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Africa News afrol News
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Africa News afrol News
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afrol.com/AENS, 16 March - Monica Dzwimbo has always dreamed of being an air hostess, but her weight kept her grounded, until she learnt to love the road. Today, she has a team of labourers helping her prevent soil erosion along the R2 billion Maputo Corridor toll road that cuts through South Africa's Mpumalanga Province on its way to Maputo, Mozambique. - I wanted to be an air hostess but I was never slender enough, and when I aspired to be a dentist I had no money to go to university, said 31-year-old Dzwimbo, who is pregnant with her second child. Her entrepreneurial mother, Mary, who used to own housing construction company, MG Dzwimbo & Daughters and built 450 low cost houses in Palm Springs, Vereeniging, is her inspiration.
When she was in matric, Dzwimbo began mixing building sand for her mother’s company. "Initially I thought the job was not smart enough for me to do, but look at me now," she said, standing proudly under the blazing sun along the Schoemanskloof alternative road west of Nelspruit (Mpumalanga). - I’m as dark as a coal because of the sun in Mpumalanga but I can still go on, she adds, grinning broadly. She employs five men and five women after being awarded their first tender in 1999 to install underground drains. Last year, she won the prestigious Pan African Broadcast and Heritage Achievement Award (PABHA) in Nigeria. The Southern African Development Bank nominated her for the award, which is coveted by many women builders in Africa. She has completed a number of courses in civil engineering and business management. "Women should grab such opportunities," Dzwimbo said. Her hectic schedule only allows her to see her husband and five-year-old son every second weekend, but she has her sights on scooping a tender for N4 Platinum Corridor Road that stretches from Warmbaths to Botswana. When she retires one day, she wants to start a truck hiring business, because she won’t have the physical strength to work on roads any more. "I won’t have the strength as I do now," Dzwimbo explained. Trans African Concession (Trac) won the 30-year concession to build, operate and transfer the Maputo Corridor toll road, and has eight women sub-contractors out of a total of 36, said Trac human resources manager, Hannes van Wyk. By Muziwakhe Singwane, African Eye News Service (AENS)
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