Our People,  Our Stories

Zanele started her career as a cleaner at Durban municipality, where she forged a significant connection that would later play a crucial role in her professional journey.  When she took over as cleaner from a previous employee, people started noticing a difference.  Not only was everyone happy with her work but they learnt they could call on Zanele whenever they had a problem, that they could rely on her to rescue them in any situation requiring her help. Aurelia (now Innovate Durban’s CEO) overheard Zanele discussing with her colleague her need to drop out of university due to financial difficulties. Aurelia graciously offered to help by providing Zanele with additional cleaning work on weekends.

Zanele had been praying for an opportunity like this, little did she know the REAL opportunity was still coming.  Aurelia had been singing her praises long before and let her in on a bigger plan: she wanted Zanele to join Innovate Durban as the first employee.  A cleaner at first, with the view to grow her within the business.  It would require a year of patience until the opportunity would come to life, but Zanele persevered. When that day came, she was unsure of how to respond, could this new opportunity be true?  It took three phone calls later and Zanele realised that the dream was now in fact real, she literally dropped everything and the very next day, made the move to her new professional home at Innovate Durban.

“One day I arrived at work and Aurelia took me over to a table full of papers.  I asked what this was and she explained it was the designs for the office. I replied how nice it was but inside I wasn’t quite sure what it even was! To me it was just drawings, I had never seen such a thing before!”

The office was just 300m², and only took Zanele two hours to clean.  She wasn’t doing much with the rest of her hours and had a dream: to learn how to use a computer.  Aurelia had the same intentions for Zanele and brought her dream to life.  Innovate Durban’s first employee, she has been an invaluable asset to the company since her start as a Cleaner seven years ago. She has consistently grown within the organisation, progressing from Cleaner to Cleaner/Admin Assistant, Office Administrator, and now Office, Project, and Program administrator.  Zanele is effectively the face of Innovate Durban, having an innate ability to forge memorable connections in how she makes people feel seen. She is that person who greets you by name even if she hasn’t met you yet, the one who remembers how you like to take your tea or coffee, where you are from and your story.  She sees people, not numbers nor titles.

“I just have my matric with no other qualifications so I am self taught.  Whatever I do I try by all means to impress people in a good way through dedication and learning. I am a very observant person, I remember all the little things that matter the most. I can tell when someone walks in, how their experience will be, and I try to help them make it a positive one.”

Zanele holds herself to the highest standards, and emphasises the importance of people treating one another as equals.  Someone not to underestimate, the longer you work with her, the more the wise ones notice that she is one to keep close, one that will have your best interests at heart.  Quietly strong, she has the ability to work through challenges that come her way, recognising that a smaller organisation requires comradery not complete autonomy. 

Zanele believes that one’s longevity in an organisation is deeply impacted by their ability to adapt to the environment and culture they find themselves in. This is why establishing a fit from both an employer and an employee perspective is important to get right from as early as interview stage.  Second to organisational-talent fit is one’s attitude, an inherent factor contributing to an employees experience. 

“You need to create a space for yourself that is safe. To remember that what brings us here is work and the issues we address and resolve remain here – there is no place for personal grudges. Make room to first protect yourself and then others – I sometimes still have it the wrong way around, forgetting to care for myself while caring for others.”

Understanding, direct, fair, and driven by faith, Zanele is the one you pick first for your team, her loyalty is unwavering, it’s easy to see what Aurelia saw in her all those years ago.  She reminds us of how the smallest human gestures, like genuinely asking how someone is, can go a long way in recreating happiness for others in our day to day experiences. Crossing paths with her is a forever humbling encounter.