Seriti launched its Women in Mining programme in May 2022, 20 female entrepreneurs have undergone extensive mentoring and training in managing their own businesses. 

This programme is running until July this year and is being managed by Collective Value Creation (CVC).

One such entrepreneur is Precious Nkambule, born and bred in eMalahleni and a former electrical engineer in training at BHP Billiton (now Seriti) who went into business in 2016 but relaunched KhanyaP Mining Engineering Maintenance and Supply this year.

Speaking on the particular difficulties of an entrepreneur, Precious echoes many of the other entrepreneurs’ sentiments. “Working in a male-dominated environment is challenging because sometimes we are not given the same opportunities and I am constantly expected to explain and prove myself as a female entrepreneur.”

Although they have previously been part of entrepreneurial development programmes focussing on women, CVC’s Managing Director Wybrand Ganzevoort stresses that the Women in Mining programme “specifically looks at the needs of women entrepreneurs in a male-dominated industry as well as the women in the context of the family, spouse and community.”

With most programmes of this nature, immediate attention is provided to the business support needs, however, Women in Mining specifically addresses the holistic relationship between the female entrepreneur and all the various stakeholders.

The aim is also to separate realistic from unrealistic expectations and establish which expectations require restoration.  

With this objective in mind, Precious hopes to gain adequate knowledge and skills to do just that.

She is also enjoying the connection with the different beneficiaries of this programme as learning from one’s peers is equally satisfying as learning from the different mentors and trainers.

She mentions that so far, she has gained valuable knowledge on the importance of branding your enterprise, correctly defining your offering and how to conduct professional meetings with clients.

She believes that every day of learning is a day of growing.  

This young lady and TUT Electrical Engineering graduate fully enjoy the support of her siblings and partner and when she takes a break from the competitive world of business, she takes long hikes along rivers and in the mountains. 

She has the following advice for other women wishing to start a business. “Giving up should not be one of your options and if I could go back to motivate myself as a young eighteen-year-old student, I would tell myself that, girl you got this!”

Apart from growing her business, Precious has a dream of one day opening a learning centre for young women who want to go into the mining and engineering business, by empowering and skilling them for their own journeys.

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