Female managers at telecommunications company Cell C on Wednesday praised their CEO‚ Jose dos Santos‚ for his commitment to gender empowerment – a day after his “regrettable” comments on women in the workplace.

“Too often people stand by and allow things to happen to good people; and while we know we might face some criticism for our decision to stand beside our CEO; we as women in leadership positions at Cell C cannot allow someone to be solely judged for one unfortunate comment‚ while what he has done to empower women‚ both within and outside the company‚ goes unnoticed‚” said the statement issued on behalf of top female management at Cell C.

Dos Santos fired up a storm of social media comment accusing him of sexism after he said during an interview on CliffCentral on Tuesday that women have a high tolerance for dealing with workplace issues but that they also have a “bitch switch” that gets flipped when they are unhappy.

“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‚” he said.

Wednesday’s statement read: “As the top female management team of Cell C‚ we agree that his choice of words on a specific matter was not appropriate.”

“However‚ what we know is that the public outrage he is facing for that regrettable choice of words has far outweighed what he has done for every employee in this company‚ particularly women.

“We believe in ourselves collectively as a team of highly skilled and highly capable women and we are rightly recognised as such in this company. What we know is that we have all had far more opportunities to shine and be our best under his leadership. If this was not the case‚ we would not be here.

“This statement is issued by our top female management of Cell C who are empowered and stand fully in support of our CEO.”