What's On Everyone's Lips: International Woman's Day
By Phumzile Mavimbela
Today the whole world united celebrating International Women's Day, a global day that has been marked to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. This year's theme is #'Choose To Challenge. In the spirit of choosing to challenge South Africa is also celebrating the female President to lead the Southern Africa Revenue Protection Association (SARPA) Belinda Dawson, an expert in the revenue protection field.
SARPA has boldly led the way in initiating transformation among professional associations by announcing the first female President in the Association’s history. Dawson started her Revenue Protection career in 2001 and first joined SARPA in 2002 as a speaker at the SARPA Annual convention.
Her appointment comes at a time when municipalities are struggling to keep up with debt collection regarding water and electricity rates, battling against illegal elements and rogue meters to keep the lights on.
Over the years she has done several Revenue Protection courses, including but not limited to Project management, Prepaid metering, Peace Officer. She has started Revenue Protection in more than one Municipality and managed many projects and is also actively involved in field operations. Belinda has experience in various Municipal Departments namely Vending, Credit Control, Meter Management with her core functions being Revenue Protection.
She was the Vice Chair of SARPA Western Cape Good Hope Branch for two years and the Chairperson for the past two and a half years for the SARPA Western Cape Good Hope Branch. Belinda also attended meetings of the PNFMCC on behalf of SARPA Western Cape. She is also a member of the Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities (AMEU) and was the Female Representative for the Western Cape Good Hope Branch representing the Branch on the AMEU Exco. Belinda was previously President-Elect of SARPA and has now followed the constitution to become the new President of SARPA.
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International Woman's Day