Moncho, who is a mother of one, had no experience in the sector and hadn’t had a permanent job before being employed by Mobicel, said she’d never imagined she would one day be involved in “building a cellphone from scratch”.
Nelly Moncho proudly shows off one of the finished products – a Mobicel R1 plus cellphone her team has just assembled Picture: Sthembiso Lebuso
The 24-year-old is one of 65 workers at the new South African cellphone company’s first assembly plan. “We realised that, in the job market, we need to work extra hard to get to where we want to be as young women,” Tshose said. Mobicel, one of the largest importers of and dealers in affordable phones in South Africa, has gone beyond preaching about gender equality and has actually implemented programmes at the Midrand plant.
While her new job has equipped her with new skills, the mother of a three-year-old boy said it had also helped her support those close to her. The process of assembling the phone, which begins with an empty front part, includes inserting a sub printed circuit board , connecting a vibrator, a speaker, the power and volume keys, inserting the main PCB and a water detective seal.
“After we see that it is working properly, and it is GSM [grams per square metre] tested and the IMEI [international mobile equipment identity] numbers are scanned and recorded, it is ready for packaging with all its components, including the charger and other accessories,” Alexander said. “When I found out exactly what we would be doing here – building phones from scratch – I was nervous because it’s something I had never done before. However, I saw it as an opportunity to learn something new in the technical field, especially because women struggle a lot to be seen and recognised or given opportunities in any company. I feel like this gives us young people experience,” Booysen said.
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