Despite the fact that Asnath Mahapa’s father never liked the idea of her becoming a pilot, her determination kept her going. She did not only become a pilot, she became South Africa’s first black female pilot.
“When I told my father I wanted to become a pilot, he never even entertained the idea.”
According to information gathered by CNN, as a teenager, Mahapa was fascinated by planes, little did she know she would break boundaries to fly a plane.
“It just dawned on me that those big things that we see in the skies, someone is actually in charge of them. I thought if someone can fly this thing, that means I can also do it.”
After dropping out of the University of Cape Town, one year after she enrolled for a course in electrical engineering, Mahapa enrolled in a flight school. Unknowing to her, flight school also comes with its own challenges.
“I was the only woman in my class the whole time. I had to work very hard. I had to probably work ten times harder than the men that I was with in the classroom,” she said.
“My first time, I felt sick. I was persistent, I went back again, I went back until I stopped feeling sick,” she added.
In 1998, her hard work and determination paid off as she took to the skies as the first black female pilot in South Africa.
“I didn’t know I was the first black woman until 2003, until about four years later. And I was still the only one at the time and I did not know. Before I knew it I was on TV, front page of newspapers, and that came as a shock because I was still young, I was 22 at the time, I was very young.”to train and inspire a new generation of pilots,
In 2012, in a bid to train and inspire a new generation of pilots, Mahapa opened the African College of Aviation.
“For me, it’s about trying to help women who aspire to become pilots. I still see a lot of black women going through the same things that I went through at that time. They still struggle to get jobs after they qualify. Most of them they struggle with finances because it’s a very expensive industry.
I don’t think there will ever be enough women in the industry. If I can change the world I would tell the girls go out there, do it and I will tell the boys there is nothing wrong with a girl becoming a pilot, becoming an astronaut for that matter.
Boys must accept that girls can become anything they want and girls must believe in themselves that they can become anything that they want,” she said.
Despite the hurdles, Mahapa has no regrets about her decision to pursue a career in aviation.
“Ask any pilot, they’ll tell you, our view from our office is the best in the world, so why would you get bored doing a job like that?”
Mahapa is one of the strong women striving for success across Africa.
So inspiring
I love women like this who are making other women proud in a male dominated field. Kudos to her.
Great women making huge waves in the society
That’s great