Gauteng businesswoman Dr Moretlo Molefi romped home with top honours in the prestigious annual Technology for Women in Business (TWIB), at a glittering ceremony that was hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) at the Phillip Sanders Resort, in Bloemfontein, on Thursday.
Speaking at the event, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Elizabeth Thabethe, who was full of praise for the top three awards winners, said Telemedicine's technological innovation would go a long way in assisting government improve its delivery in the healthcare sector, if the technology can replicate that all over the country, particularly in the rural areas of South Africa.
Molefi owns Telemedicine, a company that provides healthcare practice supported by electronic processes and communication (eHealth) and mobile health (mHealth) services.
These include conducting healthcare needs assessment of communities, provision of diagnostic and treatment services, technical support and personnel training for healthcare facilities, assessing the costs and benefits of different, but appropriate, ICT solutions, and the introduction of new and appropriate technologies for efficient healthcare delivery.
Molefi, who has just returned from a trade mission in United States of America, where she was part of a business delegation organised by the DTI, said the award is an encouragement for women inspiring to use technology in their businesses.
“This award is dedicated to all small businesswomen out there who should be inspired to stand up and do something that will improve the lives of their communities, instead of waiting for government to do things for them. But it is also a perfect demonstration of how technology can be applied in our businesses in order to improve their capacities and to yield better results,” said a clearly elated Molefi, a Soweto-born doctor.
Her prizes include R600 000 worth of technological support injection from the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) for being crowned the overall winner, as well as trip to the Global Women's Summit, taking place in Athens, Greece, next year. She will also receive R200 000 worth of technological assistance from the DTI, and a laptop for winning the medium business category of the awards.
Other category winners were Cape Town-based Glynn Mashonga of Globe Security Designs (Very Small), and Dr Mich'elle Booysen of Petanque (Small).
Globe Security Designs installs and maintains surveillance systems and alarms, access control, CCTV security systems, electric fencing and automation of gates, among others.
Petanque is a strategy delivery consultancy, which assists companies and organisation to improve business performance and bring about change through best practice processes, business analysis and successful project implementation, linking what it does to business vision and strategy.
The TWIB Awards ceremony was preceded by a conference, which was attended by more than 400 businesswomen from all of the country's provinces. In her keynote address, Deputy Minister Thabethe said technology had the potential to alter economic activity as it could be used to replace traditional means of communication to manage business documentation and information, to perform usual business operations and to engage in business transactions or e-commerce.
“Technology and its proper application can help business to grow in a number of ways. These include increasing sales and profits, and enveloping new products and services. Technology provides an excellent means to overcome the first-second economy divide and stimulate the migration of business from the second economy to the first economy,” added Thabethe.
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