Lungi Langa
BRIDGETTE Gasa wants to hang her head in shame. For a woman born in KwaZulu-Natal, of proud Zulu stock, and who is deeply passionate about this province, she has little to show for it.
It was “embarrassing”, the 34-year-old managing director of the Elilox Group – an infrastructure development company based in Port Elizabeth – said of the little input she had made into her home province since she rose up the ranks.
“I have always said that I am Zulu first before I am South African, but if you look at my life after matric you would not see this because I have been away for so long. I have never really given myself to the province. I have given it my money, but not my passion. For me that is embarrassing because other provinces have been benefiting,” she said.
But Gasa, who booked a one-way ticket out of Durban to study architecture in PE after completing her matric, is now determined to change that. She was speaking to The Mercury while in Durban last week as a guest speaker at the Women Economic Empowerment Conference at the Durban International Convention Centre.
Hungry to return home, and fuelled by a dream of her late parents’ which she has been pondering over for a while, Gasa is working on a plan to build libraries in rural parts of KwaZulu-Natal.
“I hope to build at least two libraries by the end of next year. I think it is important for us not wait for (the) government. It is better if we are met by officials halfway. There is no reason to wait for tenders when there are things we can do ourselves,” she said.
Giving up her time and energy is not new to Gasa, who – through her company – has also helped develop university students fund their studies.
“When I was lecturing architecture and other courses at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, I was exposed to students whose parents could not afford to put them through varsity.
“That just really broke my heart because I remembered that my studies were paid for by my mom as my dad had been involved in a car accident and could no longer walk.
Pain
“All he got was his medical pension and my mother was feeding and clothing five school-going kids. I know the pain of a family having to stretch the rand and at the same time wanting their kids to get the best education,” she said.
In 2009 her company set up the Enoch Gasa Scholarship to fund students. In the first year the company took in eight students from KZN and PE. This rose to 20 between 2010 and 2011.
“We approached universities in search of students who showed potential in fields including architecture, quantity surveying and in building technology,” she said.
Gasa herself got a lucky break into the world of architecture while she was still in school in Nongoma in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
“While doing my matric at Mlokothwa High School there were renovations being done at the school. One day I stumbled upon plans that were being used by the architects working in the school. I took the plans to them. The guy who worked there was so excited that he asked me if I knew what I wanted to do in five years’ time. I told him that whatever I did I wanted to be able to build my parents a house. He smiled and said I had come to the right place. The next thing I knew I was filling in forms for a course in architecture,” she said.
And although there were stumbling blocks along the way, a lot of hard work and dedication saw Gasa eventually set up the Elilox Group in 2008.
Elilox is now involved in various projects, including a R1 billion construction of the Emfuleni Resorts Boardwalk Casino in PE. She said the company was responsible for all construction-related procurement, project management of the hotel construction and the empowerment monitoring function of the overall project.
Gasa also sits on seven boards, including the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and the Chartered Institute of Building Board of Trustees in the UK.
So what else keeps Gasa going?
Travelling, she answers.
“It is not unheard of for me to wake up one morning and decide to book a flight to Turkey for a holiday,” she said.