The Sunday Mail
Veronica Gwaze
IT is generally believed that women prefer less strenuous tasks at work because they are considered to be relatively weaker than their male counterparts.
This misconception has created a platform for gender segregation at workplaces, especially from male chauvinists.
However, both women and men deserve an equal shot at work.
In fact, history has proven that women can take up any task – be it in politics, business or any other trade – just like their male counterparts.
And the good thing is even the younger generation of women is standing up to take their rightful space in the job market.
Thus, today, as the world celebrates International Women’s Day, it becomes hard to ignore people like 25-year-old Tinotenda Makechemu, who is making a name for herself in engineering.
The young lady is a fourth-year trainee turbine operator at the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC)’s Kariba South Power Station.
Her line of work is not one that any other ordinary lady will be quick to choose, given an option.
Her job includes stopping turbines when malfunctions occur, following strict operating instructions.
Makechemu’s grind involves day and night shifts, working “underwater” and ensuring the nation’s lights are kept on.
Add to that list the exertion of handling heavy equipment. Beneath her beauty and ever-bubbly character is a daring lady who is ready to take on any task.
The former Houghton Park Primary and Nyamhunga High School student now wears her worksuit with pride.
Makechemu’s tough journey to a professional career started in 2012, when she was only 17.
“I first got this training opportunity as a way to fulfil my mother’s death wish. It was not my first choice, but I have now grown to love the trade more than anything else,” she said.
Her mother, Kudakwashe Murenzvi, succumbed to breast cancer eight years ago.
“It was devastating to watch her fade away and somehow she knew her time was up. I was only 17 then, but she asked me to look after my siblings.
“She told me to grow to be a different woman, one who would leave a mark in the community and that is how I decided to try a route that many women in this community shun,” narrated Makechemu.
In 2014, the young woman came across an advert in a local newspaper and decided that she wanted to be an engineer.
However, she initially failed the interview. She subsequently got opportunities in other fields but turned them down.
She wanted a career in engineering as a tribute to her late mother.
Being a Kariba resident, she naturally set her sights on becoming a turbine operator at ZPC Kariba.
“No one understood how I felt. I just had to do this for my mother and failure was not an option,” she said.
Another shot at engineering for her came in 2016 after she enrolled at Bulawayo Polytechnic for a power plant operations course.
By then, she was already married to Hector Chikomba and blessed with one child.
She briefly left her family in Kariba to pursue her studies.
“Picturing myself in ZPC Kariba regalia pushed me to study hard because the institution has high standards that I had to meet to be part of the team. When the going got tough, I always read the Bible, James 1:2-3, a verse I got from my mother on her deathbed.”
Finally, the heavens smiled on her.
After months in Bulawayo, that same year (2016) she joined ZPC Kariba as a trainee power plant operator.
Back then, the company had very few females in the turbine operating department.
She recounts her first experience at work.
“As I made it underground, part of me was overwhelmed with joy as I had finally made it to the power station, but the other half was very nervous. I was scared, not for only being underground but being under large volumes of water,” she said with a chuckle.
Meanwhile, Makechemu said working with men was a challenge since “you constantly have to prove yourself”.
This does not make life any easier for her since she also has to play her role as mother and wife.
Her workday starts at 4am when she’s on dayshift.
“It can be difficult juggling everything back at home when you work in shifts. However, I still manage because I have an active support system – my husband and in-laws are always there for me.”
She believes it is time the world understands that women can also do the heavy lifting at work.
