How City Power gave my life a spark – woman engineer
01 September 2016
For change to happen and for women to succeed in the workplace, a mindset shift is needed. This is the view of feisty City Power Project Engineer Rindzani Nkanyani. Born and bred at Vuwani village in Limpopo, the 29-year-old Nkanyani had a tough upbringing. She is living proof that a disadvantaged background should not determine one’s destiny.
Nkanyani and her four siblings relied on their mother, who had to juggle two jobs to put food on the table. This was exacerbated by the fact that her mother and father had divorced while she and her siblings were still very young. Her mother, however, had a will of steel.
“She encouraged us with schoolwork. Her point was that education was going to change our situation. This motivated us to work harder,” says Nkanyani as she reminisced about her childhood during an interview that coincided with the 60th anniversary National Women’s Month.
As City Power’s Project Manager, Nkanyani controls a multimillion rand budget and has a team of six staffers reporting to her.
The team has been tasked with the responsibility of planning, designing and execution of projects aimed at helping to improve electricity access to Johannesburg residents.
Sitting in her lavish office on the top floor of City Power's headquarters in Booysens, you realise that Nkanyani has come a long way. Rindz, as she is affectionately known to her peers, says her interest in engineering was triggered while she was in Grade 11.
She had initially wanted to follow a career in medicine but an article she read in a newspaper changed her mind. “The article was about engineering and how it was a male-dominated field. After reading it I was curious. I had always been fascinated by electricity. I thought requirements for women wanting to get into the industry would be different. I decided to give it a try,” Nkanyani, a hard worker who always pushes boundaries, said.
After passing matric with flying colours in 2004, Nkanyani enrolled for a degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Johannesburg. But her financial constraints threatened to derail her ambitions. These woes, however, came to an end when she received a call from City Power, the City of Johannesburg’s electricity utility, informing her that she had been awarded a bursary.
“That was a life-changing moment for me. It came in handy as the monthly allowance from my mother wasn’t enough to cover all the basic necessities. With this assistance, university life became easier and better,” recalls Nkanyani.
She passed her undergraduate degree with flying colours and was assimilated into City Power to begin her in-service training.
“When I started here developers didn’t expect to see a woman. Up until today when some of them call they expect a man to answer. It was a great learning curve for me. I had to toughen up by positively challenging and competing with them,” she says.
Nkanyani – who now has a B Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Johannesburg, a Project Management diploma from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and an Honours degree and a Master’s degree in Technology Management from the University of Pretoria under her belt – is at present pursuing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree through the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS).
The outspoken engineer says she wants to see women succeed. She adds that women who have reached the top should open up avenues for other women. “It is important that women who have made it should open up opportunities. This is the only way we will see change we all desire. Some women in higher positions are intimidated by men. This is why you end up seeing a situation in which these women don’t want to bring other women in,” she says.
When she was promoted to the current post in 2013, Nkanyani approached her seniors and suggested City Power fund masters’ programmes for the company. Her hard work was not in vain as the policy was approved and implemented in 2014.
With her passion and drive, Nkanyani dreams of one day heading up City Power as its first female MD or Eskom as CEO. She is passionate about parastatals and believes she has a lot to offer.
“I believe in changing the norms. For us women to be empowered we have to punch above our weight,” says Nkanyani. “There’s no doubt that I’d add value to these organisations. Once this has been achieved I want to go back to the rural areas and empower kids with potential.”