Lyse Comins

Education was a game changer for one of the most powerful businesswomen in the country and she wants to see others similarly empowered, writes

WENDY Luhabe sees challenges as opportunities and herself as a pioneer, so it is no wonder she defied the socially engineered society that aimed to put her in her place as wife, teacher, nurse or domestic worker as a black woman growing up under apartheid.

“I grew up in the 1960s during the era of forced removals, and the place where I was born no longer exists. Our homes were demolished to make way for the Indian community, that place is now called Actonville, Benoni” she said.

“We were moved to a matchboxsized house with a toilet outside in Daveyton. I used to walk about 2km to school and back every day, so before you is someone who is a product of Bantu Education.”

Luhabe, 58, an entrepreneur, economic activist and one of the most powerful women in South Africa today, addressed Durban business leaders at a Partners for Possibility (PFP) breakfast recently.

She said she had thrown her weight behind a programme that partnered business leaders with school principals to address the crisis in education and transform poor-performing schools.

She spoke to KZN Business at the event.

Luhabe is an author and public speaker and is passionate about leadership, mentorship, women’s development and building an ecosystem for entrepreneurship to flourish in Africa.

She co-founded the first woman-owned company, Women’s Investment Portfolio Holdings (Wiphold) to list on the JSE, and established Women’s Private Equity Fund, the first equity fund solely for women.

She served as the first black woman chancellor of the University of Johannesburg. She has served on many boards, including the International Marketing Council of SA, the Industrial Development Corporation of SA and the Vodacom Group as well as serving as a non-executive director of BMW South Africa.

Luhabe has received a string of awards, not least the Lieutenant of the Victorian Order, conferred on her by Queen Elizabeth II, and she has been named one of 50 leading women entrepreneurs of the world and as a global leader for tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.

She was recently appointed an independent director of the World Rugby Board.

She is married, has a son and two grandchildren, is a Christian and an aspiring harpist.

Luhabe initially studied social sciences to become a social worker. “I was unable to continue due to the 1976 Soweto uprisings, so I decided to change universities and also changed my field of study to commerce,” she said.

“When I started my business (in 1991) it was to solve a social challenge, to prepare black graduates for corporate South Africa and I decided from then on that I would only engage in social enterprises,” Luhabe said.

She graduated from the University of Fort Hare with a BA and obtained a BCom from the University of Lesotho.

She is currently focusing on community empowerment initiatives through investments in micro bakeries and agriculture.

But despite rising to the heights of success and global recognition, when PFP founder Louise van Rhyn approached Luhabe to endorse the programme she remembered her roots and got involved as a business partner.

“What she was doing challenged my conscience as a South African who is privileged, who has had education and who understands the value of having education in one’s life and how far it can take you.”

She went back to Daveyton, where she partnered with a recently promoted school principal who, like many of her peers, had no clue how to manage a school.

“I was struck by a number of things about her – her passion, her commitment, and it was so incongruous with what you read about the state of education. You just assume all the schools have teachers who really don’t care and it was not the case.

“I was inspired by her openness to learn and to find new ways to deal with the problems in her school.”

Luhabe and the principal brought in a retired teacher to improve performance and focus on delivering quality education, grounding the foundation phase in numeracy and literacy skills.

They also invested in teambuilding and creating a culture of performance and saw immediate results in the classroom.

“If we don’t get involved as South Africans, we don’t have a country and we don’t have a future. I have three grandchildren. I want them to live here. I want them to have a future. But for that to happen, all of us in this room have to invest in the education of children we may never meet,” she said.

Luhabe said the project had enabled teachers to realise the critical role of their work in society.

“Our crisis is not so much with our politics as it is with our education. Politics is difficult to change, but there is a lot we can do to change what’s happening in our education system because then we will be investing in a pipeline of well educated young people who will grow up and make sure that this country is well run,” she said.

For Luhabe, education was a game changer and she wants her story to be replicated in the lives of others. “I am what I am because my parents and other generous sponsors like Helen Suzman helped to ensure that I got an education. It is a powerful weapon for us to transform our circumstances and to realise our dreams.”