. So that when we offer those services, they are structured and they talk to the needs of those businesses. >> Thank you very much. I it's so beautiful to follow the conversation because uh what uh madame started off with was that confrontation to ecosystem thinking and to hear that they are real relational um capacity in terms of the institutions even on this panel that you do work together is quite encouraging. Let me Mr. Khal to just test it a little bit more in your final comments. One of the things that Mr. Dani raises is the idea of working more intentionally with DFIs who would come in and bring a different type of uh capital and speak to the risk issue in a different way. The extent to which we're working with DFIs to accelerate funding to women, I'd like to hear a comment on that. but also as a parting shot. What do you look for in women entrepreneurs in the mind mining sector that gives you confidence that there is growth potential and long-term viability behind this particular business that is sufficient for you to unlock the funding bank in in the mining environment. I must say I like to d you down to focus on the practicality. >> So mining is a brutally hidual ecosystem. You just have to go on to a mindsite and you will realize that you have never designed to have meaningful participation by women and that is the reality. Yes. >> So from the facilities that you have right up to the skill set. So we want to take away this romantic idea around mining. It is about being extremely involved. There's a lot of detail that is involved in mining. You could be moving 10 lit of a day and it would seem to be something minimal, but at the end of the month, it has given you a very big. So the biggest role we play is the technical assistance that we provide. We go on site. When I'm looking around and I see some of the clients that I have, it is not often that we see each other in we see each other in because that is where the actual difference is made. When you go on site, you see that there is a collusive and very very detrimental approach to activism of not only applicants but women in >> So I'd like to take the opportunity to say stop thinking about being in a boardroom. Think about being on site. Think about being in the detail. Think about actually building ecosystems in the supply chain. You know, simple things like when you order a piece of equipment, don't think that if you are not close to the ecosystem that you will uh receive your article in 3 months. In two, you will receive it in seven months and by that time you already tied up. So it's a very very um environment and what we need is resilience and an eye for details. You need to be involved. You cannot have uh managers or your properties running around. Some of the biggest uh tragedies that you see are when there was trust. >> So I'm not coming here to say that there isn't uh a lot in terms of um my my my engagement because at the end of the day, it is not only about money, it's about understanding the ecosystem that putting money into. So I would advise any or even a current to make sure that they are close to the detail, to make sure that they build an ecosystem that will be supporting to them because small things can actually bring you down. A small hydraulic that all of a sudden is in the wrong place and you are passed for 5 hours and you are paying significant penalty. Those are some of the things that we see on a daily basis that we need to be able to become aware of. That is why a lot of our investment is actually providers who are on site with our money. We make sure that those little or not so little colluses and behaviors are actually called out and you are able to defend your clients and make sure that they are actually receiving significant value. >> Sure. It's a it's it's an incredible way um of sobering us up in the room in terms of the toughness of the industry and to hear it coming from a commercial banking voice is quite it's quite sobering. Thank you very much. Uh the the devil's in the detail uh as they say. I do want to apologize that we don't have enough time. Uh mining in is such like this that there are so many engagements. But I do want to thank my panelists. Can I ask that we give them a big round of applause? And I'm going to invite them to take a photo. So, if they could kind of stand and step into the light, I am going to um invite co-chair um as soon as the picture is done. We're going to invite uh our co-chair Nam We need to officially close us off. I know that our ministers are still with us, but we are officially going to close. We're inviting your honorable ministers to please join us in the photograph if you will. And once Madame Nanka has spoken, that will be the end of my contribution this evening. So, thank you very much from me for the opportunity to serve you today. Ladies and gentlemen, you have been awesome. Can we give Nosi an incredible round of applause? I'm going to ask her to give her another one, but I know our two ministers are on their way out and I would like us to just rise up and allow them to exit through this door and thank them incredibly for gracing us. Isn't it incredible that we had ministers so committed that they would be here until the end of the day? We are so grateful to Honorable Chibonga who is the minister of the um the minister and the department um women youth and persons with disabilities um we are so grateful to minister thank you so much minister we are so grateful to minister who is the minister in the department of small business development and she's still chatting up a storm there so we until she walks out can we continue to pray for them All right, guys. We're almost done. Food is outside and they are starting to serve it in the next two minutes. So, what I'm about to do, thank you so much, Minister. So, would you bear with me just just on on ground? We can continue to stand, but please bear with me on ground. Oh, wow. Am I going to get your attention at all? We're trying to do a vote of thanks and a closer. Okay, are you with me? Just two more minutes and then we'll go and socialize outside. Uh my name is Nam. As we said, I'm co-chair of the Women Economic Assembly. I do want to hear an incredible resounding round of applause for you for being the champion who has stayed here until the end of the season. Now, you know that they say that in gratitude there's multiplication. It's really important that we begin to recognize a number of people who made a number of institutions who made this particular occasion possible. Of course, I've already recognized Minister and her whole team. We had the chief of staff here from the department of women. We had the DG here and minister left us with a word that said that critical minerals have to have women and youth at the forefront and that the race really for global ownership of these critical minerals is on and we better position ourselves well. We also had the minister of the department of small business development. Her DG was here, her advisors were here and we are so privileged as well that we had them. So, can we just clock it for that? We're not clapping anymore. We're clocking it. It is cocking it, right? Like I'm already at that age where I have to verify. Am I saying the right thing? All right. Then, of course, I want to mention really this is an honorable mention to our colleagues at SIFA who made this possible. Sit was our co-sponsor. We had the chairperson of the ethics committee transformation and ethics committee here. We've got the CEO. I haven't seen him because there he is. We have the CEO from from here. He brought his whole team here including who made all this possible. We're so grateful. We're delighted that we have the possibility of continuing to partner with you in this important work. The minerals council is here ladies and gentlemen and I want to see them. Where are they? Um they've left already but Mr. Chabana who's the senior executive for public affairs was here. The mineral council has continued to be committed to a gender transformation agenda in minerals and so there's they another partner of ours that's really really important. We had also the council general for Angola. We had the deputy chairperson of the national house of traditional and leaders. We had quite a number of DGs, but also we had the CEO of this venue that we are in, and I want us to croc it for him specifically because they made this meeting possible. Now, listen, our speakers were phenomenal. Yes or no? And we are delighted that they were here. Shall we give them a proper round of applause? Right. Right. We heard so much from you. We are so honored and so enriched by all of your inputs. Thank you so so so much. And then of course madameala I would say that yes if we had time on your on your in your honor but thank you so much. You were phenomenal. We appreciate the fact that you are always available and that you carry the space and the rooms so excellently. Thank you for your grace. Um, those of you who don't facilitate don't understand how difficult it is to be to hold a wound. And she's going to go and she'll need a bath and she'll need to take a long nap because of how hard it is. And so we truly truly value your partnerships and your child with us. Now listen you guys, there's a group of women who are with women who made this positive. Ask where are you? Ask Juliet, where are you? Where are they? I'm going to mention them by name, but I'm mentioning them on behalf of their teams because each of them were working with teams. Ask Julie, where are you? Oh, you guys want to come in the front? I just want you guys to see these women. Is over there. Come in front. Come in front. Um, we also had come in front. I'm not mentioning everyone, but I want to let you know that ladies didn't have December because they've been working on this project the whole of December. That's out from um and they continue to work volunteering their time, their expertise. They lead businesses, they lead associations, and they just continue to be incredible. Can we just stop for a minute and give them a proper round of applause? Great to you ladies. Congratulations and we made it happen, right? Oh, most of you guys made it happen. And then of course and then of course my culture, there's a lot of people here. We we honor you. Thank you so much for continuing to do the work that you do and we really really appreciate you. But last and not least, we appreciate you for being in this room. So now you will have an opportunity to go out and have a little bit of something to eat. We are going to be in a big hurry because they're closing at 9 and and I wish you all the best in the work that you are doing. And this is the end of the day to say we are going to ensure that the mining sector transforms and that we benefic Thank you guys. We're eating outside.