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WoMeN sUccess
“The strange thing about South Africa is that everyone is
looking for women to involve, but they cannot find us.
Every industry is not meeting their BEE codes target because
they cannot find the women.”
industry bodies to upskill herself in the fields she
operates in. Dumakude is currently Chairperson
of the South African Forum of Civil Engineering
Contractors (Safcec) North Branch and also serves
in the national leadership committee of the South
African Women in Construction (SAWIC) as the
Deputy Secretary General, after moving through
the ranks from provincial level.
“The main thing is to be resilient and not to give up.
Low profit margins and late payments by clients
call for diversification of our business offerings,
so we have introduced other services such as
the supply of fuel to construction companies
so as to diversify our product base,” adds the
managing director.
Tanguliza Projects has been providing services
to the energy and telecommunications sectors,
municipalities and the private sector. The company
has also constructed and renovated a number
of private homes. In addition, Tanguliza has
registered with SHRA as a Social Housing Institute,
in preparation for plans to have a footprint in
the social housing space. The company has also
completed a number of electrical installations at
business properties, schools, municipal buildings
and private homes.
Tanguliza Projects has four permanent and 50
temporary staff. However, sustainability remains
a key concern as the lack of sufficient work in the
industry has led to the demise of well-established
and listed companies, while some apply for
business rescue. “As an emerging company, we
find it really challenging to offer permanent
employment to anyone at the moment,” the
managing director adds.
Offering some advice, she notes that business is
not for the faint hearted, hence the need to be
resilient. “The strange thing about South Africa
is that everyone is looking for women to involve
in everything, from engineers to lawyer. But they
cannot find us. Every industry is not meeting their
BEE codes target because they cannot find the
women,” she says.
“We also have in-house design capability for
electrical building services. Also, we have done
mass roll-outs of energy efficient lighting and
equipment as well as the installation of solar
water heaters. Our civil team has been involved
in road refurbishment and maintenance projects,
construction of palisade walls and courts,” further
notes Dumakude.
Dumakude says transformation in South Africa
is lagging behind, particularly because the
construction industry is still male dominated.
She says women still need to include men in
the ownership capacity of their construction
companies to grow, which suggests that
legislation is still not working as well as intended
for women.
Volume 23 • 2018/19
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