August is the month that women are celebrated in South Africa for taking a stand and marching to the Union
Building to protest against the extension of pass laws to women. Women have since ensured that their efforts were not in vain.
One such woman is Benoni’s very own Westdene resident Jane Trembath who was the first woman pilot in South Africa to command long-range international flights.
Although she is now retired, her journey was either fight or flight and Trembath did both.
Born in Cape Town, the former SAA pilot said that she moved to Benoni in 1988 to join SAA after many females thought she was mocking them by saying that she wanted to be a pilot, but she fought for what she wanted to be.
“I got the idea of flying when I was 16 and went in a light aircraft for the first time. It was so exciting I just knew I had to be a pilot,” she explained.
“My parents were open-minded and never said that I couldn’t do it because I was a girl. At school, the teachers and other girls were a lot more sceptical. They thought I was making fun of them.”
This pushed her to ensure her journey would not be a ‘plane’ and expected one but one where she would stand for what she believed in and that was that a woman can be a pilot for long-range international flights too.
“After I matriculated, I learnt to fly and got my commercial pilot’s licence. It took me a long time to be hired for my first flying job. I got turned down for two jobs just because I was a woman,” she explained.
“I followed the SAA career path. I flew the Boeing 737 as a co-pilot on domestic flights, then the Boeing 747-400 as a co-pilot on international flights. I was the first woman pilot in South Africa to qualify on this aircraft, one of the highlights of my career.”
In 2001, Trembath became a captain on domestic flights and commanded SAA’s first all-female crew on a Boeing 737 to Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha) – another highlight of her career.
“In the next step of my career, I became a captain on long-range international flights in 2007 on the Airbus 340.
“The last highlight was commanding SAA’s first all-female crew on an intercontinental flight in August 2018 to Sao Paulo, celebrating women’s month. Every time I did one of these flights with an all-female crew, I was proud to make a statement for women.”
But it was not an easy journey for this Westdene resident.
“Over the years, I have encountered many men who didn’t have faith that women could do the job or didn’t like the previous all-male status quo being disturbed. Some of them were rude or dismissive.
“It damaged my confidence and took me a long time to learn how to believe in myself and deal with them in the right way. After making a lot of mistakes, I taught myself how to handle conflicts correctly as girls aren’t taught how to stand up for themselves positively and constructively.
“Since 1994, many more women pilots have joined the industry. Before Covid-19, about 10% of pilots in South Africa were women, which were double the worldwide figure. In my last couple of years, I often flew with an all-female flight deck crew (pilots) and we got far more people excited about seeing women on the flight deck than critical. I loved setting an example for women.”
She encourages women to always believe in themselves.
“Have faith in yourself and keep going when you have a setback. We all have challenges but only those who learn to overcome them will make it. Ask yourself the question of how you are going to work things out, and listen to your inner voice,” she said.
After SAA stopped flying in March 2020, Tremath accepted the severance package offered to employees as part of the restructuring.
“I am the chairperson of Korsman Conservancy, the non-profit association of citizen conservationists who care for the Sanctuary,” she said.
“I spend most of my time running Korsman Conservancy as a volunteer,
“I am still in the aviation industry to a small extent as a board member of ATNS, who provide air traffic control and navigation services.”
For fun, Trembath also made short videos of her flying experience, here is one of them:
ALSO READ: Metro responds about water leak in Western Extension
