SKF South Africa has signed a black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) ownership agreement with black women owned Golelo Trust. “Despite ongoing policies and programmes to address the imbalances of the past, statistics show that black women engineers are still disproportionately under-represented in the workforce. SKF sees the education and development of black women engineers as crucial for the future of our industry, as well as the country as a whole,” says Ian Cillié, managing director of SKF South Africa.
This drive is also in line with SKF’s commitment to South Africa and its communities. Embracing its role as a responsible corporate citizen, SKF has been supporting a number of important community projects, focusing on the skills development of black people through learnership and apprenticeship programmes as well as study grants.
From l: Dr Namane Magau, independent trustee; Corl*#233; Grobler, trustee and SKF sub-Saharan Africa HR manager; Dr Nomonde Mabuya, independent trustee; Ian Cillié, SKF managing director.
The goals of South Africa’s B-BBEE Act align with SKF’s global ‘SKF Care’ approach to running its business in a responsible manner. SKF recognises the importance of contributing to all elements of the B-BBEE scorecard and has, since 2010, been meticulously working on all elements within its control. In 2013 SKF turned its attention to ownership. This culminated in the establishment of Golelo Trust. Golelo means ‘growth’ in Tswana and perfectly portrays the aim of the Trust: ‘To grow and empower black women and thereby the economy and country through education and development’.
The selling of shares to Golelo Trust will not affect the day-to-day running of SKF and its focus on supporting customers with the best-in-class bearings, lubrication systems and ancillary products. The Chairperson of the Trust will be appointed as a non-executive director to the Board of SKF South Africa and all parties are committed to the continued profitable growth of the company and look forward to the contribution that Golelo Trust will make. “We are extremely excited and look forward to making a contribution to the South African economy through the empowerment of black women as the future leaders our of country,” concludes Cillié , confirming that the first engineering bursaries for black women will be granted in the 2017 academic year.
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