Ladies with Vision see a brighter future
They were involved in various projects, including building hospitals, taxi ranks, pavings, renovations and libraries.
Ladies with Vision joined hands to form a women’s consortium as it embarks on the property development business.
The consortium will be represented across Ekurhuleni. It intends to provide women with skills, as well as to create job opportunities for locals.
The consortium aims to change the landscape of the construction industry to make it more inclusive for women.
Ladies with Vision comprises local businesswomen with more than two decades of experience in various businesses.
They have the experiences brought by the challenges of navigating a male-dominated industry.
Gloria Mapule, Nombulelo Mohudi, Mpho Mofamere, Phyllis Pooe, Gladys Ngwana, Corol Kobe formed Ladies with Vision, and are ready to take massive business opportunities within the City of Ekurhuleni.
They were involved in various projects, including building hospitals, taxi ranks, pavings, renovations and libraries, among other things. Mpho Mofamere said one of the challenges they identified was that during the lockdown, there was serious vandalism of railway stations and there is a challenge of security when it comes to Prasa lines.
She added that Telkom also has a similar problem with cable theft and damage to infrastructure. On top of that, employees of companies that were contracted to secure this infrastructure are being attacked, and as a result, they want to bring the fourth industrial revolution technology into the security system.
“Another thing we will be looking at is transport. There are various remote places where people struggle with transport, especially with the withdrawal of the City to City buses as the result of the pandemic, so were are looking to go into that and provide solutions to prevailing problems,” said Mofamere.
Carol Kobe added some of the challenges they have encountered included empty promises from the government.
“Three years ago, we attended the budget speech of Mzwandlie Masina. We also attended the women settlement engagements,” said Kobe.
“What raised our eyebrows was that they never included a budget for women, which we challenged. “That was when they said women were not coming to the front, and that united us,” she added.
“We want to change the whole narrative as many black people have never been exposed to the construction industry, especially women,” said Kobe.
She also mentioned that the government is now aware that women do have an interest and they work harder than men; hence, the demand to be given an opportunity to be main contractors?
“We are always given sub-contracts for four to five houses and that’s nothing, it doesn’t make a difference,” said Kobe.
Ladies with Vision aims to provide a platform to transfer skills to women and the youth.
Like other women in the team, Phyllis Pooe brings in a construction business background with accreditation to train people.
She said they want to engage with other sectors because they want a broader market, not just in Ekurhuleni.
