City honours country’s first black female helicopter commander
"I never thought I would be where I am today in my career."
South Africa’s first black female helicopter commander Zanele Vayeka-Shabangu was honoured by the City of Tshwane on July 25 at Tshwane House Pretoria.
Vayeka-Shabangu was born in Temba, Hammanskraal. She joined the air force in 2004 and qualified as a pilot in 2007 before becoming a co-pilot in 2008, eventually a commander in 2014.
Multiparty woman caucus chairperson councillor Rose Maake said they “are honoured as women to host the first black female pilot in the city”.
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“This woman has achieved something that no one ever dreamed about 30 years ago, given the kind of treatment and marginalisation women were subjected to,” said Maake.
She said that Vayeka-Shabangu was putting the name of the municipality on the map and raising the flag of South Africa.
Maake added that the patriarchy is the biggest single threat to women today “and it is unfortunate that there is still much to be done to defeat it”.
She said that for a long-time, rights afforded to women have been considered favours or handouts, when anything less is a violation.
“Our history shows that our policy advances on woman empowerment and gender equality was a result of women’s hard-won battles and sacrifices,” said Maake.
She said the city remains committed to protect and support women empowerment and social cohesion in business under the slogan moshomo o tshaba diatla.
Vayeka-Shabangu said it was a great honour and privilege to be recognised by the city.
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“I never thought I would be where I am today in my career and shake hands with our mayor,” she said.
She advised young black women to follow their dreams.
“Know your worth, know who you are, believe in yourself and your capabilities. It is okay to fail; failure teaches us how strong and brave we are. At the end of the day what matters is how we are able to get up and do better than yesterday” said Vayeka-Shabangu.
Vayeka-Shabangu added that the biggest challenge for women in leadership is they are expected to work three times harder than their male counterparts.
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