Personality Profile
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RODRIEK MUSHWANA –
LEARNING TO LEAD
By Ntsako Khosa
“Ultimately I want to run the biggest
black-owned HVAC contracting firm.”
– Rodriek Mushwana.
Rodriek N Mushwana is the managing director of MSB
Engineering. He summarises his responsibilities nicely,
stating that he heads projects (owing to the company size)
and makes sure projects are done properly as per engineering
requirements.
GETTING STARTED
“During the school holidays I used to work with a refrigeration
technician at my father’s employment,” he recalls. Interestingly
enough, it was through reading RACA Journal in the mid-90s
that his interest in cooling and heating was sparked. “In January
1996 I wrote a letter to the president of SAIRAC asking for more
information on how one can get involved in the air-conditioning
industry. Little did I know that my letter was tabled at a SAIRAC
meeting and the late Richard Pearce of Richard Pearce and
Partners (RPP) offered to give me a chance.”
By April of the same year, he was employed as a junior
computer aided design (CAD) operator. “Three months later I
was promoted to a CAD operator. I went through the ranks to a
position of design technician by 2004. I wouldn’t have done all
this if it wasn’t for the leadership of Graeme Page. All my years
at RPP he was my mentor, his leadership has placed me where
I am now.”
Page then recruited him to WSP where Page was now an
office director. “I worked under him for years doing a lot of
projects locally and regionally,” he says. After Steven Barrett
joined WSP as a senior engineer, Mushwana further increased
his industry knowledge. “These three men contributed a lot to
where I am and I owe it to them, not ignoring the rest of the
people I worked with in the industry like Lindy Lund, George
Arnold, Jacob Muabelo, Vivian Shabangu, Jan Nieuwenhuizen,
Sabastian Chakezha and many more.”
Rodriek Mushwana
FOR THE LOVE OF THE JOB
In 2015 Mushwana decided to move into HVAC contracting.
“When I started MSB Engineering, I didn’t even know who was
going to give me the first project, it was a leap of faith on my side.
Five years later I’m still here on pursuit to be the preferred HVAC
contractor by reputable consulting firms and developers.”
He received his N6 in air-conditioning and refrigeration from
the old Johannesburg Technical College. He has attended and
completed seven SAIRAC accredited training programmes and
a certificate in hospital planning from the University of KwaZulu-
Natal (UKZN). “I am a member of SARAIC, the South African
Federation of Hospital Engineering (SAFHE) and a SARACCA
approved practitioner to issue air-conditioning certificates of
compliance (COC).”
He finds that what he does is enjoyable, and shares that in
contracting you deal with implementation and not designs. “The
most enjoyable part of my work is commissioning when the
supplier gives a thump up of what we did, seeing what I started
being completed, motivates me even more.”
FUTURE PLANS
“The future looks good, even though the industry is getting
flooded with contractors. Ultimately, I want to run the biggest
black-owned HVAC contracting firm,” he says. RACA
Rodriek
Mushwana
of MSB
Engineering
Specialized
Services.
www.hvacronline.co.za RACA Journal I September 2020 35