The Port Management Association for Eastern and Southern Africa (PMAESA) gets its first lady Secretary General following the recent appointment of South Africa’s Ms Nozipho Mdawe to lead the Mombasa-based Secretariat from July 2015.
Nozipho takes over from Franklin Mziray of Tanzania who has held the position since March 2013 in an acting capacity following the departure of Jerome Ntibarekerwa (Burundi) in 2012. She comes to PMAESA with a wealth of experience from Transnet, South Africa’s giant freight logistic chain – Transnet Freight Rail. Prior to her appointment, Nozipho was the General Manager for the Mineral Mining and Chrome Business Unit (GM MMC BU) at the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR). She had served Transnet in Operations and Human Resource over many years in various senior management positions, including the Business Unit Executive at Transnet Port terminals where she got the Leadership Award for the transformation of two diverse terminals. She was promoted to the position of GM MMC BU in March 2012 where she was tasked with the responsibility to start and lead a new business unit. Achievements in the Unit under her leadership include amongst others, the Chief Executive Award in 2013 for efficiency improvement through the successful implementation of cost containment initiatives through the Lean Six Sigma Methodology. Nozipho is credited with piloting the Transnet Value Chain Co-ordinator concept in 2013 which was subsequently adopted by the Transnet Group for a number of key corridors. She will be the eighth PMAESA Secretary General since the Association’s inception in 1973 and was appointed to her new post during a special Council meeting held in Windhoek Namibia on May 9th, 2015.
The new Secretary General is a doctoral student at South Africa’s Gordon Institute of Business Science, she holds an MBA (2004) from the same institution and has since done courses on Global Executive Development Program; Advanced Strategic Management Program IRSMI Management Development Program at the University of France between 2008 and 2009 and a course in Finance for Non-Finance Program from Witwatersrand Business School in 2007.
Nozipho is a ‘Dynamically applicable Management Professional’ with a distinctive ability to customise and personalise service delivery. She utilizes logic as well as reasoning to identify various strengths and weaknesses of the alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to continuous business challenges. She has extensive interpersonal and communication skills with developed ability to analyse problems, find tangible solutions and implement new systems and procedures in a fast-paced business environment. She possesses a strong drive to achieve set goals and objectives by always delivering high standards of service excellence in line with the company’s vision. Her experience varies from working as a Trainee Geologist, HR Generalist to a dyed in the wool type of an operator, then a leader in the transport sector, i.e. aviation, marine, rail sectors. She has previously been involved in developing freight transport operational strategy with an aim of growing the business, improved efficiency and overall minimize the cost of running business. Her focus has always been reducing the transportation cost within the supply chain. Nozipho’s doctoral studies focuses on such quandary by influencing policy development across the value chain including growth in Africa in pursuit for regional integration – having worked closely with Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland and Mozambique logistics operators and government.
