Sicelokuhle Ndiweni
Sicelokuhle Ndiweni has enjoyed an inspiring and successful career journey at Rio Tinto, but she is grateful towards the encouraging leaders she has met along the way, who mentored her and spurred her on to always aim higher.
‘Rio Tinto Leadership – in every step of my career journey’
‘Arise and show up – the sky is only the limit’
Sicelokuhle’s journey at Rio Tinto has been an exciting one. Sicelokuhle started her career as an undergraduate with a full bursary in Metallurgical engineering. From there she progressed into the role of Smelter Graduate Engineer, which led to furhter promotions to Superintendent, Metallurgy Specialist and Kaizen leader roles.
In 2014 Sicelokuhle was encouraged to enroll in a Management Development programme through the Gordon’s Business Institute.
‘Under the tutelage of the Smelter management, my skills and capability in business improvement were pruned, particularly at the Smelter Kaizen, and the department broke records in production figures for the three furnace operations,’ she says.
‘2018 saw me revert from operations back to Metallurgy, still within the Smelter function. I also had an opportunity to represent Rio Tinto and share the word RBM does at the Smelting Safety Conference in Johannesburg with over 15 worldwide operations in May 2018.’
Later in the year Sicelokuhle was involved in the Pyro Metallurgy Technical exchange with the sister company in Canada, Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium.
To date, Sicelokuhle has been leading the Contractor Management Kaizen which has a mandate to develop leaders for contractor management and leakage reduction.
‘This experience has enhanced my global understanding of the key business support services,’ she says.
Sicelokuhle is looking forward to partake in her nomination of the Rio Tinto Growth and Innovation programme.
‘I have a lot to look forward to, and have a busy, yet exciting time ahead – however, none of it would be possible without the support of my Rio Tinto leaders within RBM.
‘With opportunity comes responsibility to add value in the various streams of the business. Rio Tinto: RBM and all my leaders support me in my enjoyable journey of becoming an inspirational leader. As a result, I also endeavour to mentor and coach others to become Rio Tinto’s best,’ she says.
