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Empowerment of women in mining crucial to transforming society broadly – Teke

Chamber of Mines of South Africa president Mike Teke

Chamber of Mines of South Africa president Mike Teke

Photo by Duane Daws

14th September 2016

By: Ilan Solomons

Creamer Media Staff Writer

  

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – In transforming South African society, the mining sector is continually challenged to deliver on its transformation objectives and particularly that of the empowerment of women in the industry, which is of critical importance in achieving this goal, Chamber of Mines of South Africa president Mike Teke said on Wednesday.

Speaking at Women in Mining South Africa’s Innovation in Mining conference held at the Electra Mining Africa 2016 trade show, in Johannesburg, he highlighted that the representation of women in the mining sector had improved significantly from about 11 400 in 2002 to about 53 000 in 2015, with women currently representing more than 10% of people employed in mining activities.

However, he conceded that many women were still not necessarily represented in “mainstream” mining activities or in leadership positions.

“We also need to ensure that women employees are safe in their jobs. This is both in the more general sense that all our employees must be safe and, more importantly, in ways specific to the reality of being a woman working underground.”

Teke highlighted that the reality of women’s lives in South Africa was that they were often at risk of harassment, sexual violence and possible death at the hands of their male colleagues.

“While we actively recruit women to work in all areas of our operations, we would be failing in our duty of care towards our employees if we did not ensure they are coming into jobs where they are safe,” he emphasised.

Teke further noted that while the industry acknowledged the significant increase in the number of women in the sector since the laws preventing them from working underground were scrapped, more needed to be done to ensure that yet more women felt the mining industry to be one in which they had a career and a future.

“We have to be able to work in a world where skin colour and gender are not an impediment to people’s dreams and aspirations. Until we get there, we are going to have to create a level playing field. This requires that transformation programmes be put in place and that they are run correctly.”

Moreover, he remarked that, at the risk of straying into areas of gender stereotyping, it had been shown “without doubt” that women were often safer drivers of large mining vehicles, including 10 000 t draglines, were more meticulous in maintaining equipment and were more nurturing in their approach to training.

Teke commented that there was “nothing wrong” in pursuing a career in mining or to be the best shift boss, mine manager, GM of a mine or CEO. However, he called on all women in mining to go further by being ambitious entrepreneurs who owned mines or who built businesses that would be strong service providers to all the different sectors of South Africa’s economy, including mining.

“Lip service is simply not an option. Let it make way for lipstick,” Teke quipped in conclusion.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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