Brand Voice by Zamani Holdings and ITHUBA 



Group CEO of Zamani Holdings, Charmaine Mabuza was honoured with the Social Impact Award at the 2020 FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit held in Durban ICC recently. 



This award
recognizes Mabuza for her measurable philanthropy that has positively impacted
the lives of many South Africans for the past 21 years.&nbsp; 



At the top of
her philanthropical projects is the Eric and Charmaine Mabuza Scholarship
Foundation which she founded with her husband, Advocate Eric Mabuza in 1999.
The Scholarship Foundation started in Mpumalanga, where the Mabuza’s business
hub is centered. Speaking to Ukhozi FM in an interview, Charmaine Mabuza said
that together with her husband, they funded this foundation straight from their
pockets. “Both my husband and I come from humble beginnings and we know what
it’s like to not have means to study further, especially when you believe that
education is your way out of poverty. So when we started making good profits
from our small businesses at the time, we decided to dedicate a portion of our
personal income to funding tertiary education fees of previously disadvantaged
children”, said Mabuza. 



Powered by
Zamani Holdings, the Scholarship Foundation later expanded its reach to the
rest of South Africa, supporting over 160 students countrywide, many of which
have qualified as Doctors, Chartered Accountants, Engineers, Quantity Surveyors
and many more. The 2020 Scholarship Foundation programme launched on 13
January, with an intake of 21 students. 



Zamani holdings
has empowered the rest its group of companies to roll out CSI initiatives that
truly transform the lives of ordinary South Africans. At the forefront of these
initiatives is ITHUBA, the South African National Lottery Operator and Zamani’s
flagship company. 



In July 2017,
ITHUBA launched the ITHUBA Female
Retailer Development programme, specially designed to empower women who own
spaza shops and informal supermarkets, who currently sell National Lottery
products, from all around the country. This included women from previously
marginalized communities in the rural outskirts. 



In collaboration
with reputable institutions such as Regenesys and the University of
Johannesburg, this programme has upskilled over 100 women in retail business.
The latest group of 14 women graduated in October 2019 at the University of
Johannesburg’s Kingsway campus, each being awarded a qualification in Advanced Entrepreneurship and Social
Innovation.



Zamani’s Social Responsibility initiatives include: 



<ul><li>ITHUBA
Graduate Programme: An annual skills development programme for graduates
within the Marketing, Finance, IT, PR, HR and Logistics fields, with intake of
13 students in 2020. </li><li>Youth
Enterprise Development:&nbsp; Eradicating
youth unemployment through developing upcoming entrepreneurs and helping them
build sustainable, profit making business.&nbsp;
</li><li>Housing
project: A project that builds houses for employees in the lower income brackets,
who have been in the employment of the company for 10 years and more. </li><li>A media campaign to condemn femicide and
violence against women. </li></ul>



“I firmly
believe that education is key to eradicating poverty and injustice. This is why
all of our initiatives are based on imparting knowledge and skills. Through
education we empower, through education we liberate” said Mabuza.

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FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Charmaine Mabuza Honoured With FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Social Impact Award