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Winning women: Setting her own foundation

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Unathi Batyashe-Fillis. Picture: Karen Kay Barnard
Unathi Batyashe-Fillis. Picture: Karen Kay Barnard

HEADS TURN as an elegant Unathi Batyashe-Fillis strides into the opulent foyer of the Melrose Arch African Pride Hotel in Joburg.

If she’s aware of the effect she has on people, she gives no indication of it – she’s friendly, relaxed and totally lacking in self-importance. She’s a breath of fresh air.

Within minutes, she’s talking a blue streak about different types of concrete and her company’s presence in 90 countries worldwide.

She took up her position in June as country manager of communications and brand for LafargeHolcim SA, and she also sits on the company’s executive committee.

She recently started visiting all of the cement giant’s 125 quarries in the country.

Batyashe-Fillis (37) drives, for instance, to a plant in North West, meets management and then drives back again, which makes for a long six hours behind the wheel.

“I manage Lafarge’s reputation, so I need to see where everyone works,” she explains.

“If there’s a crisis, I’ll have a sense of the place where it happens. My philosophy has always been to help build a healthy organisation, and I like to be proactive about it.”

Her approach to cement is almost poetic: “It’s far more than a grey substance pouring out of a machine. It creates beautiful buildings, life-saving bridges and desperately needed schools.”

She mentions that in 2009, the Lafarge Education Trust adopted 11 schools in Bodibe Village in the Ditsobotla district in North West.

One of Batyashe-Fillis’ tasks is to facilitate smooth communication between Lafarge, communities and the department of education.

One of the main reasons she joined the company when the position was offered to her several months ago was related to the CEO’s comment that “we are beyond cement – we provide solutions”.

She believes this is vital in a developing country like South Africa and that everyone, including huge multinational companies such as Lafarge, needs to play a positive role.

“So when I was asked to join Lafarge, I asked myself how I could ensure that it gives back to our country; that it plays a responsible role,” she says.

She asked herself the same question when she joined Airports Company SA (Acsa) in 2010 as its communications and brand manager.

She was tasked with successfully implementing the 2010 Fifa World Cup external communications plan for Acsa just two months before the tournament began.

OR Tambo International Airport, the largest airport in Africa, had just been expanded for the cup, and part of her job was to help iron out glitches and explain any issues to the public. It was a daunting task, but she did it.

While she was working a full, demanding day at OR Tambo, she was also made the leader of the communications team during Acsa’s bid, as part of a concession to operate Latin America’s largest airport, the Guarulhos International in Sao Paulo.

She was the obvious person for the job with her background and experience. In 2013 she accepted her appointment as Acsa’s group spokesperson and corporate communications manager.

“I’m always up for a challenge,” she says, adding that she has never worked a regular nine-to-five day.

“I’m an all-day, everyday person,” she says.

“When everyone’s asleep at home, I’ll get up at 3am to work. I feel good that I keep pace with my demanding schedule with my dear family nearby.”

She ensures she keeps a balance in her life and takes her two children, both younger than 10, to school and makes their daily lunches.

Her role model for keeping a family together is her schoolteacher mother, who retired last year after 40 years in service.

She raised Batyashe-Fillis and her three sisters single-handedly in their home in a township in Kimberley after their father died at the age of 33.

“I was 10 years old and she was really strategic in her motherhood role,” recalls Batyashe-Fillis fondly.

“She kept us off the streets by flooding us with books and ensuring we were always busy with extramural activities.”

The communications whiz has played a leading role throughout her life – she was the only black child in her Grade 7 class in 1991 at Kimberley Junior School.

She recalls the stark differences between her English-speaking classes in a school with manicured lawns and her isiXhosa-speaking family life on the dusty township streets.

In 1996, she became the first black prefect, “which was unheard of back then”.

She was hired as a journalist by the Diamond Fields Advertiser after she graduated with her BA in communication science from the University of the Free State.

But her education continues – she completed the Henley Business School’s executive development programme in 2013, and plans to do her MBA next year.

She joined Radio 702 and Highveld Stereo (now 947) in 2003, where she worked for six years, becoming mid-morning anchor and desk editor for Eyewitness News.

Thereafter, Batyashe-Fillis was a presenter on DStv’s SuperSport before going on to become the SABC’s prime time news anchor.

Looking back on her 15 years in communications, she advises other women who work in male-dominated environments – as she did at Acsa and now at Lafarge – to “be yourself”.

“When I started at Acsa, I wore high heels, red lipstick and spoke my mind, even though there were only two women at executive level. My boss encouraged me.

“Now I try to be true to myself in everything I do.”


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