“Those who still believe that a woman’s place is only in the kitchen must think again,” says Rinae Ramagalela (24) of Matangari village outside Thohoyandou. While her peers keep themselves busy with “woman’s work” in the house, Rinae takes pride in her job as an auto electrician who fixes cars.

“Many people - men in particular - are very surprised when they see me fixing cars. Some of them don’t believe that I can do the job, until I prove them wrong. I remember a client one day protested that his car should never be fixed by a woman. It took a long time for me to convince him that women are capable of doing any kind of work that men can do, and he ended up giving in. I fixed his car perfectly, and now he does not want his car to be fixed by anyone else but me,” she said proudly.

Rinae is a mechanical engineering graduate from Central Johannesburg College. Asked why she ended up as an auto electrician after she had studied mechanical engineering, Rinae said, “After my studies, I got an apprenticeship in Gauteng as a diesel mechanic. Six months down the line, I fell in love with the auto electrical side of this industry, so I asked my supervisors if I could move to the auto-electrician section of the business and was given the green light. I did the work perfectly, and the rest is history.”

After her apprenticeship, Rinae teamed up with her friend, Keketso Lephane, to start and register their own company, RK Automotives. Unfortunately, they could not start immediately as they did not have all the necessary tools to run this type of business yet, but that problem was fixed. They approached Auto Diag, based in Orlando, Soweto, from whom they lease tools and equipment until Rinae and Keketso can buy their own. “Things are looking much brighter because we have many customers who trust and believe in our excellent work,” she said.

Rinae has a message for women who do not believe in themselves. “Young women should stand up and take their rightful place in the economic development of this country. We should never look down on ourselves, because we are gifted too and, if we put our minds to it, we can do even better than our male counterparts.”