BUSINESS AND TRAINING
34
Students in class.
Dedicated plumbing
development centre
in Johannesburg
The Umphakathi Development and Training Centre
recently relocated to Bezuidenhout Valley, and Plumbing
Africa paid it a visit.
By Cherry Ellis
“I will never go hungry, I have a skill; once it’s
learned it can’t be taken away. I am a plumber,
I am in demand. Water is the source of life; proper
sanitation is the preservation of life and mankind.”
This is the philosophy on which the Umphakathi
Development and Training Centre was built.
Umphakathi means ‘community’ in Zulu. The company
was founded by Gerard Ohlson de Fine, a South African
who matriculated from John Orr Technical High in 1978
with his chosen trade of plumbing and sheet metal.
August 2018 Volume 24 I Number 6
He apprenticed at Alan Stiles Plumbing in Cape Town,
and then returned to Johannesburg and worked for FA
Sharman Plumbing and Heating Engineers. In 1987,
he joined SM Goldstein and then Plumbgold, working
his way up from site plumber to QS, then contracts
manager and finally to a director at Group 5. At the end
of 1999, De Fine relocated to London in the UK to run a
family business.
“I returned to South Africa in 2007. I was shocked
to see the state of the plumbing industry, as many
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