TNPA focusing on female staff

Only 2% of global maritime workers are women

WhileWomen s Month has drawn to a ’ close, the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has said it will continue to strive towards the advancement of gender equality within its ranks.

According to statistics from the International Transport Workers Federation (ITWF), only 2% of

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global maritime workers are women.

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO), meanwhile, says only 1%-2% of global seafarers are women, and the vast majority (94%) work within the cruise industry.

TNPA chief harbour master and acting COO Captain Rufus Lekala said they had been putting in place a deliberate marine transformation

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strategy to encourage more women to enter the

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industry.

Since the establishment of the National Ports

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Authority 20 years ago, we were intentional in our efforts to transform the marine operations environment by recruiting and developing women and other previously disadvantaged groups.

Today we have many women tug masters,

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marine pilots and harbour masters within our port system and women can also be found in technical, engineering and operational roles that were previously the domain of men only,” said Lekala.

Acting general manager for human resources

Nandi Tyamzashe said TNPA had taken a number of steps to help women in the industry, such as employment drives, assisting female students and organising bursaries.

Our participation in external programmes

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such as Take a Girl to Work Day demonstrates that TNPA has strategies in place to attract and develop women in the industry from a grassroots level and up,” Tyamzashe said.

In contrast to global averages, nearly 40% of mission-critical jobs within TNPA are held by women. These jobs include port managers, harbour managers, chief engineers and pilots.

Three of the eight commercial ports managed by TNPA have female port masters, while four of their eight harbour masters and six of their eight deputy harbour masters are female.

During times of international strain and

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economic uncertainty, such as we are experiencing right now due to the pandemic, it is predominantly women and girls who are severely impacted.

An absence of educational opportunities and

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economic instability are powerful obstacles and when combined with inequality, can seem insurmountable,” said Tyamzashe.

This is why our goal isn t simply to make the

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odd space for women across our business. We want to ensure that representation and

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skills are increased at all levels and that an equal amount of mission-critical positions are created for women and girls to thrive.”