This article has been supplied and will be available for a limited time only on this website. Since its establishment in 1961, IMESA has never implemented any formal gender policies, the organisation says. It has simply strived to build a professional home for all municipal engineers, where technical excellence, ethics and service to communities are the common ground. Inclusion has followed naturally, and today, more than 30% of IMESA’s members are women. Many of them serve the organisation in leadership roles, including branch chairpersons Roxanne Canny in KwaZulu-Natal, Princesse Kabala Muke in the Western Cape and Mpho Plaatjie for IMESA’s Free State and Northern Cape branch.
They share their stories this Women’s Month not to talk about barriers but about opportunities, and to encourage the next generation of young women to see engineering as a place where they can innovate, lead and help shape South Africa's future. For every young woman wondering whether she belongs in engineering, their message is clear: if you have a passion for solving problems and improving lives, consider engineering. More specifically, they urge all learners, students, graduates and young professionals to consider municipal engineering, which is about building the infrastructure that enables communities to thrive.
