‘Broken municipalities are crippling BBBEE’

Wiphold CEO Gloria Serobe says black women entrepreneurs face ‘suffocating’ challenges in rural areas 06 October 2024 – 08:55 by CHRIS BARRON If the government wants to improve broad-based BEE it needs to fix local government, says Gloria Serobe, co-founder and CEO of women’s investment group Wiphold. “Instead of empowering black women to be entrepreneurs and run small businesses, broken municipalities have crippled and impoverished them.” Trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau said recently he wanted to drive tighter BBBEE compliance by business.”We’re quite excited that the DTIC minister is keen to make BBBEE work,” says Serobe, a member of the BBBEE advisory council newly chaired by Tau. “But on the business side we’re starting to see traction, and it’s not just a ticking-the-box thing.”She refers to “very strong black women” who are CEOs in the mining, financial services, retail and publishing sectors, as well as the chairs of Sasol and Standard Bank. “These are meaningful positions of substance in big, strong entities. These are hardcore engineers, hardcore chartered accountants, hardcore lawyers. There’s…



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