Regional Businesswoman Of The Year Awards (RBWOYA) Winners Announcement

Friday 17th August 2018 was a night of honouring excellence and true leadership at the Regional Businesswoman of the Year Awards (RBWOYA), hosted by the Businesswomen's Association of South Africa (BWASA), Durban branch at the Elangeni Hotel.

The evening was hosted by Programme Director, Jem Atkins, with more than 9 years in the comedy and corporate entertainment industry. Jem has garnered a reputation as a highly talented Professional MC and Corporate Comedy Entertainer, and indeed one of the top comedy performers in Durban.

One of the highlights of the evening was the spectacular opening performance done by The Kangaroo Zulu Dancers, a group consisting of 30 youth members, who performed traditional Zulu Drumming and Dancing as well as Gum Boot Dancing. This was followed by a remarkable act by Marianthe Panas, a 17 year-old Performing Arts professional who sang during dinner.

In Nelson Mandela's centenary year, we were privileged to have Ms Nandi Mandela as the guest of honour, the granddaughter of Tata Nelson Mandela. Nandi spoke of lessons learned at the feet of her grandfather and delivered a clear message to reject corruption across all corridors in both the private and public sector.

The Regional Businesswoman of the Year Awards are hosted annually to recognize women leaders across six categories including Corporate, Professional, Government, Entrepreneur, Emerging Entrepreneur and Social Entrepreneur. The evening highlighted 18 finalists with winners announced for each category.

The winners for the entrepreneur categories are as follows:

Karen Petersen, the Corporate Category Winner is the Development Director at Tongaat Hulett Developments (THD), the property arm of the JSE listed agri-business and sugar conglomerate, Tongaat Hulett.

Zulaka Khan, the Professional Category winner, is the Founder, Director and Clinical Nephrologist at The Verulam Dialysis Centre, the first and leading dialysis clinic in Verulam.

The winner of the Government Category is Devina Sewpersad, School Principal at Umzamo Primary School in KwaNyuswa, Botha's Hill.

Sivashni Moodley, winner of the Entrepreneur category, is Founder and Managing Director of Vumela IT Services.

The Emerging Entrepreneur winner is, Gugu Bhengu, Founder and Managing Director of Gugu Mobile Boutique, a company specializing in supplying traditional handmade beaded products.

Paula Thomson, winner of the Social Entrepreneur category, Executive Manager of Woza Moya, a division of the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust (HACT), which she founded 16 years ago to uplift the community.

These remarkable women have shattered ceilings, broken barriers and excelled in their individual businesses and empowered many on their journeys upwards. With each step forward they have intrinsically contributed to the advancement of communities in the Ethekwini region as well as motivated other women to take a step into entrepreneurship. BWASA salutes you and continually aims to ensure women are offered the platform to share their stories, engage with the business sector, grow their businesses and ultimately be honoured for the work that they do courageously.