Former First Lady Zanele Mbeki has scooped a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Standard Bank Top Women Awards.
Her work on the establishment of Women’s Development Bank is among the reasons she was honoured. The other Awards were Top Businesswoman of the Year, which went to Roberta Naicker; and the Africa Business and Top Gender Empowered Business of the Year, which was won by Dell Computers.
Former First Lady Gugu Motlanthe paid tribute to Zanele Mbeki saying her achievements have been silenced by patriarchy but her story needs to be told
Accepting the Award, Mbeki said she wanted to change the conditions of the women married to mine workers who were left to build homes while the husbands got paid bachelor wages. She says the struggle for women’s access to credit, especially rural women, is far from over
