A plumbing company partnered with the JL Zwane centre in Gugulethu to help tackle unemployment among women by teaching them valuable skills.
Fifty women took part in the workshop.
Programme co-ordinator and organiser Nokubonga Mapeyi said they wanted to help women support themselves financially.
“With the pandemic, many have lost their jobs so we do not want them to remain at home with nothing to do. We are doing a plumbing course. We want them to fix their own taps and toilets and even going further to be employed to do that work,” Ms Mapeyi said.
Gender-based violence had also contributed to many women being out of work, she said.
“Women are faced with a lot of challenges whether home or streets. Women are breadwinners in most households. It is for that reason and many others that we should develop and skill them. We are not going to stop here but there are more programmes that the centre has to equip the women from Gugulethu and surrounds,” she said.
Igsaan Hugo key account manager at Lixil Africa, a water and housing products company which produces, among others, Cobra products, said he was delighted to be part of the initiative.
He said he is a believer of the African saying that if you educate a woman, you educate the world.
“And this is befitting because it is (International) Women’s Month. So far we have trained 130 women including this batch. If we continue like this to create skills we can eliminate unemployment,” he said.
“What they have learned here will be enough to give them job opportunities. They can even work within their community and fix all leaks in tap and toilets.”
Nontobeko Hoya from Samora Machel commended the programme.
“This clearly shows that women are cared for. Previously women were not taken seriously but now things have changed for good. There is no need that women should not be part of what was known as the men’s world,” she said.