Cell C CEO in hot water over ‘bitch switch’ comments

Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos has come under fire for his remarks on women in the workplace.

The Cell C CEO explained that roughly 42 percent of staff were female when he started.

“Today, we’re just over 60 [percent – ed],” he said during an interview on CliffCentral, citing female empowerment policies at the network.

“We have good-looking women, we have clever women, we have smart women, and that’s created a different environment,” Dos Santos continued.

The network head said that he hopes for a female CEO to replace him when he steps down.

“We no longer live in the society of, you know, the woman stays at home and she’s gotta look after the chores. Today, a lot of women are independent. They bring up the kids by themselves, they’re financially stable,” he added.

Dos Santos then claimed that women have a “different way of engaging in meetings” and that they have a “bitch switch”.

“If I can use the term on your radio station, you know women do have a bitch switch, and boy if you see two women fighting it is worse than two men… having an argument.”

The Cell C CEO touched on a company initiative, which sees all Miss SA finalists receiving an internship for a year.

“Over the last three years… we’ve had probably about 30, 40% of the young girls stay in the company. We’ve seen some of the top female engineers coming in and giving our seasoned engineers a run for their money,” the network head continued.

“It brought a whole different atmosphere. Can you imagine you got 12 gorgeous women and say, four or five of them walk into your company – do you know what it does to the atmosphere in that company? The men dress better, they shave every morning.”