Aug 1, 2001
South Africa’s premier accolade for achievement by women went to Miriam Makeba, who was named the Shoprite Checkers/ SABC 3 Woman of the Year 2001, at a dazzling concert in celebration of the women of South Africa, held at the ArtsCape Theatre in Cape Town last night.
The event, which will be broadcast at 19h00 on SABC 3 on National Women’s Day, Thursday, 9 August 2001, also included the announcement of the winners of the seven categories of the Award.
Miram Makeba, who is also the winner of the Arts and Culture category, started her singing career in Sophiatown in the 1950s and continues to sell out at concerts internationally. This year alone she has headed up the Joy of Jazz Festival with Jonathan Butler, received a Grammy award, been appointed Goodwill Ambassador to the Continent of Africa, won Best Female Artist and Best Adult Contemporary Album: African at the South African Music Awards, and collected a Woman of the Century Award in Libya. She is currently working on the "Surf Miriam Makeba Tribute to Dolly Rathebe" series of concerts taking place from Thursday 9 to Saturday 11 August 2001.
Winners of the other six categories of the prestigious Award are:
Business
Yolisa Kashe-Mzamo from King Williams Town runs a clothing manufacturing business that has just secured a R6,2-million three-year deal to supply overalls to DaimlerChrysler SA. The project offers employment to 75 people from one of the country’s most disadvantaged areas.
Community affairs
Christina Kaba is the "green queen" of the Cape Flats. She focuses on practical environmental projects that turn dusty wastelands into life-sustaining vegetable garden projects and has developed the Manyanani Peace Park in Khayelitsha, which has become a model example of community involvement and development.
Health Care
Veronica Khosa initiated the Tateni Home Care Services in Mamelodi, an organisation that has trained more than 150 people in home caring for patients who are terminally ill as well as HIV positive patients. She also lobbies for better treatment for orphans. Her model is recognised by UNAIDS as the best practice model for home caring and the World Health Organisation is using it as a case study.
Education
Monica Mngadi from KwaZulu-Natal is the managing driector of the South African Booksmart Foundation, which promotes literacy throughout the disadvantaged areas by collecting and redistributing donations of books. Since its inception in 1993 it has supplied over one million books to disadvantaged communities, and plans to donate at least five million more during the next three years.
Sport
Natalie du Toit is a Western Cape-based 17-year old swimmer who has already achieved numerous gold medals in her sport. Disabled as a result of an accident earlier this year, Natalie has overcome this setback and now includes motivational talks in her schedule. She continues to train since her accident and her times have already put her back into the top eight swimmers nationally.
Media and Communications
Joan Daries from the Western Cape is chairperson of Volunteer South Africa 2001 and has devoted herself to raising awareness of the importance of volunteering within communities. She has been instrumental in changing perceptions of volunteering to being seen as a valuable way in which unemployed women and young people can gain work experience and make themselves more marketable in the workplace.
An annual major initiative for National Women’s Day, the Shoprite Checkers/SABC 3 Woman of the Year Award is now in its sixth year and continues to focus attention on issues which are of importance to the women of South Africa.