For a decade and a half, South Africa’s premier gender parity platform, Standard Bank Top Women, has awarded outstanding women leaders and gender-strong companies across a host of market sectors. Their journeys to success ignite the ambition of Africa’s women to pursue their own goals in business, government, science, technology and other fields, while showcasing the robust business performance that results from having more women in leadership roles. This year, Ms Lorato Mongale is proud to join the ranks of the Awards’ alumni, as a finalist in the Top Women in Science Award Category. Ms Mongale is pursuing MSc in Biomedical Technology at the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT). 

She will vie for the award at this year’s 14th annual ceremony, taking place at Emperors Palace on the evening of 17 August. Commenting on the accolade, Prof David Ngidi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning said, “CUT is committed to becoming an institution that thrives on equal opportunities for all and prides, within that, a refusal to entertain the idea of a glass ceiling. The resulting business performance and culture of enthusiasm prevailing at CUT attest to this being the right - the only - way to go.  An economy that amplifies South Africa’s transformation journey by intensively uplifting women - more than 51% of our population as a whole. We commend our peers in this category, who share that commitment with us Entries for the awards, both individual and organisational, were evaluated against strict criteria of both gender empowerment and performance, in order to designate award finalists, who will contest for coveted Standard Bank Top Women trophies (the 28th is reserved for an honorary Lifetime Achiever, to be announced as the highlight of the awards ceremony). This year’s panel of esteemed judges includes the likes of Kate Moodley, Franchise Director at Discovery Holdings; Phuti Mahanyele, Sigma Capital Executive Chairperson and Margaret Sibiya, C.O.O. for ICT-Works. Several of the judges commented on the impressive calibre of this year’s entrants, which made the intensive adjudication process even more challenging than in previous years.