Business women gather for final networking session of 2024

The South African Council of Business Women (SACBW) in Nelspruit had its final networking function for the year at the Southern Sun hotel in Nelspruit this morning.

The event was attended by 32 women who braved the heat for one last get-together before the start of the December holidays.

FEATURE IMAGE: Estelle Roe, Blessing Sunday and Tracy-Erin Duggan.

**Left:** Tracy Wicks and Joelene Mhlaba. Right: Estelle Roe and Lonice Wessels

Blessing Sunday, who will take over the reins as Nelspruit-branch leader from Tracy-Erin Duggan next year, opened the meeting with a prayer, after which all the business women in attendance had the opportunity to deliver an elevator pitch to market their businesses.

**From left:** Annelize Mare, Suzanne Janse van Rensburg, Benita van Wyk and Maureen Karsten.

It was followed by a heartfelt farewell speech, during which Tracy-Erin thanked the members for their support during her time as branch leader.

With Tracy-Erin at the helm, the Nelspruit branch of the SACBW was recently named branch of the year at the organisation’s annual gala event in Paarl in the Western Cape.

**From left:** Chidima Sunday, Pertunia Lehoka, Gugu Machaka and Thandeka Shiba.

The Business Woman of the Year as well as the Rising Star of the Year awards also went to the Nelspruit branch, with Lonice Wessels and Ashley Pauls receiving the two awards.

Estel Roe, regional leader of Mpumalanga, then thanked Tracy-Erin for her hard work over the past years, and urged members to volunteer to be part of the SACBW Nelspruit committee.

**Left:** Jessica Buchanan, Isaura Cardoso Pretorius and Monica Buchanan. **Right:** Petro Bekker and Annelize Mare.

“Next year will be an important year for our branch. As the branch of the year, we will be the hosts of the national awards event next year, which will bring business women from all over the country to the Lowveld. It will also be an opportunity to showcase the work that the SACBW is doing for the people of the Lowveld, but putting the event together will be a lot of work and we will need all the help we can get,” she said.

The formal part of the morning ended with a lucky draw with a number of prizes up for grabs. As always, this part of the event was met with enthusiasm all round.

The morning ended with a delicious champagne breakfast in the beautiful garden of the hotel.