Once black professionals climb up the corporate ladder to positions of influence they forget that their lot needs to be uplifted, according to the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) CEO, Philisiwe Mthethwa.
In an interview with City Press, Mthethwa said her main worry was that black professions appeared oblivious to the economic importance of empowering black owned companies through contracts.
“South Africans don’t realise we are literally sitting on gold, but we just can’t take this gold. It’s frustrating.
“The change we make by giving a cleaning contract to a black female-owned entity [is far-reaching] – as CEOs we can take those decisions, but do we take them? How many black CEOs would worry about that? You can’t only be thinking about big things,” said Mthethwa.
