Pretoria - The second annual South African Premier Business Awards, held in Johannesburg last night, was a chance for South African companies to shine.
“[To win the award], is huge. To be in a category with companies such as Bell and SAAB Grintek Defence - it is an almost surreal [feeling],” says Larry Shakinovsky, who co-owns Pentafloor CC with his wife Bianca.
Pentafloor CC, which is among the companies that took home one of the 13 prestigious awards, won the Manufacturer Award on Wednesday night.
The company deals in access flooring, which is an elevated floor area upon another floor (typically a concrete slab in a building).
“Although the manufacturing sector was difficult, since we faced issues such as strikes, this award gives us motivation to carry on,” says Bianca.
The company went from employing three workers to now having a staff compliment of 40 people.
Eskom, which was among other winners at the glittering awards ceremony, won the Technology Award.
“It is an honour and privilege to have received this award. We are humbled by the recognition. We’ve said that it’s a sign of investment that Eskom has made over many years in innovation and technology and in our people,” Managing Director of the System Operations and Planning Division at the power parastatal, Kannan Lakmeeharan, said on Wednesday evening.
“We hope it inspires engineers to join us to take up these skills, for young people to take up studies in engineering,” he added.
The parastatal provides bursaries and learnerships to artisans, among others.
President Jacob Zuma gave the keynote address at the ceremony, hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry, Proudly South African and Brand SA.
The awards recognise business excellence and honour businesses which promote the spirit of success and innovation, as well as job creation and quality.
“The success of the recipients of these awards this evening demonstrates that our country promotes innovation and success, and that opportunities are being utilised to grow businesses and prosper," said President Zuma at the awards, which also paid tribute to the memory of former President Nelson Mandela.
"More work must be done to improve investment prospects and to encourage youth employment, in particular. More work must also still be done to increase the number of small and medium enterprises," he added.
The top sward for the evening, the Lifetime Achievement Award, was presented to respected South African business leader Sam Motsuenyane.
“I would like to express my appreciation of the award that has been bestowed on me tonight, an award I didn’t expect to receive,” said the 87-year-old.
On Friday, Cabinet congratulated all finalists and recipients of the awards. - SAnews.gov.za
