By: Ria Papier, Client Director at Old Mutual Private Equity (OMPE)
South Africa is plagued with significant social challenges such as high levels of unemployment and high levels of inequality. This is especially relevant during Women’s Month, observed in the country annually in August, where reports by Statistics SA consistently show that equality in the job market still eludes women. However, strides are being made to improve the gender gap in private companies, according to Ria Papier, Client Director at Old Mutual Private Equity (OMPE), citing evidence from OMPE’s own portfolio of investments in unlisted businesses in South Africa.
OMPE has increased females in management in the businesses that it has invested in from 34% to 42% in the four years from 2019 to 2023 and has more than doubled black females in management from 14% to 31% over the same period. Papier says key to shifting the opportunities for women in the workplace is being deliberate about making the change.
“The active ownership model of private equity, where we are on the board of the companies we invest in, often establishing the social, ethics and transformation sub-committee, means that we have the influence and the opportunity to drive gender equality and transformation,” says Papier.
She adds that OMPE inspires the management teams to be deliberate about this.
“Private equity is a conduit for capital from asset owners into privately held businesses in South Africa, which we believe is key to unlocking and driving economic growth in the country,” says Papier, adding that today its investee companies support over 28 000 employees, of which 87% are from historically disadvantaged groups.She explains further by saying that it is very difficult to effect meaningful impact without growth.
“Growth is impact, which is why we aim to deliver transformational growth in the companies in which we invest. We do this through new product expansion, new markets, and new geographies, which in turn creates new jobs and improves the opportunities for existing employees to grow in their careers. We also focus on improving transformation by boosting gender equality and demographic diversity. It starts by inculcating a growth and transformation mindset in management teams.”
Besides aiming to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns to its investors, OMPE ensures its investee companies are exemplary corporate citizens in the way they conduct business, safeguarding the livelihoods of their employees and making a significant contribution to the well-being of their communities.
Blazing a trail in robotics
One woman who is such an example and is blazing a trail in her career, is that of Lebo Selloane, who joined Medhold – a healthcare company that provides best-in-class medical devices used in life- critical situations – in 2019 as a product manager. With training and mentorship, she made a success of her new role, and was promoted to be the Business Unit Manager for a newly acquired Robotics division.
“This was a pivotal moment in my career, allowing me to write history in shaping the future of robotics in healthcare in SA,” says Selloane, adding that when a company invests in its employees’ growth and development, it sets itself up for long-term success.
Medhold’s business has significantly increased since OMPE’s investment in 2018. Of Medhold’s employees, 42% are women and 66% of its YES (Youth Employment Service) programme intake is young women. This programme gives young adults a year’s work experience, while doing training modules, to open doors to employment.
Supporting female entrepreneurs and rural grassroots women
Another amazing story is that of Winne Ramoloto, a Cut, Make, Trim (CMT) entrepreneur and supplier for Tourvest Destination Retail, one of the largest retailers of crafts and curios in South Africa and abroad, providing invaluable market access for remote rural craft producers supported by the Siyazisiza Trust. She began her career in a clothing factory where her sister was working. Slowly she began to do her own CMT work. By 2019 she had 25 employees. Today she makes a variety of clothing that is sold in the stores of Tourvest subsidiaries. “With Tourvest I can reach my full potential. I’m a manufacturer and they sell my product to the world,” says Ramoloto.
OMPE’s investment in Tourvest (an integrated tourism business which owns a range of tourism- focused businesses) started in 2008, and since then, it has increased its employees by 50% to around 6500. Tourvest supports over a 1000 small South African based business and entrepreneurs.
Papier explains that Tourvest has extraordinary reach to touch grassroots communities. Through the partnership with the Siyazisiza Trust, crafts are created by mainly elderly black women – upon whom households depend – in remote locations. “It is a handcrafts business that has helped mothers and grandmothers in some of the poorest, most remote rural communities to put food on the table for 25 years.” OMPE is also invested in Actom – an industrial manufacturer, repairer and distributor of electro-mechanical equipment in Africa. It employs over 8000 people. “Actom is an example of a fully transformed business. Furthermore, in an industry that traditionally attracted men, Actom actively reaches out to women,” explains Papier.
Meet Molatelo Molala, a Technical Estimator in the Commercial Department at LH Marthinusen (a subsidiary of Actom). Many years ago, she was hired as an apprentice at the company; which was her very first job. Once qualified as an Amateur Winder following a four-year apprenticeship, Molala was placed in the small motors department as an inspiration to other young women apprentices.
“I didn’t know what a motor is, what a transformer is. Now I know, and I’m glad I can stand up and explain it to the girls who come to work here,” she says. “It’s not easy because this is a male- dominated industry… Being underestimated, that makes me wake up and say, ‘Molatelo, go prove
that even if you are a lady, you can still do it’. My son has decided to do mechanical engineering. I believe he wants to follow in my footsteps.”
How can companies prioritise women in the workplace?
“Unconscious bias is a real challenge,” says Papier. “If you don’t have a hiring committee that is diverse itself, or motivated to hire women, it creates a challenge to change things.” She says that transformation starts from the top, and it must be a conscious decision to invest in women in the workplace from the leaders in the business. “If you look at Actom, its CEO Mervyn Naidoo is passionate about transformation, and that is why women are doing great things at the company,” says Papier.
Secondly, she adds that the workplace needs to adapt to being more fully inclusive of the very many roles women play in society, from being career women to managing the home. “Make the workplace such that it makes it easier for women to navigate these complexities as it will help the company unlock growth over the longer term,” says Papier, adding that it has become clear that diversity is valuable. “There is value in diversity. We have seen it in our own business. We are one of the most transformed private equity managers of our size in the country and it is this depth and diversity of skills that enables different perspectives to form an insightful mosaic view of our investments, contributing to the quality of our investment process,” concludes Papier.
