In the media

Doc scores multibillion gas deal

11 August 2016

BLOOMING: Dr Mokgokong's businesses have gone global

VETERAN entrepreneur and prolific dealmaker Dr Anna Mokgokong believes that a R14-billion gas project she is working on will propel her to greater heights.

Companies associated with the executive chairwoman of Community Investment Hold­ing (CIH) employ more than 40 000 people.

"For six years I've been working on this gas project and now I have to deliver on the project which has multiple stakeholders such as munic­ipalities and communities.

"It's a black industrialist project of building infrastruc­ture for gas as an alternative energy source," she says.

Mokgokong says gas will be sourced from African coun­tries such as Botswana, Nige­ria and Angola to supply the eastern part of South Africa.

Mokgokong's consortium, which includes British, Swiss and Korean investors, will see gas infrastructure being erected at the Port of Ngqura in Eastern Cape and create 8 000 direct jobs.

"I want to move up to the mainstream of the industrial economy," she said.

The first black woman to sit on the board of Shoprite Group, Mokgokong also chairs Malesela Investment Holdings, and is a director at Jasco Electronics.

Her company CIH also has an interest in retail, energy, mining, electronic products, manufacturing, financial ser­vices, logistics and property development.

Mokgokong is concerned that private companies are slow to transform. "We have a policy that empowers women but there are issues
that retard transformation. "Only 3% of JSE companies are lead by women, but compared to gov­ernment, the numbers are looking good.

"Shareholders are not so keen to empower women, so women should be activists in the boardrooms to make it," she said. Born in Soweto 59 years ago, the mother of two says she has adopted such a large number of children to a point that she has lost count of them. I pay for their education and general upkeep," she said.

The qualified medical doctor has also launched a bursary at her alumni Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, previously known as Medunsa. "There are some other cor­porate social investment pro­jects which my companies plan to support," she says.

She obtained her Bachelor of Science degree at the Uni­versity of Botswana and did her medical degree at Medunsa. Mokgokong is also a medical officer at the Hebron Medical Centre, a nonexecu­tive chairwoman of Tshwane International Convention Cen­tre and a board member of Air Liquide Healthcare.

Her other roles include being Phambili Health Care's managing director, Malesela Hospital Group chief executive and executive director of MadMed Healthcare. She also sits on the board of the Adcorp Group.

Source: Sowetan