What they said at W.E.D

GZU Registrar, Sinikiwe Tirivanhu on the importance of having more women in corporate boards

"...firstly it is just good for society, no business sense no whatever but it is just good....you have your own six boys and six girls in the house, why would you only promote the six boys and leave out the six girls?

You have invested in them through school, they have achieved equally but when it comes to rewarding them, you discriminate....it just makes good sense to give them equal opportunities. When we have more women in the boards they tend to helps us to make decisions which are more represantative of the different stakeholders we have in the economy.

Maybe because we are mothers and we know how it is to have all your children treated the same ,and we also deal with the different sectors of the economy such that whenever we make decisions we want them to represent as many people as we can. ...they also bring diversity in experience and outlook.

Kana nzvimbo dzatinoshandira dzikayita ndebvu dzega handifungi kuti zvinganakidza. ... It also helps to promote peace and economic progress...women are not as violent as men" Solomon Matsa , BEEF President "The sky is the limit for the people here...Mr Ali has given you an opportunity to comeback for training, and he will sponsor the training.

The difference between men and women on this issue is this: he says you must come and present a project, and if you present a project that is good, he will give you money, did you hear that? With us men, by the time we come out of this meeting we will be sending each other messages asking..."which project should we do?"

When we go out to drink as she was saying, we will be sitti ng....five six ... of us putti ng on paper that project, and making sure we start working on it immediately, ....by the time the coursework comes, you are ready, pumped up, your research is complete and you make sure that you win.

But the problem is (women) don't network, when we finish today, you dont want to know the person sitti ng next to you, the only thing you know about your neighbour is something bad, or whatever....you need to start being friends, as women and do things together, ...even us as black men we are still far behind the whiteman in terms of networking because most decisions are made in the golf course, or during lunch, people do business in houses, if you dont have that network around you it will.be difficult to get anything in business" “...you need to be ethical, as long as we are not ethical in our business dealings, we will not make it, for me to come back to you for something, its because you treated me well before.

With ethics you can aim for long term relationships with people whose money you want to be taking, no one wants to go where they have their money stolen, ukabira mai vangu, nemuzukuru wangu uchazviziva, ukafamba apo toti heyombavha saka you will never make it in life no matter how clever you are."