Busiswe Mpembe’s interest in construction started when she was a young girl and she wanted to make an impact on society.

Everything around you is the built environment; we [construction professionals] make life worth living. I wanted to be part of this, and I saw the possibilities as limitless.

She counts her experience on construction sites — working for large corporates such as Aveng Grinaker and Mace — as part of her holistic approach to the industry.

Sexist comments about women in the engineering industry in August 2018 by the former chief executive of the South African Institute for Civil Engineers sparked an outcry, and many women shared their horror stories of working in the sector. Mpembe says her experience has been mixed on construction sites — some men are proud to see young women smashing traditional barriers, while others have undermined her.

Many parts of the Johannesburg skyline have been shaped by Busiswe, including Sandton City’s Diamond Walk, the ultra-luxurious shopping wing of the mall and The Leonardo, also in Sandton, which is the tallest building in Africa. The massive mixed-used development is 55 stories high and 3 000 people were employed during its construction. She has also worked on refurbishments to Cresta Mall and many other shopping centres.

Mpembe readily admits that South Africa has too many malls and the construction of these has crowded out other basic social infrastructure. She moved into an RDP house in Germiston for six weeks as part of her research for her postgraduate degree. She took a taxi to work in Sandton every day and had to figure out how to get home safely after dark at night.

“It was a wake-up call and made me realise the impact we can have as the construction industry,” Busiswe says. She felt she was starting to be “part of the problem” in the construction corporate environment and decided to take a break from that aspect of the industry and focus on how to humanise the sector.

— Tehillah Niselow

LinkedIn: @busisiwe-mpembe