Working in the NGO world must bring one a measure of fulfilment as you’re in the business of helping individuals and communities lead better lives. In this innerview Zanele Thabede-Vilakati, 35, National Director of Women and Law Southern Africa (WLSA), talks about her journey in development and how it has led to this pivotal point of leadership.
Reflecting on her journey, Zanele says she’s never been able to be that person “with the one title thing”. In fact, she regards herself as someone who has never been jobless as she is always doing something on the side.
She adds, “I actually don’t believe in being jobless, because once you have a mind you can create something that you can sell; you can sell your ideas and stuff like that.”
As a slashie, Zanele is involved in event-organising and entrepreneurship. She is the co-founder of Women Working Together (WWT), an initiative that endeavours to bring women in Eswatini together through empowerment events. Attendees are able to network, market their businesses, and listen to a presentation given by the keynote speaker — thus providing a valuable networking and learning experience for local women. Zanele is also the owner of a brand called the Oil Perfume Specialists which sells oil perfumes in 10 ml bottles across the country.
Finding Her True Path
When it came to choosing a university course to study, Zanele admits that Law was not her first choice. Being very good at math, she applied for a degree in the Social Sciences; Law was the second option. However, as luck would have it she was accepted for Law at UNISWA.
“I struggled with the course — like a lot. I repeated so many classes that in the end, when I was supposed to repeat one class in my 4th year, I decided that I’m not going back and that I’m going to pursue what I want to do,” she says. “At that time, actually from high school, I have always wanted to do psychology. So I enrolled at UNISA for a BA in Psychology and Sociology.” She still intends to complete her Law degree as well.
During those challenging times as a Law student Zanele got a job with a social research organisation called CIET — Community Information for Empowerment and Transparency.
“I was just a data collector, but because when I do something I put my all in it, so I was not just collecting data; I actually started doing research for myself,” she says. While at CIET Zanale was involved in collecting data for a quantitative HIV study, this afforded her the opportunity to travel to different parts of the country. Being someone who was born and bred in Mbabane, “a typical town girl”, she felt this was quite an eye-opening experience.
During the study Zanale says she was more involved with the younger women and would talk to them. She noticed that many of these women were not working, but were instead stuck at home with the children. Moreover, when the team would collect blood samples and administer a questionnaire some of them would open up and reveal their HIV positive status – something which they found difficult to tell even the fathers of their children. Engaging with these young women no doubt had an impact on Zanele.
“That’s when I started developing an interest in doing more research in order to gain an understanding of why people do certain things,” she says.
Being a person who puts her all into a task that she is given, Zanele’s supervisor at the time saw a lot of potential in her and this resulted in her landing her first real job. She then became the supervisor of the data collectors, which meant she was no longer collecting data but was receiving and checking it before it was sent to South Africa (the organisation was based in South Africa). In the process she gained more experience doing research, hence she says her career is “more experience-based than academic”.
“I was thoroughly exposed to the research world because I attended training courses offered by the same organisation in Botswana, Namibia and Lesotho. And they had a project in Lesotho as well so we would travel and do courses and research. So it was really interesting and I learnt a lot working for that organisation.”
“That’s also when I started my leadership journey because my supervisor who was in South Africa left me to run the whole office in Eswatini,” she remarks.
Women and the Issues that Affect Them
Through working at CIET Zanele developed an interest in women and the issues that affect them, especially young women in the country. She even dreamt of one day having a big house in the city where she could accommodate women who come from rural communities and are transitioning into the city life. While looking for a job, she would accommodate them for free until they found their feet.
“I think I got this vision from the travels that I did with CIET and seeing the women in the community stuck at home with kids and babies on their backs and the men not being there,” she explains.
After CIET Zanele joined a vibrant women’s organisation called Swaziland Young Women’s Network (SYWON) as a volunteer where she was involved in HIV prevention programming. She was with Young Women’s Network for two and a half years. After that she was recruited by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and that is where she learnt more about qualitative research as she was one of the qualitative research officers.
“I’ve written three research papers that were led by my supervisor at MSF and were published by some of the journals around the world. I always say Google me [laughs].”
Zanele then joined Super Buddies Club, a non-profit organisation working with children and youth, as s programme officer for a year. She then went back to MSF to do the third study. Thereafter, with her background in Law proving to be an asset, she joined Women and Law as a programme officer in September 2017 and worked there until January 2020. In October 2020 she was appointed as the National Director of WLSA.
Systems and Programmes
Now as the National Director of WLSA, Zanele hopes that during her time she will be able to achieve better systems and clearer programming for the organisation.
“An organisation needs systems and clear programming and also transparency for the people that it serves. A lot of people, I would say, do not know what WLSA does. So for me it’s about just systematically laying it down — a person must know who to contact when they need this or that. I also hope to implement a structured paralegal programming, where each constituency has access to paralegals and then we can trickle down to community level,” she says.
“I also want to be that person that implements evidence-based programming because that’s another issue. We come up with all these big programmes and everything; however, we don’t really think about the people in the community to see if these solutions really match with what they want for their future. Hence, my dream is to have evidence-based programming that actually responds to the needs of the people. So while I didn’t envision myself as a national director, but as long as the role takes me to that path then I think I’m fine.”
Zanele notes that her journey’s not going to be too long.
“Someone was asking me the other day, ‘When do you want to retire?’ I was like, ‘At 40’. I’m 35 now.” Zanele believes that there is a danger in overstaying in one place.
“I think at some point you need to also give [those under you] your experience and expertise, because if you’re in the forefront you then start telling people how things should be done without considering that times are moving.”
A Positive Influence
Zanele says that there are a lot of people who have influenced her in positive ways.
“The first person of course, like every other girl, was my mother. My mother came from a very tough relationship in which we were also part of — an abusive relationship which she left. So I really looked up to her for doing that and I was so grateful because I don’t think I’d be where I am if she hadn’t done that.”
She also mentions Inkhosikati LaMbikiza with whom she became acquainted with during her primary and high schools years due to her friendship with one of Her Highness’ children.
“She [LaMbikiza] is direct, strict and to the point. And she would always tell us to work hard, so she had quite an influence on me.”
And of course there is her business partner at WWT, Ntombikayise Nyoni, whom she describes as the “calm in the storm,” given that she is the one who takes time to think about things.
“If someone is not influencing me in a positive way, then I move away. I’ve learnt to do that without being rude about it. So I always try to have positive people and people that I can look up to around me,” she says.
We couldn’t agree more.
By the Swazi Innerviewer