BMF Faces of Africa project

BMF used an art exhibition at the dinner as a springboard from which a new art project – Faces of Africa - will be launched. The exhibition showcased the beauty of South African art. The new arts project, a first of its kind in BMF history, is aimed at highlighting the visual arts' contribution to capturing of the history, milestones and icons of our country.

"The art will capture the journey our country has traversed in the 10 years of democracy,'' said BMF President, Nolitha Fakude. "The landmarks are many, a great distance has been covered in a short space of time. There has been many events, icons, leaders and catalysts of change that have been the fuel to the engine of change. We need to capture these events, images and icons.''

The guest speaker, Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni, commended BMF for playing a key role in socio economic transformation during the first 10 years of democracy, in his keynote address.

Fakude, said in the past BMF awards looked at acknowledging mainly politicians, to encourage and recognize delivery on the transformation agenda. Now it is time for the BMF Presidential Awards to start acknowledging catalysts of transformation not only in the political arena but also civil society as part of the second phase of the transformation journey. Dr Aggrey Klaaste, Prof Es'kia Mphahlele and Steve Biko (posthumously) were among the individuals who received the presidential awards.

''We believe the people we are awarding tonight are worthy of being honored for their contribution leading up to and during the first decade of our democracy. We also realize that it's not yet uhuru! Which is why we will continue, going forward, playing a role in driving and focusing on broad based empowerment and to facilitate skills development in our country,'' says Fakude.

Talking on achieving more meaningful and sustainable levels of transformation within business and corporate environment, Fakude said BMF would, together with partners and associates, develop programmes aimed at nurturing principles of 'servant leadership' which is at the core of African leadership.
''We need to develop leaders who are led by interests of the people they serve and not driven by their own self interest. The servant leader has the people and the broader community he or she serves' interest at heart.''

BMF Presidential Award recipients:
-- Community Builder of the Decade: Dr Aggrey Klaaste for his role in the democratization of South African community building.
-- Communication: Pearl Mashabela for her role in influencing diversity in communication.
-- Media: Thami Mazwai for championing media freedom.
-- Women Empowerment: Wiphold and the four founder members Wendy Luhabe, Gloria Serobe, Nomhle Canca and Luoisa Mojela.
-- Corporate transformation activists (EE and People Development): JB Magwaza
-- Business Development: Dr Sam Motsuenyane
-- Education, Arts and Culture: Prof Es'kia Mphahlele
-- Thought Leadership and Black Consciousness: Posthumously bestowed to Steve Bantu Biko.
-- Youth Empowerment / Entrepreneurship: Malose Kekana