Dr Vuyo Mahlati is a champion in the fight against poverty
Dr Vuyo Mahlati, serving her second term as president of the International Women’s Forum of South Africa, is an entrepreneur and a maverick dedicated to changing the way that individuals and families overcome poverty.
Internationally she sits on a number of boards and is recognised as a global thought leader. She is also part of the committee that produced the 25-year Gauteng Province Integrated Transport Strategy, is chairperson of the Development Commission of South African Women in Dialogue, and a member of the National Planning Commission.
Mahlati typifies an African Renaissance woman: working with global macro-economic frameworks, urban development, poverty reduction, gender equality and policy implementation, she is also able to tackle grassroots realities in a spirit of Ubuntu and care.
With training as a policy specialist from the London School of Economics, she has served as deputy chair of the State Information Technology Agency, non-executive director of Lion of Africa Insurance Company, and two terms as the chairperson of the board of directors of the South African Post Office. During her time at the post office she led its transition from traditional to digital business in mail, logistics and banking.
Her impact on fighting poverty goes back to 2005, when she was appointed chairperson of the South African Women in Dialogue development commission. She spearheads a poverty eradication unit that trains unemployed rural matriculants as social auxiliary workers.
These workers get paid a salary to help identified indigent families rise out of poverty by linking them to available services and resources. Under her leadership, the unit has seen 81 previously unemployed matriculants trained across three municipalities as social auxiliary workers.
Through her work at the commission, she has reached out to close to 11 000 women from mostly rural areas who have attended events hosted by the commission over the past 11 years.
Mahlati is the recipient of the 2008 Black Management Forum Presidential Award for Transformational Leadership, as well as the Black Business Executive/Absa Kaelo Award. In 2012 she was a finalist for the 11th Van Ryn’s BBQ Public Visionary Award.
Partnering with the government, she developed a strategic document on “Engendering National Anti-Poverty”. This has seen her advocating for the creation of a special fund to support women-led initiatives and support for infrastructure linkages of poor communities to mainstream municipalities.