Women who went beyond the call of duty were recognised by the Black Management Forum (BMF) Limpopo at an event that took place at the Ranch Hotel, outside Polokwane, on Saturday evening.

The fifth Tracy Malajie Women of Excellence Awards were meant to identify and encourage women who changed lives in their locality, without expecting any reward from their communities. This annual event honours Tracy Malatjie, the late municipal manager of Capricorn District Municipality, who passed on in August 2006.

The event started with a corporate golf day at Polokwane Golf Club on Friday. It was followed by an executive committee meeting to review the forum’s activities since the beginning of the year, as well as to plan for the rest of the coming year. The programme also included the day seminar and the entrepreneur development workshop for women from different municipalities.

BMF Limpopo Chairperson Abram Luruli said this year’s award ceremony was a partnership with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA). He said the primary aim of the awards was to celebrate women’s excellence in society and to encourage women to work hard in different spheres of life.

“We are happy to announce that the winners will be monitored by SEDA for the next 12 months, free of charge. We have no doubt that this will encourage women to work hard in order to develop their own communities.”

one of the winners of the awards was Khoshi Melinda Mokgobja (Community Development). She walked away with the award for her ability to initiate a programme for caring for orphans in her community from scratch and sustain it for five years without funding.

Ms MC Mabelebele walked away with the award for the small, micro & medium enterprises. She is the founder, manager and trustee of the Mpedi Trading Trust. She has been managing both the farming and retail departments.

Ms Tersia Smith was announced as the winner for the Sports, Arts and Culture category. She went against all odds as an organ transplant recipient and used sport to raise awareness around the importance of donating organs. She has shown courage and represented South Africa at the 18th World Transplant Games held in Sweden in June 2011.

The Corporate Governance Award went to Cllr Kukie Sefala, the mayor of Fetakgomo Municipality. Despite its size and rural nature, the municipality managed to move from an adverse audit result to a clean audit.