Ramaphosa applauds Eskom for its gender programmes

President Cyril Ramaphosa has praised Eskom for making significant advances towards gender equality in its leadership, saying women were taking more prominent roles at the power utility. 

Ramaphosa said this in his weekly newsletter to the nation while he is on a state visit to China.

He said despite attention at Eskom focused on efforts to stabilise the electricity system, the company was quietly on course to ensure women played a pivotal role in keeping the country’s lights on.

“Two years ago I met with Eskom’s power station managers, and I was pleased to see a number of them were women. I found this to be a complete departure from the past when power station managers were always white men. This represented tremendous transformation on a demographic as well as gender basis,” he said.

“The inspiring story of Maserati Lesolang, general manager of the Matla power station in Mpumalanga, is a demonstration of Eskom’s successes in growing a new generation of female leaders. Under Lesolang’s able leadership, Matla power station has implemented a turnaround plan, resulting in it being among Eskom’s better performing power stations.”

This was not unique to Eskom, Ramaphosa said, with several state-owned enterprises (SOEs) heeding the call for more women in leadership.

In a deliberate initiative in the form of Eskom’s women advancement programme launched 10 years ago, women are working as power station managers, engineers, artisans, operators and technicians. 

“Among the achievements of the programme since its inception has been that just over 33% of Eskom’s workforce is female, 20% of Eskom executives are women, and women occupy approximately 43% of senior management roles. This is important progress, but there is some way to go to achieve gender parity,” Ramaphosa said, adding that Eskom had succeeded in narrowing the gender pay gap from 41% to less than 6%.

The company’s procurement spend on black women-owned businesses had increased from R6bn in 2013 to more than R16bn by 2022, he said.

He called on other companies, public and private, to put in place deliberate programmes to eradicate workplace discrimination and make workplaces more conducive to women’s participation and development.

Ramaphosa is on a working visit to China, one of SA’s trading partners. Two-way trade between the two countries was worth more than R900bn in 2022 and Chinese investment in SA close to R200bn.

During a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Ramaphosa said that though Pretoria had witnessed an increase in bilateral trade, it would like to narrow the trade deficit and address the structure of the two countries’ trade.

“We were encouraged by the inward procurement mission of Chinese companies last year. We urge for more sustainable manufacturing and job-creating investments. Development co-operation between our two countries continues to grow, covering many areas,” Ramaphosa told his counterpart.

The government looked forward to ongoing co-operation with China in multilateral affairs as the world faced geopolitical, socioeconomic, technological, environmental and other global challenges, he said.

“SA will use the opportunity of hosting the G20 [Group of 20] Summit next year to focus global attention on the developmental challenges confronting Africa and the countries of the Global South. As we enter a new phase of our partnership, we should continue to consult closely in pursuit of a just, equitable and prosperous world.”

Ramaphosa and his delegation will participate in the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation Summit in Beijing this week. 

TimesLIVE