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WATCH | What Precious Moloi Motsepe had to say about the next 100 years for women

A year on, our very first cover girl, businesswoman Precious Moloi-Motsepe, continues to inspire. We caught up with her on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum (WEF) studio debate at CNBC Africa in Johannesburg, where she talked about WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report, and the importance of more female participation in the economy.
Moloi-Motsepe has spent most of last year traveling the world as a member of The Giving Pledge campaign. At the same time, she has focused her energies towards expanding African Fashion International (AFI), which organizes fashion weeks across Africa and supports designers. She believes Africa’s fashion industry can take the world by storm. However, there is plenty of room for improvement.
“Where I feel we’re lacking is taking our creative skills and turning them into commercial products to make it available globally.” And on female empowerment: “I know there are challenges but [women] cannot sit back, we have to come to the table and continuously engage to make our voices heard.”
Moloi-Motsepe is a mother to three boys. She says aside from her many projects, she has spent a lot of the past year just being a mom. The work with the Motsepe Foundation she has set up with her mining magnate husband Patrice Motsepe has also seen her travel across South Africa over the last year.

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Former Cover Girl

As Precious Moloi-Motsepe walks into the restaurant at the plush Michelangelo Towers, in the affluent northern suburbs of Johannesburg, she smiles sweetly while making her way to the table. The waiters are on their marks, but she signals kindly with her eyes that she’s fine—a down-to-earth lady in a peach power suit.
<div id="attachment_283" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-283" class="size-medium wp-image-283" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_1557-1-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />Dr Precious Moloi &#8211; Motsepe, chairperson of the African Fashion Week held in Sandton</div>
She chuckles as she says many people ask how she switched from medicine to fashion. A doctor specializing in women’s health, she left her practice to chair a company organizing fashion week shows.
It is merely one leg of a long journey. One of five children, Moloi-Motsepe was born and raised in Soweto, south of Johannesburg; she went to a Catholic school in Rustenburg before studying medicine at Wits University in Johannesburg. This was followed by postgraduate studies in human and reproductive health at the University of Stellenbosch, near Cape Town.
The switch to fashion came after she stopped working to have a baby.  At the same time, her family foundation was being established, which contributes largely to education, health and economic opportunities for young people. The foundation was offered a fashion company in Cape Town and Moloi-Motsepe says she soon realised an opportunity was presenting itself in the clothing and textile business—an industry that employs many women.
As Moloi-Motsepe had worked in women’s health, this was another opportunity to help women help themselves economically. This heralded the birth of Africa Fashion International (AFI).
“I covered a lot; seeing fashion weeks and the impact they have on the economy of countries. You have media traveling from all over the world going there, you have buyers moving from all over the world to go there—you know it just stimulates growth,” Moloi-Motsepe says.
Africa Fashion Week, held at the Sandton Convention Centre from October 20 to 22 this year, proved to be the biggest yet with more than 20,000 visitors attending the event, as well as the Africa Fashion Trade Expo.
“Fashion in Africa is going places; we have an advantage of a growing population—a billion people on the continent. That’s a big number. The important thing is it should be consumers who are able to buy,” says Moloi-Motsepe.
The good doctor believes there is potential, but admits there are problems along the way, like a shortage of capital, an abundance of cheap imports and poor distribution.
“Cheap imports make it difficult for local designers to compete in the market because our input costs are very high compared to China,” she says.
“I think the best way for us is not to get stuck in competing at that level. Our focus should be on the high design, high quality, high value-added products—I think that will help to maintain sustainability of our industry.”
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WATCH | What Precious Moloi Motsepe had to say about the next 100 years for women

Former Cover Girl

Tea with the Queen of Fashion