Vodacom recognised as a champion in promoting gender diversity in South Africa

Vodacom walked away with the biggest and most coveted award of the night during the Annual Gender Mainstreaming Awards: Overall Gender Mainstreaming Champion. The award recognises Vodacom as a champion in promoting gender diversity in South Africa.

The Champion Award is presented to the organisation that has best implemented a sustainable gender mainstreaming strategy with a lasting impact on the business, the community and the economy as a whole. 

Vodacom was crowned overall winner: Gender and Disability and Women on Boards. It was also the winner in the Private Sector category (JSE Listed): Diversity and Transformation.

Matimba Mbungela, Chief Human Resource Officer at Vodacom commented:

“These awards are a testament for all the hard work we’re doing in implementing policies and programmes that promote employee diversity and address inequalities. As a company with local roots, transformation is an integral DNA of Vodacom and we are committed to delivering against the ideals of the country’s empowerment policies. Our programmes put a lot of emphasis on encouraging diversity by growing black and female representation at senior management level.”

The annual Gender Mainstreaming Awards have been developed by Business Engage to reward companies for the initiatives they have established in support of gender diversity within their companies.

This year, Vodacom invested around R103 million in training and developing its employees in addition to the company’s programmes to enhance technical, managerial and commercial skills

To deal with gender parity at Vodacom, the company has launched various programmes to ensure that women have the necessary support to take up leadership positions. Vodacom’s Female Leaders programme, undertaken in partnership with the Gordon Institute of Business Science, remains a key initiative to help bridge gender inequality at senior management level. This one-year programme seeks to build a talent pipeline by supporting high-potential black women both within and outside Vodacom.

Other initiatives include:

• Vodacom Women in Red Awards, recognising women who are an inspiration to others;
• Women’s Network Forum Mentorship programme, mentoring female employees in business through Wits Business School; and
• HeForShe, a United Nations initiative that encourages people across the world to speak up and act against the inequalities faced by women and girls.

“Gender parity remains a particular challenge within the ICT sector, and as such, there is a realisation at Vodacom that we should do more to plug the skills gap. These accolades will serve as stimulus to propel us to greater heights and pursue our goal of achieving 50% gender representation in senior leadership positions over the next three years,” Matimba concluded.