The Department of Trade and Industry, Proudly South African and Brand SA on Wednesday night honoured the country’s top business achievers, bestowing several awards at the second yearly South Africa (SA) Premier Business Awards, in Sandton.

The awards recognised business excellence and honoured enterprises that promoted the spirit of success and innovation, as well as job creation, good business ethics and quality.

The flagship award of the evening, the Lifetime Achievement Award, was presented to South African business and community leader Dr Sam Motsuenyane, who was considered one of the pioneers of black economic empowerment and spearheaded the formation of African Bank.

Motsuenyane, who served in the first post-apartheid Parliament and was South Africa’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, was also instrumental in establishing three agricultural projects in Gauteng, the North West and Mpumalanga, which continued to benefit the rural communities in which they existed.

In receiving the award, he saluted “black business pioneers”, adding that to solve the challenges of poverty and unemployment, the country needed to create a society of black entrepreneurs willing to participate in nation building.

Looking to other recipients of the SA Premier Business Awards, the Manufacturer Award went to Pentafloor; the Rural Development Award to Clover Mama Afrika Trust; the Exporter Award to SAAB Grintek Defence; theMedia Award to Carte Blanche; the Most Empowered Enterprise Award to the Coega Development Corporation; the Small, Medium-sized and Micro Enterprises Award to Bhafoni Ba Ntiro; the Technology Award to Eskom; the Quality Award to Innovative Mining Products; the Young Entrepreneur Award to Botlhokwa Events & Projects; the Women-Owned Enterprise Award to Hands On Treatment; the Investor Award to Eskom; the Proudly South African Enterprise Award to Ekurhuleni Artisans & Skills Training Centre; the Green Award to MechCal and the Play Your Part Award to Botlholwa Events & Projects.