By Shumirai Chimombe
“Where passion meets purpose – Success is inevitable”
Nerissa Chegwidden lived up to her company’s name Sekunjalo (meaning ‘now is the time’) when she walked away with both the Top Empowered Fast Growth Black-Owned SMME of the Year, and the Young Achiever Award at the Top Empowerment Awards 2024.
A qualified civil engineer with a deep passion for change through empowerment, Nerissa is the CEO of Sekunjalo Engineering Solutions Ltd which is a 100% women-owned and managed company specialising in project management, logistics, and commodity trading. The company has earned a formidable presence in the industry, and is driven by excellence and a vision to transform the industry to be more inclusive and representative of black women.
“I always had a desire to change the opportunities that were available to women in our country. Being a civil engineer for 12 years in the field, I became accustomed to being one of very few, if not the only, woman on a construction site. This needed to change. The same scenario seemed to repeat itself in the mining and transport sectors, and finally, being able to make my own decisions and plans for Sekunjalo, I started to make the changes I wanted to see. It had to start somewhere.”
The engineering sector opened a door into the mining and logistics space where Nerissa is one of very few black women who are successfully blazing a trail in this sector. She founded Sekunjalo Engineering Solutions in 2018 and started operations in August 2020 as a transport agency that offered transporters contracts for their vehicles.
The coal transport industry is a male-dominated industry from transporters to mine owners, drivers and operators. Sekunjalo Engineering Solutions had a mandate from inception to transform this industry to be more inclusive and welcoming to black females.
“The order of business was to create a company that was 100% female managed, so we employed female managers that shared this desire and passion for both the industry itself and its transformation.”
Sekunjalo is now one of very few coal transport companies that have 100% female ownership and management.
After five years of hard work and determination and seeing the growth of the company, she succeeded in entering the space as a transporter in her own right and purchased her own in-house fleet of side tippers. She did this while still maintaining the mandated fleet of vehicles that are solely managed by the company. The company is a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor with a regional coverage that includes South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia.
“When we increased our fleet in 2024, we embarked on a targeted recruitment process to hire female side tipper drivers. This process proved to us that there was a lack of experienced female drivers available due to lack of opportunities. I employed the experienced drivers as lead drivers and the ones with no experience as trainee drivers…thereby skilling them and creating a small pool of female drivers that can be absorbed into the industry. Our driver component is now made up of 30% female drivers and we are striving to increase these stats.”
Spreading the branches to reach and empower other women
When Sekunjalo started expanding and purchasing its own vehicles, Nerissa realised that it was very hard to find networking opportunities for women, and she discovered that there were other women who were searching for the same thing. Experienced women were looking for like-minded individuals to network with, while the inexperienced were looking for organisations that could share knowledge on how to start and where to start.
This inspired Nerissa to found Women in Transport South Africa (WITSA) to bring together women and share knowledge. The forum also aims to train more women to enter the mining and transport sector, from entrepreneurs to drivers and operators.
“Knowledge is power and it’s power that many of the experienced women in this industry possess and are willing to share with each other in this forum.”
WITSA also opens up opportunities for smaller companies to grow by coming together as a unit to be awarded contracts and orders for transport. Nerissa explains that there are many transporters that have one or two trucks and find it very hard to be awarded long term contracts. One of the aims of the organisation is to band together as a consortium of smaller transporters and target bigger contracts as Women in Transport.
From the work of WITSA Nerissa further identified a need for trained female side tipper drivers. She is currently heading up the funding application and business case for the creation of a driving school for female side tipper drivers. The school, named She Drives, will train the drivers and offer experiential training as assistant drivers to various transport companies while paying them a stipend from the funding. After a year, the school will have produced a new cohort of female drivers who are experienced and ready for employment.
Nerissa has come a long way since starting Sekunjalo Engineering Solutions as a new mum growing her business from home and hosting meetings in her dining room, to now moving into new office space in 2024 that will enable the company to continue to grow.
“I’ve worked tirelessly to build a legacy and to create more opportunities for others to come in. I’m committed to breaking barriers so that one day, the next generation of female transporters, drivers or operators won’t have to work so hard to get a foot in this door. I am extremely proud of what we are achieving and still striving to achieve. Sekunjalo is now a well-known name in the industry for both our great performance as well as our women empowerment initiatives. The hard work and sacrifices are paying off. Our company has proven that women-owned and managed companies can stand head and shoulders with the rest – if not even taller.”
