Key Mining supplier and Construction Solutions Group Promotes Women in Mining
08 February 2010
The South African Constitution upholds equal rights in the workplace. This progressive concept has enabled previously disempowered groups, such as women, to become greatly empowered at work. In particular, women are also asserting themselves in what were traditionally male-dominated industries, such as construction and mining.
This according to John da Silva, CEO of the Cosira Group, one of South Africa’s largest privately-owned construction solutions and structural steel fabrication companies and supplier to the mining industry.
“The Cosira Group prides itself in promoting the strong role women play in the workplace. We aim to be a construction company where women are not only employed in the administrative, marketing and human resource departments, but where a wider range of employment roles are seen as possible. In fact, we have many capable and highly-skilled women working in industrial, technical and manufacturing roles,” says da Silva.
He cites the example of women who work at the Cosira Group’s flagship fabrication facility at Vulcania in Johannesburg - Cosira Vulcan.
“On the shopfloor, female boom welder operators for example are extremely technically competent, bringing much needed skills to the position. Furthermore, as there is a prevailing engineering and technical skills shortage in South Africa, it only makes sense to facilitate the development of women,” da Silva comments.
He furthermore adds that, in support of the development of women and of transformation in general, the Cosira Group have appointed a Transformation Manager, Thandiwe Makwe.
“In accordance with the Group’s long tradition of entrepreneurialism, we want to be innovative, industry leaders in transformation on an ongoing basis,” da Silva points out.
“The process of transformation has in fact come naturally to a company such as Cosira, which has believed in the empowerment and development of not only women, but all its staff right from inception; and I am very excited to be helping manage this process moving forward,” adds Makwe.
As a supplier to the mining industry, da Silva also notes that the Cosira Group’s policies around the development of women mirror the encouraging progress made by their client compaies in the mining sector.
“There has been significant progress in the mining industry which needs to be commended, especially since the introduction of the South African Mining Charter that sets out to correct any imbalances created in the past.” The Charter set targets to ensure that 10% of the mining industry’s workforce would be made up by women by 2009.
The Mining Charter is backed by the South African Women in Mining Association (SAWIMA). SAWIMA hopes to re-address the socio-economic challenges that confront women as aspiring entrants in the mining sector.
“The organisation essentially promotes empowerment in the mining sector in accordance with the provisions of the Charter, and encourages other industries to follow its example,” adds da Silva.
He says that it is difficult to gauge the progress made by the construction industry as a whole in terms of empowering its female workers.
However, many companies indeed embrace the importance of women’s role in the workplace. What the Cosira Group has done, for example, is to establish an ‘Excellence Network’ which nurtures the development and growth of every employee – including all female employees - in the company.
“The concept of empowering women in the workplace is really in line with the company’s core philosophy of empowering and promoting excellence in every individual,” advises Janine Badenhorst, the Cosira Group’s PR and Marketing Manager and key initiator of the Excellence Network concept.
Badenhorst adds that the Excellence Network is focused on leadership and the facilitation of knowledge-sharing and skills development.
“We encourage skills development and have sent employees on further training as well as asking a life coach to speak with them. This all assists in facilitating creative problem solving and accepting responsibility for one’s role in the organisation,” she points out.
Meanwhile, the Excellence Network is a chance to make the ‘Cosira Way’ a reality. The Cosira Way was developed by da Silva as a ‘built-to-last’ approach to the corporate mindset, ethos and daily operations. It is an approach which is led by the example of management, and encourages those who adhere to it to closely and continuously re-evaluate their culture, way of doing things, and their competitive positioning, in order to consistently improve and ensure world-class performance, in all aspects of the organisation (including operations, finances, marketing and human resources), and at all levels.
Cosira has identified three key areas where this continuous improvement approach will be targeted, namely: throughput, inventory and operational expenditure. Senior management will act as internal ambassadors of this approach – the Cosira Way – throughout all levels of the organisation, working each and every day to truly make it ‘The Construction Solutions Group’ of choice in the South African steel industry.
“Overall, the Cosira Group has conceptualised ways to nurture the growth of both its men and women, which in turn assists the development of the country,” concludes John da Silva.