10 Nov 2019

De Beers Group is committed to enabling diversity and inclusion through partnerships, says the company’s human resources manager, Oankgoga Mongwaketse.

Speaking at the De Beers Group 4th Women Summit fashion show in Gaborone recently, she said the company had a partnership with the United Nations driven by a commitment to ensure parity in leadership positions as well as with the He for She Campaign.

In Botswana, she said, De Beers Group had collaborated with Thamaga Pottery in an effort to progress the women and girl child agenda and recently launched an entrepreneur training programme in the Okavango area.

About the summit, she said it was aimed at addressing issues affecting women in different ways with the view to empower them.

“The fashion industry holds considerable potential to motivate and bring change, especially to women and youth while advancing structural transformation,” said Mongwaketse adding that fashion was big business in Africa just like on the global stage.

Globally, she said, the industry was expected to double in the next 10 years, generating up to US$5 trillion annually ‘whilst in the Sub Sahara Africa region the combined apparel and footwear market is estimated to be worth US$31 billion according to data from Euro monitor International’.

The summit showcased some of Africa’s most successful women designers who Mongwaketse said were reaching new creative heights and breaking barriers in the business.

Locally, she acknowledged Thabiso Dibeela and Lesedi Matlapeng saying they embodied the purpose, passion and impact that First Lady Neo Masisi emphasised.

For her part, event planner Tebo Bakwena encouraged consumers to buy local first in order to market it.

It was time, she said, that Africans embraced their own rather than going with the norm emphasising that one could never sell a product unless they consumed it.

She also encouraged local designers to work together and embrace one another’s work.

The show was attended by women entrepreneurs as well as dignitaries among them the First Lady. ENDS