Housing in Southern Africa October 2015

Cement & Concrete

Women repair maintenance team

S ix young women fromMaitland Garden Village, Langa and Gu- gulethu, have been appointed as part of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) within Transport for Cape Town (TCT), in a bid by the city to tackle gender transformation head-on. “The TCT Training Academy proj- ect supports our firm belief that gender should not determine one’s fitness for employment or type of work,” said Brett Herron, Mayoral Committee Member: Transport for Cape Town. Women are generally under-rep- resented in the transport sector. For example, within TCT, women consti- tute only 3,4% of those working in road maintenance and storm water infrastructure. “We are confident that this pilot project will assist us in changing perceptions about the type of work women can do. Thewomenwho have been appointed to participate in this programme all share a passion for work that benefits communities and have the desire to prove their ability to compete equally in a workplace that is commonly associated with men,”’ said Herron.

The City of Cape Town’s transport authority, Transport for Cape Town (TCT), recently introduced the first all-women roads repair teambased at the Ndabeni Roads Depot.

• Roads: repairing potholes, surface patches and edges, curb-laying, and operating machinery • Line marking: painting straight lines and legends on road surface; planting of poles and signage; stencilling of street names on curbs; painting of curbs and street name curb moulding Apart from the technical aspect, the women will also be given life and entrepreneurial skills, conflict management resolution and team work. Ndabeni was chosen as the ideal environment for launching this pilot project in terms of the infrastructure, training, support and resources needed to ensure that the women- only team succeed. “We are looking forward to see- ing them working on the streets and sidewalks of the city and hope that this initiative inspires the private sec- tor to appoint more women to posi- tions that are generally regarded to be the ambit of men,” said Herron. ■

A second team of women will be employed during the 10 month pilot project. The TCT Training Academy has designed a monitoring system that will draw all the relevant infor- mation to develop the programme further. We have plans to partner with the private transport sector to em- bark on developmental programmes that will meet the industry’s require- ments,” said Herron. TCT’s Training Academy assisted management at the Ndabeni depot to identify suitable candidates from the local database in accordancewith the City’s ExpandedPublicWorks Pro- gramme policy. The candidates were tested and assessed on their ability to perform the type of work required. The city has allocated R500 000 for training. This includes: • Storm water infrastructure: clean- ing, unblocking, and repairing pipes, manholes and catch pits • Footways: edging, paving, operat- ing rollers and rakingof thepre-mix used to repair surface patches

October 2015