Mbokodo Woman in Engineering

Mamosadi Mankga is a Project Manager in the Operations Unit of Roads Agency Limpopo’s flagship Engineering Division.

Mbokodo WOMAN IN Mamosadi ENGINEERING

Despite many describing her as operationally efficient and just a right fit for the Roads Agency Limpopo as its Project Manager, Mamosadi Mankga attributes this to hard and persistent work that successfully prompts her to execute daily duties.

s the Project Manager for Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL), Mamosadi Mankga’s responsibilities entail managing road infrastructure projects to ensure that projects are completed on time, within budget and according to specification. Chief amongst her responsibilities is, ‘to A my colleagues within RAL through Social and Institutional Development where a project steering committee is formed, which represents all the communities within the vicinity of the project, to ensure that the project runs smoothly,” adds Ms Mankga. She says one of the big projects which she was involved in at RAL supervise the work done by the engineering “Each project was the upgrading of 26 kilometres consultantsand contractors to ensure that the quality of road infrastructure is not compromised’. is different, and of roads, namely D3820 (19.5km) and D3502 (6.5km) from Babangu She says being passionate about her job does not spare any challenges, especially being involved in working with different to Maphalle, which traverse through two municipalities, Greater Giyani various projects which involve communities. organisations is very and Greater Letaba Local “Each project is different, and working on different projects with different characters and interesting.” Municipalities. “The project was tested with a lot organisations is very interesting and challenging at of community protests, but we times, but makes one grow,” says Ms Mankga. managed to do our best to get the job

Since her work interlinks with other sections within RAL, Ms done because relationship amongst the project Mankga says being a team player has assisted her a great deal as she members was good.” easily collaborates with colleagues to get the work done. “Fortunately, we didn’t spend all the money

“Before any project can start, stakeholder engagement is done by allocated for the project, a certain amount was saved but

Mankga is a gold award recipient at the 2018 RAL Excellence Awards for Engineering. Turn to page 24 to read about a recently completed project she supervised.

2003 to September 2004. She says the position of trainee technician was a golden opportunity for her to work hard and make her own mark in the corporate world. This was proved as she was later appointed as Industrial Technician in the same organisation from October 2004 to September 2005. As part of her career path, Ms Mankga had to relocate from Gauteng to Limpopo in October 2005 to take up the position of Statutory Control Officer at RAL, which is now called the Land Use Management Officer. She continued to work hard and proved that she is equal to any task as attested in 2008 when she landed the position of Assistant Manager Land Use Management within RAL. In 2011, she was appointed the Project Manager, a position she has heldto date. Born 38 years ago at a village called Kalkspruit, about 34km west of Polokwane, Ms Mankga started schooling at local schools in her village, Solomon Maraba Lower Primary School and then moved to John Nrimba Higher Primary School where she completed Grade 7. She then proceeded to Harry Oppenheimer Agricultural High School based at Ga-Matlala where she completed her Grade 12. She acquired both her Diploma and B-Tech in Civil Engineering at the Vaal University of Technology. Growing up, Ms Mankga aspired to be a Social Worker because of her passion for helping people. However, all this changed when she visited her aunt in a village the quality of the job was not compromised,” says Ms called Mamadila, about 29 km west of Polokwane, where there was a Mankga. construction of the Mogwadi Bridge on road D19 at that time.

Although her job is daunting and “My aunt was selling food to the labourers challenging, Ms Mankga says, “it keeps who were appointed on the project. I would wake me on my toes, but it also makes me up every morning to go and help her.” think out of the box most of the time and “A project steering She says the manner in which they were helps me to be more organised and understand different personalities”. committee … constructing the bridge caught her attention, and then she told herself that this is a career The 2018 winner for Organised and Detailed Project Manager Award at RAL ensures that the for her. “I was still not certain about the Civil says the support she gets from various project runs Engineering career as I had little knowledge stakeholders that she interacts with as part of executing her responsibilities is smoothly.” about it,” she says. However, one of my relatives, the late Lesiba amazing. Ledwaba who was the first person to qualify as a

“The support I get from the project Civil Engineer in my village, motivated me to team; Social and Institutional Development, pursue this career. and Environmental, Health and Safety divisions is helpful, I then started to do more research about Civil Engineering when I and going forward, I continue to appreciate their was in Grade 11. continuous support,” she says. A wife and mother of two, Ms Mankga says she enjoys spending time

Ms Mankga is not new to the road infrastructure with her family and cooking. environment. She cut her corporate teeth at the “I spend most of my time in the kitchen exploring recipes. I also Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport enjoy meditating, exercising and going out with friends,” concludes Ms (GAUTRANS) as a trainee technician from October Mankga. m