It just goes to prove that, given equal opportunities, women can excel in most male-dominated fields.
Under Women at Work, a gender transformation programme, an all-female roads repair team, which is based at the Transport for Cape Town (TCT) depot in Heideveld, is doing all the hard slog, which only men are expected to do. The team has been appointed as part of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) within TCT to repair and do maintenance work on roads, footways and stormwater infrastructure in Heideveld, Manenberg, Tambo Village, Athlone, Surrey Estate and the areas adjacent to Jakes Gerwel Drive.
Highlighting the programme’s significance, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member: Transport for Cape Town, Councillor Brett Herron:”Women at Work is a gender transformation programme within TCT which is collaboratively implemented by the TCT Training Academy, the EPWP and selected roads depots across the city. The purpose of this programme is to empower women in the workplace by providing them with skills for manual work that is generally associated with men. With the skills and entrepreneurial abilities they develop during the 10-month employment period, these women will be better equipped to find placement in the permanent job market.”
The team was established in March 2016 and consists of six members:
- Kashiefa Beck (34) from Heideveld
- Nomzamo Feni (43) from Gugulethu
- Joyleen Melton-Gordon (40) from Heideveld
- Pumla Mfana (39) from Gugulethu
- Ilhaam Ely (39) from Heideveld
- Akeelah Abrahams (34) from Heideveld
- “The team from Heideveld now counts among the 24 pioneers of a long-term process whereby the city is tackling gender transformation in the transport realm. Women are generally under-represented in the transport sector – for example, within TCT, women constitute only 3.4% of those involved with the physical maintenance of roads and stormwater infrastructure. I am confident that this project, spearheaded by the TCT Training Academy, will assist us over time in changing perceptions about the type of work that women can do,” said Herron. The Women at Work Programme has also been nominated for the fourth annual Women in Construction Awards to take place in Johannesburg on 10 May 2016, Transform SA Online gathers.