On the 6th of August the Deputy Minister in Presidency, Ms Thembi Siweya, visited the Ekurhuleni Artisan and skills Training College(Kempton Park) and assessed the Artisan skills development program for young women in the specified institution.
Positive words were doled out to the women in the institution. Ms Thembi Siweya decided to take a huge step to show love and encourage women who get their hands dirty by refining their skills. The program proceeded successfully even the Deputy Minister in Presidency acquired some lessons and some students received their qualification certificates at the end of the program.
Deputy Minister in Presidency revealed during the interview why she along with her team chose to visit the centre, “We chose this centre because it’s producing a lot of women who are Artisans which is historically based on the perception that women cannot do men’s jobs (like welding and plumbing). So we decided to spend a day with them so that we can motivate them and obviously use our office to assist them within their main purpose and we also wanted to garner more support from government departments in empowering the centre.
“We want to ensure that the Ekurhuleni Artisan and Skills Development centre grows, and it responds to the skills transfer agenda we envisaged, by breaking the historical barriers that suggest that women cannot do certain jobs which are meant to be done by men and that’s why we decided as the presidency to spend our day with them and understand their challenges.”
Ms Thembi Siweya didn’t struggle when she was given an opportunity to weld a certain metal; she later pronounced that these are barriers that women need to break since it’s women’s month. The government is celebrating women’s month by commemorating a stalwart woman called Mama Charlotte Maxeke who dismantled the narrative that women cannot do men’s jobs, she was the first woman to get a BSc Degree in South Africa.
Deputy Minister in Presidency thanked the department of Higher Education for allowing this institution to operate, elaborating further, saying, this gives the youth an opportunity to upskill and empower themselves, without excluding men, to open their own businesses when they have completed their courses in this institution.
By Vusumuzi Makwakwa
