Brink’s alternative path to
Pr.Eng.
PERSONALITY PROFILE
31
Edited by
Eamonn Ryan
Vollie Brink celebrated his 67th year in the engineering
profession earlier this year – a rarity in any profession. In his own
words he describes a career which is still ongoing.
My father was transferred to Oudtshoorn Technical
High School as administrative officer, a school where
I began my technical career. I dearly wanted to go
to university to study engineering, but my dad just
could not afford it: the end of the 1940s was still the
post-WW2 period and people were poor. In those
days people who owned a car were regarded as
affluent. So I had to find my own ‘alternative route’
to get to where I wanted to be.
I then moved to a Mission Hospital deep in the bushveld of the old
Northern Transvaal where Giyani is today. We were isolated, far
from the nearest towns with very bad roads, and the life and work
was challenging in many ways, not least of all because the nontechnical
management of the hospital from the board downwards
did not appreciate the technical challenges, while all the technical
We did not own a car and my mother always said if you are
poor you don’t have to ‘look poor’ so she made shirts from
mieliemeel bags and clothed us as decently as possible and
we always had food even if it was only yellow mieliemeel pap
(a kind of porridge).
From Oudtshoorn Technical High School I went to Western
Reefs Mine in Orkney to begin an apprenticeship of
five years, minus 18 months for my technical school
qualifications. Work was scarce in those day and after your
apprenticeship you could not stay on the mine, but I then got
work with a contractor who worked on the construction of a
new mine in the Stilfontein area. After a year of construction
work on the mine I got a permanent appointment at the
government hospital in Klerksdorp and from there my career
completely changed direction.
At the hospital I was responsible for the maintenance of
medical equipment, but I also got involved with the steam
generation plant, steam reticulation system and steam hot
water generation (calorifiers), steam sterilisation system and
basically everything electrically and mechanically related –
even the mortuary.
After four years as a senior member of the technical
maintenance staff, and with a wide range of experience,
I was ready to move on and take responsibility for
the technical department of another hospital, as I
simultaneously sought to better my academic qualifications
with the view to obtain a ‘government ticket’ – an engineer
with a BEng who wanted to manage a factory. Though I
never completed the course I kept the study material and
studied it intensely for years to come and found it to be the
ideal study material for the plumbing industry.
All photos by Eamonn Ryan
Vollie Brink Pr.Eng.
August 2020 Volume 26 I Number 06
www.plumbingafrica.co.za