Eskom International Women’s Day and Launch of the Mother’s Room, a lactation facility for mothers returning to work from maternity leave.

Eskom hosted a momentous event at its head office in honour of International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March 2024. The purpose of the event was two-fold: to raise awareness of the topic of gender equality in the workplace as a global imperative and to launch the Mother’s Room: a lactation facility for mothers returning to work post-partum.

More than 160 Guardians were in attendance and 1600 Guardians joined the event online. The Group Executive HR, Ms ELSIE PULE , in her opening address provided the background of IWD, and its global and continental significance to the recognition of women in the workplace, government, and civil society. Ms Pule also led the launch of the Mother’s Room: a lactation facility for working mother’s returning from maternity leave and shared that this is part of the organisation’s post-partum reintegration programme. She shared that the mother’s room launch on IWD is paramount to the theme for this year being: ‘Inspire Inclusion’ and encouraged various business units in the organisation to follow suit by establishing functional mother’s rooms at the various centres to inspire the inclusion of women in the workplace.

Guest speaker, Ms Leah Hughes, shared her story which led to her establishing the Gentle Breastfeeding Studio and she furthermore gave tips on lactation. She also shared statistics outlining how South Africa was among the list of countries with the lowest rates of exclusive breastfeeding in the world, thus promoting the use of the mother’s room for lactation purposes post maternity leave.

In line with the theme of inclusivity, two more employees spoke on the theme; mainly Ms Busisiwe Mthethwa who spoke on her journey climbing up the corporate ladder as a woman living with disabilities. Ms Mthethwa is also the chairperson of the Persons Living with Disabilities Forum in the group’s Distribution Division.

Mr MaishaMolepo, chairperson of the Young Professionals Network (YPN) of Eskom in Generation Division spoke about his intention to partner with EWAP this year to inspire a pipeline of girls in STEM education through the ‘bring a boy and girl child to work’ initiative to be held in June 2024. Mr Molepo also shared how the YPN intends to launch its initiative in June with the EWAP Eskom Women Advancement Programme and also shared various initiatives planned for the youth in Eskom’s Generation Division.

Finally, the Eskom CFO, Mr Calib Cassim in his closing remarks, shared his experience as an ally for gender equality by being a sponsor of EWAP. Mr Cassim encouraged other leaders in the organisation to be allies of gender transformation in the workplace by sponsoring, mentoring, and coaching other women with the potential to climb the corporate ladder.

EWAP would like to extend special thanks to all who joined, including the Group Executive for HR, Ms Elsie Pule; the Chief Financial Officer, Mr Calib Cassim; the Chief Information Officer, Ms Faith Burn; and the Chief Procurement Officer, Ms Jainthree Sankar. We would also like to thank the guest speakers from our partner organisations: Ms Leah Hughes, Founder of the Gentle Breastfeeding Studio, as well as Ms Penelope Hlubi, Human Resources Director for the South Africa Cluster at Alstom Group who attended as a silent guest.

Eskom has been a signatory of the UN Women Compact since 2010.

*Credit to Innovar for Production.