An elegant ballroom at the NH Johannesburg Sandton set the stage for the 11th annual Executive Communities women’s dinner. Under the theme The Power of Presence, leading female executives from across sectors gathered to share authentic insights, trade boardroom strategies and build lasting connections.
As the workday drew to a close on 13 August, at least 250 women executives traded their heels and boots for business suits and takkies, embracing the evening’s distinctive dress code at the ExCo Women’s Dinner.
The annual gathering opened with welcome drinks and canapés, offering these C-suite leaders a relaxed space to network with their peers before diving into a night of candid conversation.
This year’s keynote speaker was pioneering South African business leader Nonkululeko Gobodo, who became the first Black female chartered accountant in the country and is the current Walter Sisulu University chancellor and CEO of Awakened Global.
Nonkululeko, who also authored a memoir titled Awakened to My True Self, gave attendees insight into her leadership journey in which she was tasked with developing the blueprint for future women entering the corporate world.
Double standards and changing times
She urged women to lead with authenticity in a world of double standards.
“There is actually a Harvard case study of a powerful CEO – driven, results-orientated, focused on delivery, and so on. They changed only the names at the top to ‘John’ and ‘Jane’, and gave it to different cohorts of MBA students. The papers came back: ‘John’ is a superstar and must be promoted, while ‘Jane’ is divisive, aggressive, and toxic, and must be fired. There is proven research on this issue of how double standards affect who we are,” said Nonkululeko.
But she also acknowledged how far women as a collective have come, saying the old adage of women not supporting each other in the workplace had to be viewed with a more empathetic lens.
“We have to understand these women – they had to survive, and they were focused on survival. But now that we have this critical mass, we are no longer there. Let’s use this power to support one another.”
Nonkululeko ended her speech by calling for women to bring more women into corporate as a way to enact real change. “We have to protect one another. We’ve seen too many women being attacked, and when they are attacked, there is no one to protect them. We need an effective sisterhood in corporate spaces. They must know that you do not touch women because we protect one another.”
Are you okay?
Next up was an interactive session titled Are you okay?, led by corporate wellbeing consultant and CEO Kate Weaver.
Kate invited guests to pause and reflect for a moment. “We live in a world that rewards availability, calls, emails, WhatsApps, calendars, smartwatches, devices that are connected for our convenience but leave us impatient, hurried and exhausted.”
She also pointed out that women carry a double basket when it comes to availability and leadership. “There are women here who are responsible for capital, culture, systems, risk, people, performance, different portfolios but one shared experience. Leadership asks a lot before you even enter the next conversation.”
She ended by saying that presence is a skill. “Sometimes attention is care. Other times it’s necessary. But sometimes it gives you key insights into your organisation, the untapped talent or the early warning signs of an unseen issue, more importantly, attention says, ‘I see you, I hear you, you have value’.”
Ask a man
Then, after a scrumptious buffet dinner, came the highlight of the evening with the panel titled: Ask A Man, featuring Kevin Wilson, group general manager of IT at Stefanutti Stocks, Njabulo Nyawo, CPO at Momentum Group and Mikaeel Tayob, CFO at Bridgestone.
The men faced tough, candid and slightly personal questions from guests with the aim of having honest conversations and brainstorming ways to enact change in the workplace.
The discussion tackled how workplaces still default to male-designed norms. These range from exclusive boys’ clubs on the golf course to superficial policies that fail women in practice.
Attendees also highlighted the invisible load mothers carry while calling for organisations to design policies around the full life cycle of both women and men.
“Remember it’s a world built and designed for men by men and for men. You have to move the needle. You have to change the physical structure of this world from a male‑based world into something that’s an equal opportunity. It’s not there yet. That’s why we’re still struggling,” responded Kevin.
Despite the spicy panel discussion, the evening ended on a sweeter note with more drinks, desserts and women commending panellists for taking up the challenge to address gender disparities in a room where they were outnumbered.
The event was made possible by Principal partners: Cassava Technologies, Entelect, iOCO Technology Group, MakwaIT, Old Mutual Corporate, Regenysys Corporate Education; and Executive partners: BDO, Discovery, Gordon Institute of Business Science, HCLTech, ITR Technology, ManageEngine, jem, Kaspersky, Marsh, Stanlib Asset Management and Workday.
