Women in the manufacturing industry: Bellah Malema
To celebrate National Women’s Month this August, we are profiling some phenomenal women who work at PG Bison and others who run businesses in the furniture manufacturing industry. In this feature, we chat to Bellah Malema who is the Head of Credit Risk at PG Bison.
As the Head of Credit Risk at PG Bison Bellah Malema is responsible for the division’s debtors’ portfolio across its four sites.
“My core mandate is structured around the following key pillars: credit risk, credit administration, compliance and governance, and cash-collection and revenue growth. Carrying out my mandate is rewarding as it mitigates risks from a business and customer perspective, which result in a positive business impact,” she explains.
While Bellah joined PG Bison in 2019, she’s been in the credit control and risk space for more than 18 years. “It all started at the university, where I studied. During my last year of study, I worked as a part-time Junior Credit Controller within the Finance Department at the university. Thereafter, I moved the petroleum and oil industry where I built a solid foundation in credit risk,” she says.
One of the myths she’d like to demystify about credit and risk is that the job is not all about collecting money from customers. “Credit risk is about managing relationships,” she says. “If you’re not managing those relationships, customers will prioritise other suppliers as your business won’t be top of mind.”
Her favourite part about working at PG Bison is working with men who are very supportive of women growing within the manufacturing industry and seeing young professionals fired up, driven and hungry for growth.
As a female leader I show interest, affection and pure acknowledgement. Every single one of us is going through something and unfortunately, we cannot remove that from our existence, so I lead with that understanding,” she explains.
Bellah finds her motivation in her own journey. Born and raised in a dusty Senwabarwana village in Limpopo, she says she only realised later in life that she had grown up extremely underprivileged. At the time, it hadn’t occurred to her, because she had all the courage and all the love she needed to see beyond those conditions. “What keeps me going is that it doesn’t really matter what you have and where you come from,” she says. “What matters is that you have a goal and the motivation to keep going, whatever the challenges.”
Outside of work, Bellah is a wife and mother of two children, 15-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl, and she says the thing that people need to know about her is that she’s a “huge supporter of committed and caring people”.
“I’m a supporter of those individuals who commit to developing themselves to their full potential; people who show up every single day to create a warm, responsible, thriving environment,” she enthuses.
Bellah’s advice to young women in her industry is to mind the gap between their intentions and the impact they can make in others. “Don’t just go to work for the sake of going to work. Show up and make a difference, every single day, whether it’s a good day or a bad day,” she says.
She adds that education and a skill set could set individuals on the same podium, but being psychologically smart and sound will set you apart. It’s important to have both – intelligence and emotional intelligence.
“The best advice that I have to share is to be human enough in your function that people relate with you,” she says. “When your team relates well with you, they will perform well.”
