Akweni’s Siphosethu Plata

AKWENI’S SIPHOSETHU PLATA – YOUNG CONSTRUCTION SECTOR PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR

Siphosethu Plata, Head of Construction Project Management at Akweni, is the Young Professional of the Year in the Construction Class of the Built Environment Category for 2019/2020. The accolade was granted by the SA Professional Services Awards sponsored by Sanlam and W. Consulting. Janette Minnaar, the chair of the adjudication panel explained how the winners were determined. “Individuals were judged based on a host of attributes including demonstration of leadership skills, changing of paradigms and innovation within the bounds of available resources,” said Minnaar. “To command that team, I’ve had to work three times harder to be taken seriously, have no one speak over me – the notion that you are too “girlie” and too young to know what you’re doing and deliver on a project or not butch enough to be in a construction site,” Plata said in her interview with SAPSA. “I have found that proper facilities for women on site have been inadequate or non-existent and I have questioned these issues on the different sites, the labour force on site is of a different composition nowadays where you find female labourers being more and more prevalent and demanding to be seen and heard.”

“There’s always limited seats for women in the industry, especially in leadership,” Plata continued. “It’s always an after-thought, we’ve been reduced to a quota and that doesn’t add up for me, that must change, and I am here to do that. Look at me because of delivery, look at me for quality work, look at me for a strong work ethic and look at me for excellence not to gain extra BBB-EE points.”

Plata graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Urban

and Regional Planning.

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