32
PERSONALITY PROFILE
work had to be done by local people who had to be trained on
site to become builders, carpenters, plumbers, painters and
even mechanics and electricians.
My work challenges included the design of buildings, with
all its services, with calculation of materials and all of that
had to be procured, transported and constructed. This later
changed, when architects and engineers were appointed,
and when the government took over, to funding.
All construction was still done by locals and I was
still responsible for the project management which
included being QS and for procurement and construction
management and everything that is required to build a
building and a building as complicated as a hospital. I was
also responsible for financial planning and management
and financial liaison with the government department and
claiming funds and using the finances for further work.
My challenges and responsibilities were:
• Design, construction, operation and maintenance of the
sanitation system which included disposal system, as
well as the water supply and reticulation.
• Generation of electricity and reticulation.
• Transport, trucks and ambulances and clinic vehicles.
• Mortuary and even graves.
Over and above the technical work, I had to learn a new
language (Shangaan), do mission work, as well as the
planning of, and start of construction of several projects: a
new general hospital; new laundry; new kitchen; new steam
boilers; and new reticulation of services. I also built churches
in the area and houses for the missionaries.
Water and sanitation
After building a second mission, it was time to leave the
platteland for Pretoria, where I joined a large consulting
firm, VWL, in the Water and Sanitation Department,
and remained there for 20 years. I designed township
water and sewer reticulation systems and supervised
the construction of these services. During this period, I
was responsible for re-establishing the Water section.
I became an Associate and HOD of the Building Water
Services, which included Water and Sanitation and Fire
Engineering and projects with steam and compressed air
and gas.
I had to build the division from the bottom up and even
develop design manuals for the office which were later
incorporated in SABS documents which became known as
SANS 10252-1 for water and SANS 10252-2 for sanitary
drainage. I had technicians and engineers in my team
eventually totalling 20 people, including the first lady and the
first black technicians in my team.
My motto was to always be the best and do the best and
to search for the best available technology all over the
world. I established a large library which was used by all
the other engineers in the company. To this end I travelled
widely abroad, attending an international conference
in Berlin and visiting a number of countries to collect
the latest technology in terms of water and sanitation
for buildings. This information was built into the SANS
documents, SANS10252-1 and -2 for instance. We
were responsible for a large portion of the Sasol 2 and 3
projects.
During this period of my career I was responsible for many
hospitals including being co-responsible for the design of
the 2 000 bed general hospital in Pretoria, and many other
buildings including hotels, large shopping centres, corporate
headquarters and industrial buildings, educational facilities
and airports.
At this time, I had an important mentor in my life: a female
engineer and senior lecturer at University of Pretoria joined
our company: Anna Mouton. She always consulted me on
practical problems and so eventually she prompted me
to apply for registration as an engineer with ECSA. She
recommended a list of books to study and prepare for
registration as engineer under the so-called ‘grandfather
clause’ of the Engineering Act.
To qualify for registration, you had to be 50 years old with
appropriate experience and certain minimum technical
qualifications. At the same time, I compiled, at the request
of a Tuks professor, a course for his students on the design
of water and sanitation and fire engineering, and I presented
these lectures to students.
In 1977 the new National Building Regulations were
promulgated, for which I made a set of drawings of all
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