Africa

CAAZ was established on January 1, 1999 as the civil aviation agency of Zimbabwe. It took over the role of the then Department of Civil Aviation, a direct government entity, and it still operates under the control of the Ministry of Transport, but as an arm’s length statutory body, or parastatal organisation that works as a commercial organisation.

Established in 2010, Poswa Incorporated (Poswa Inc.) is a progressive law firm, which specialises in providing services across all aspects of commercial law, including the structuring of transactions, negotiation and drafting of agreements, legal opinions and legal due diligences. Through specialist insight and personalised service, Poswa Inc. focuses on tailor made legal solutions that broaden business horizons.

Aerosud is the biggest manufacturer of aircraft parts and assemblies on the African continent, producing 1.5 million parts and assemblies a year and on the back of an established track record of quality and delivery it has become a single source supplier for almost all of the products it supplies. It is a fantastic success story, so much so that the company was declared a strategic industrial national asset by South Africa's government owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

Capital Star Steel SA, based in Maputo Province, Mozambique, is a subsidiary of the South African company, Capital Africa Steel (Pty) Ltd (CAS), the company through which Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO) operates its construction materials businesses. WHBO is one of the largest construction companies in Southern Africa, listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange with 12,000 employees, and had a turnover in 2013 of more than R23 million.

MC 2014 is the global forum for exchanging views and developing capacity, to ensure that new mines are designed with closure in mind, and old sites are closed economically, whilst minimising environmental and societal impacts.

At the age of 75 Seed Co is an established player on the global agribusiness scene though it does not spend as much time in the headlines as some of its rivals. Nevertheless on the continent of Africa it is the biggest seed company, outstripping the large multinationals also interested in the African market in both volumes and value. Seed Co develops and markets certified crop seeds, including hybrid maize seed, cotton, wheat, soya bean, barley, sorghum and ground nut.

Palabora Copper extracts and processes copper and other by-products in the Ba-Phalaborwa area of Limpopo Province. The unique formation known as the Palabora Igneous Complex is a geologically fascinating region. Archaeological evidence and carbon isotope dating indicate that primitive mining and smelting of copper took place at Phalaborwa some 1,000 years ago. This was followed by the smelting of iron ore 700 years later.

Zimkhitha Zatu (30), who holds a responsible managerial position in the finance department of South Africa's largest cement manufacturer, believes that women who enter the construction industry should keep an eye out for male counterparts willing to become mentors. “You will be surprised by the number of male employees who are always willing to mentor their female colleagues and help them to make a success of themselves in this hard industry,” says Zatu.

AHRLAC made its debut public flight on August 13. It is the first military fixed wing aircraft to be fully designed, tested and developed in Africa. The aircraft addresses a key industry need by performing the combined tasks that previously required four separately configured planes. It integrates designs from attack helicopters, surveillance platforms and reconnaissance aircraft with ability to carry surveillance, weapons, radar and electronic warfare systems.

Though Tata had been selling vehicles into the Zambian market for many years prior to that through dealership agreements, it was in 1978 that the Indian industrial giant first established a company based there. This was the first to be set up in the entire continent, and though today the group's African headquarters is in South Africa, and no fewer than 14 countries have their own Tata subsidiary, Tata Zambia, which also looks after neighbouring Malawi where it has a branch office, remains the deepest ingrained and most diverse of all national subsidiaries.