With a passion for empowering women and youth, Pearl Makitla, business development consultant for Motseni Engineering Services, shares her roofing business journey.
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REGULARS: PERSONALITY PROFILE
One woman’ s road to roofing
With a passion for empowering women and youth, Pearl Makitla, business development consultant for Motseni Engineering Services, shares her roofing business journey.
By Candace Sofianos King
Growing up, all Pearl Makitla wanted to do was work in the banking sector. Armed with this goal, she went on to complete a BCom degree in banking from the University of Pretoria, and after 10 years of working in the financial industry, it dawned on her that she wasn’ t where she wanted to be.
“ I knew that I did not belong there. I resigned and embarked on an entrepreneurial journey to search for business opportunities and to discover what my passion was,” she says.
Fast forward to 2018 and Makitla is now a business development consultant for Motseni Engineering Services( MES), a company that specialises in infrastructure related work including repairs, maintenance, root cause analysis, research and development, capacity improvement, supplier product quality development and safety assessment on rolling stock and infrastructure.
MES has been awarded an opportunity to be the distributor of Italian based roofing product Ondulit.“ To be awarded an opportunity to grow the roofing division of MES is an achievement on its own, I am very excited and looking forward to the opportunities that this role will bring. My responsibility is to create and act on a funnel of high quality prospects to introduce the product to the SADC region,” highlights Makitla.
Constructing a meaningful career
Makitla was exposed to the construction industry when she was offered an opportunity to be a project manager for a
Pearl Makitla, business development consultant for Motseni Engineering Services.
small building project in the Free State. As the only female working on the project, Makitla realised how scarce women are in the sector.
“ I was motivated to deliver results as I needed to earn the respect of male counterparts. I was new in the industry and I knew very little about construction. I was not discouraged by the shortcomings or any challenges I came across, in fact I got even more determined and dedicated to learning as much as I can and that saw myself having my own project to run.
“ Like most of the SMMEs in the industry, I struggled to get new projects and resorted to going back to the finance industry where I got an opportunity to develop and structure lending products which were offered to SMMEs that needed capital to fund their orders. As much as I did well in that role, my passion still largely remained in construction. I am very humbled to be offered an opportunity back into the industry and this time I plan to make a difference, kitted in my hard hat, overalls and safety boots,” says Makitla humourously.
Breaking ground on the glass ceiling
Traditionally male dominated, the roofing industry is very difficult for women to enter, highlights Makitla. She says while the installation of roofing is in its nature highly labour intensive, contractors and roofing manufacturers are continually looking for qualified and certified roof installers, something which is lacking for women and youth.
“ MES’ business strategy is to utilise the expertise of international roofing installers to transfer skills to women and the youth particularly based in rural areas and I am
Candace Sofianos King
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