Victor Kgomoeswana writes that we must convince patriarchal diehards that a woman’s place is as much at the cement plant as in the skies.
‘You see, I don’t believe in ghosts,” Dr Vincent Maphai said, shifting in his chair. This celebrated academic, business leader and public servant was a panellist at the launch of the 2015 South African Women in Leadership Census by the Business Women’s Association of South Africa (Bwasa) in Rosebank early last month. The survey had found that among JSE-listed companies, less than 8.79 percent had boards on which 25 percent or more of the directors were women.
“And therefore even if you brought me a hundred ghosts,” Maphai continued, “I would still not believe you, since I do not believe in ghosts.”
Never one to fail to make a poignant statement, this social scientist was explaining that it would take a lot more to undo the patriarchal stereotypes that kept the representation of women in private sector companies so low, even when many black women had proved themselves worthy of recognition as entrepreneurs and business leaders.
This week, I found myself interviewing one of these examples of women’s leadership excellence in a male-dominated industry: cement. Then I stumbled upon an old report about a 15-year-old Nigerian girl who had become the youngest pilot to fly cross-country in the US. Of course, Kimberly Anyadike will be known out there as a girl of Nigerian descent. I call her Nigerian – in fact, African.
First, Busi Legodi, from Soshanguve, was my guest on radio on Thursday, sharing her experiences as the only woman to run a 600 000-ton cement business in Rusizi, south-west Rwanda, on the shores of Lake Kivu.
The plant, commissioned in July, is owned by Cimerwa – in which South African company PPC has a 51 percent stake. Busi moved to Rwanda last year, after running another of PPC’s plants, in Cleveland, Joburg. She was in South Africa for the fourth PPC Women’s Forum.
It was not her account of the cement business and how she had started out as a laboratory assistant that reassured me. It was the number of men who called the show to congratulate her, especially those who said they had worked with her and had nothing but professional respect for her as a technician and business leader.
The radio station, PowerFM, had just celebrated Women’s Day, August 9, by featuring only women as presenters for four days, ending on Monday, August 10. This groundbreaking experiment showcased woman politicians, business leaders and artists as radio presenters – a gesture that was not only emphatic about the significance and competence of women, but entertaining.
How often are you going to hear Minister of Small Enterprises Lindiwe Zulu field calls on radio after opening her show with a song by 2PAC? Or Education Minister Angie Motshekga sounding like a mother in conversation with other women, including the feisty Zamantungwa Khumalo? How about Pabi Moloi, who as a weekend host on Power stunned me when she had her mother as a guest, with the entire conversation sounding professional and sincerely personal? Did I mention Lira and Mbali Ntuli?
Maphai says that will not be enough to convince any chauvinist who does not believe in the ability and worth of women. It is evident even in our patriarchal jokes. A fellow passenger on the Gautrain, travelling with his granddaughters on Wednesday, asked me: “Do you know that the driver of this train is a woman?”
He was a funny man, but perhaps it was the patriarch in me that found him momentarily funny until his granddaughters chided him in unison: “Oupa, stop it!”
I know there are some feminists who believe Women’s Day, commemorating the 1956 march to the Union Buildings by women opposed to the pass laws, is a token or shallow tribute. Then there are those of us who create the impression that the day is about buying women chocolate or cooking breakfast for them; all commendable gestures, but insufficient if we believe that a woman Gautrain driver is an apt subject for a joke among men – even when our daughters or granddaughters are listening and do not find it funny.
I found it fitting, after Women’s Day, to reflect a bit on the significance of making the recognition of women’s worth a priority. In my field, the media, I can only highlight people like Legodi or the 15-year old Nigerian pilot.
It is in what follows the profiling that we will prove our commitment to the cause of women’s empowerment. May we use the rest of August and perhaps the rest of the year to remind ourselves that we are no longer bound to observe the gender stereotypes of people like the Scottish reformer John Knox.
In his 1558 work, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, Knox said something that sounds archaic and primitive today against women monarchs: “The Proposition… to promote a Woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion or empire above any realm, nation or city is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, the subversion of good order, of all equity and justice.”
Although it is close to 500 years since this was a popular view among some enlightened clergymen, the findings of the Bwasa survey reveal that we may yet be clinging to its spirit.
Granted, a woman leads Liberia, another was at the head of Malawi – and the ANC Women’s League is talking about South Africa following suit.
We know what Knox would have said about Kimberly Anyadike flying a single-engine Cessna from Compton, California, to Newport News, Virginia. A Nigerian, female, 15 years of age, a pilot, flying across the US in 13 days? What blasphemy!
Knox believed that a “woman in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man, not to rule and command him”.
Let us celebrate Africans such as Legodi and Anyadike – not only on Women’s Day or Month, but throughout the year.
It is not enough for Africa to pronounce that women are precious and the foundation of our being, when Busi and Kimberly are an exception, instead of the rule in 2015.
To return to Maphai’s point about ghosts, we are going to need a lot more “ghosts” to convince the patriarchal diehards that a woman’s place is as much at the cement plant as in the skies.
Otherwise, he was spot-on that no matter how many songs we sing about igama lamakhosikazi to eulogise women of substance, the spirit of Knox may just be alive and well in our deeds.
My toast of the week and month are Legodi and Anyadike.
* Kgomoeswana is anchor of Power Hour on PowerFM, Africa Business News on CNBC Africa and author of Africa is Open for Business. He writes in his personal capacity.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
The Sunday Independent