She s a perfect fit in the workshop
ZANELE Sithole (26) is the first ever black female fitter at fluid technology provider Xylem Water Solutions South Africa.
Sithole joined the team this year and she is set to prove that a woman is as capable of handling the challenges of a physically demanding career as any man.
The Witbank-born Sithole recalls how she frequently disassembled broken electronic devices and put them back together before even reaching her teens.
Her family soon realised that Zanele was suited for something a little different to what they might have envisioned for her. My mother wanted me “to be a doctor, but grease is so much better than blood!” Sithole says.
The mother of two completed her N3 and qualified as a fitter in 2009. I look at a problem with a “great deal of forethought,” Sithole explains. Solving a problem in
“your mind beforehand allows you to employ the economy of strength to achieve the same result as using brute strength.” Initially, Sithole s male col
’ leagues were surprised to see a woman in the workshop, but it didn t take long before their sur
’ prise turned into respect. I like the fact that I can show “ the guys that a woman can pick up a spanner too ... and that we can all work together towards a common goal. On top of that, I have been “told that I make the workshop smell nice,” she jokes.
Sithole is eager to maximise the opportunity to hone her skills and to mentor other young women wanting to enter her field. There is no limit to what you “can achieve if you have a dream and you set your mind to achieving it,” she says.