28/08/2026
A WELCOME ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR MASHWAMA: CELEBRATING WOMEN’S MONTH – HOW WOMEN FORGED SOUTH AFRICA’S BUILT ENVIRONMENT FROM THE ASHES OF APARTHEID, AND WHY THE FIGHT ISN’T OVER
iYunivesithi Walter Sisulu's Butterworth Campus came alive with inspiration, empowerment and meaningful conversation today as students, academics, industry professionals and stakeholders gathered to celebrate Women's day and champion the diversification of career paths in the Built Environment. The commemoration, held under the theme "Building Her Future: Dignity & Support Initiative," closed off Women's Month with a call for the built environment sector to become a space where women do not merely participate, but lead.
Delivering the welcome address, Professor Xolile Nokulunga Mashwama, Head of the Department of Built Environment, set the tone for the day by tracing the long and often overlooked history of women's contribution to the built environment in South Africa from the rural homesteads shaped by women's hands to the townships where, under apartheid, women organised the construction of crèches, markets and clinics because, as she put it, "no one else would build it for them."
Professor Mashwama reminded guests that the story of women in the built environment "is not a story of exclusion it is a story of extraordinary resilience." She traced how black South African women endured a "double struggle" during the twentieth century, fighting both the racialised injustices of colonialism and apartheid and the gendered marginalisation imposed within their own communities. Even so, she noted, by the 1970s women made up just 2.5% of South Africa's construction workforce a stark reminder of a profession built to keep them out. Yet, she said, "still, they came."
She paid tribute to the pioneers who forced open the industry's doors: Bonani Mkhize, the third black woman to qualify as an architect in South Africa, who was told by a lecturer that "black people couldn't draw in 3D" yet went on to complete her qualification in 1996; and Professor Hangwelani Hope Magidimisha-Chipungu, who in 2023 became the first black woman in South Africa to attain full professorship in town and regional planning. She also honoured the women who built careers in quantity surveying, construction management and project management, including Lulu Gwagwa and Ntombi Langa, who she said "did not just break barriers they shattered them."
Turning to the students in the room, Professor Mashwama spoke directly to their sense of purpose. A quantity surveyor's role, she said, is not simply to count costs but to ensure that public funds are spent transparently and that communities receive value for their money. A construction manager's task is not only to manage schedules but to keep workers safe and turn an architect's vision into reality. A project manager exists not just to coordinate teams, but to solve complex problems and deliver work that transforms communities. "You are here to build hospitals that heal, schools that inspire, and homes that shelter," she told students. "You are the guardians of the environment our children will inherit."
Professor Mashwama then invoked the legacy of the women who fought for the freedoms today's students enjoy Charlotte Maxeke, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Albertina Sisulu, Lillian Ngoyi and Ruth Mompati and the 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956, chanting "Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo" "You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock." Where that generation fought for political freedom, she said, this one must now fight for economic and professional freedom: a seat "at every table where decisions are made." She was emphatic that women belong not only in the lecture hall but in boardrooms, on construction sites, and in the offices where policy on South Africa's cities and infrastructure is written. "You are not a minority in a man's world," she said. "You are the future of a world that belongs to everyone."
She challenged students to take a stand without apology, to be bold in a field that too often expects women to be quiet, and to take themselves seriously as future leaders. But she was equally clear that ambition must be carried with Ubuntu, respect and humility values, she said, that the women of the struggle embodied and that today's graduates owe to the communities they will serve. She urged the young women in the audience to mentor those who come after them: "When you enter the boardroom, do not close the door behind you. Hold it open." And she extended the message of partnership to the department's male students and colleagues, describing the relationship between men and women in the profession not as competition, but completion: "We need your support, your mentorship and your advocacy not to hold us back."
Closing her address, Professor Mashwama reminded the audience that the built environment offers "endless opportunities to lead" in local, provincial and national government, development finance, banking, real estate, property management and construction law, among many other pathways. "There is no ceiling above you," she said. "The only limit is your imagination and your determination." The Women's Day commemoration formed part of iYunivesithi Walter Sisulu's broader Women's Month programme and reflected the Department of Built Environment's ongoing commitment to mentorship, transformation and inclusive leadership within the industry.
Professor Mashwama left students with a final charge, rooted in the legacy of the women who came before them: "Go out there and take your place. Not as a guest. Not as a token. Not as a diversity statistic. Take your place as a leader. As a builder. As a creator. As a visionary."
