show that more than a third of working-age people in South Africa are unemployed.
Every industry in this country has supply chains where women can make their mark, bringing incredible local products and services into the market, injecting valuable skills and knowledge transfer into our local ecosystems and creating millions of good jobs. It also became clear at the conference that the government’s departments cannot address all the socio-economic challenges in South Africa by themselves – they need firm partnerships with the private sector and clear pathways to meet their targets.
Secondly, we need to prioritise preferential procurement as an economy and a society. Did you know that globally, one-third of businesses are owned by women but women only get about 1% of the procurement spend of large corporations? Our corporations need to step up their supplier game in a big way to create more opportunities for women suppliers.