It is truly a pleasure to join you all today as we celebrate the important role that women play in our city.

As a woman, I am often asked about what more we can do to empower women and I am pleased that on this programme today, there are women from all walks of life speaking about how they uplift other women.

I am especially happy that two women who I admire so much are also here today to share their success story with all of us. Aunty Florence Schrikker and Aunty Kulsum Kamalie from Bonteheuwel, the cookbook authors – you are two amazing women who have made Cape Town proud.

Thank you for being here to tell your story that it is never too late and we must never stop realising our dreams.

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When it comes to empowering women, women who are already in leadership positions must do more to empower other women and to motivate them to achieve what they set their minds to. We often hear that motherhood is the toughest job and yes it is, but it is precisely because we are mothers, and even those who are not mothers, that we have the strength and resolve to take on any task, to reach any dream, and to show the world that we can do the same thing as men – and often better.​​

Speaking here today, I am reminded of my days in the unions where in the 1970s I worked as a laboratory technician for Plascon Paints.

During my time at the factory, I got involved in the trade unions because there was no representation of women in these structures. I remember thinking that this cannot be right. Women can’t allow others to speak on their behalf and fight for their rights.

We must claim our rights and be part of the decisions which affect our lives.

As a shop steward, I often asked female colleagues why they didn’t want to be union representatives and they said were too afraid to put their hands up.

I started in the South African Chemical Workers' Union (SACWU) as a shop steward and later became SACWU's regional secretary. I then went on to the National Executive Committee of SACWU and was also the regional chairperson of the National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU) in the Western Cape. And the rest, as they say, is history.

While we have made progress to uplift women, I will be the first to admit that much more must be done to empower women.

IMATU as the majority union in the City of Cape Town has 13 000 members, but only 30 of more than 100 shop stewards are women.

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My message to the women here today and across the City’s workforce is that we must claim our rights and our place and not wait for anyone to hand them to us or make it easy for us to be leaders. There are no rules for men and special rules for women. We all have to play by the same rules – we can’t ask for special dispensation. I want to encourage you all today to persevere, to fight back when you meet resistance, and never be deterred by challenges. Everyone faces challenges, but we cannot sell ourselves short because we are too afraid that there are too many men around or because something is too hard. .​​

Many women before us have risen above adversity in male-dominated environments and these so-called glass ceilings have been broken.

When women rise, we change lives, we change our communities.

The City of Cape Town is committed to working with all women – from our staff to the women in our communities. We will continue to find innovative ways to ensure that women play a greater role in making positive contributions to society and the workplace.

In 2015 we started the Women At Work road repair teams as a pilot with six teams working in Ndabeni, Fish Hoek, Heideveld and Kuils River as part of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).

The women were trained to do repair and maintenance work on roads, footways, and stormwater infrastructure in these areas.

The purpose of the training programme is to empower women in the workplace by providing them with skills for technical and physical work that is generally associated with men.

Since 2015, the project has received four awards, including an international award – the third Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation: Certificate of Recognition – for its contribution to urban innovation.

This year we have expanded this programme with two new women-only road repair teams at the road depots in the Cape Town central business district and Atlantis, bringing the total number of women-only teams to 12.

The bigger picture is that this project benefits society at large, especially in changing general perceptions about the ability of women to compete equally in a male-dominated industry.

This initiative is also in line with City’s Organisational Development and Transformation Plan (ODTP) goals to ensure that women enjoy economic inclusion by supporting skills development initiatives in high growth sectors to create the skills base required for a growing economy.

Last year we also started the Women for Change programme where we are empowering and providing skills training to women who are tenants in the City’s rental stock.

More than 780 women have been recruited in the initiative, which is designed to help uplift City-owned rental stock areas through addressing environmental and socio-economic challenges.

This programme has brought many positive results in our communities and is in line with the City’s ODTP principles to enhance service delivery, to be more a more responsive and customer-centric government, and to build safe communities.

These community mothers reside in rental stock units and have been recruited, trained and deployed in Athlone, Hanover Park, Manenberg, Uitsig, Lavender Hill, Ocean View and Ravensmead. We will be expanding this programme to more areas in the coming months and years to even more communities.

In closing, I would like to share with you all that the Directorate of the Mayor will soon also be talking to staff members about additional empowerment initiatives for female employees.

This will start with asking staff members what they need to work more effectively so that we can use your input to develop a programme that ultimately aims to enhance empowerment in the workplace, but also looks at how we can do more for our women in the City.

We need to think like working women to develop systems and put services in place that will allow us to do our jobs better, but will also help to balance our duties in other parts of our lives such as taking care of the home and our families.

There are many exciting things in store for all of us. We only have to be brave enough to dare ourselves to reach for greater heights.

With women such as yourselves taking the lead more and more, we can get on with making this great city even greater.

Thank you for all your hard work. I know our jobs seem thankless most times, but from the bottom of my heart I am grateful for all that you do.

May you all use this Women’s Month to see how you can do more to uplift yourself and those around you.

Thank you, baie dankie, enkosi, shukran. God bless.

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