SA Affordable Housing March - April 2020 // ISSUE: 81 | Page 38

PLUMBING JUNCTION
The pride of being an
IOPSA plumber
By Eamonn Ryan
Notwithstanding a high rate of unemployment, it is sometimes a
struggle to get younger people to become plumbers. This is because of
perceptions. IOPSA calls on every qualified plumber to do his/her bit to
change that perception and to feel pride in what they do.
P
lumbers are an integral part of that class of people
called tradesmen: part of the breed that takes Mother
Nature’s resources, harnesses them, and in the case of
water, pipes them through to each lot of land. Tradesmen
built the houses we live in, and the offices and factories
where we work. They connect cities and towns with
highways, railroads, and airports. They string lights
throughout the country and gave us clean drinking water and
fuel for heating our homes. They move the land and sea to
carve our way of life. They operate bulldozers and dynamite
and cut down mountains.
Anyone would aspire to be part of this industry, and yet it
seems like there is insufficient pride in noble profession of
plumbing today. Fifty years ago and more, being a tradesman
was a prideful thing. Large portions of South Africa’s
Plumbers make civilisations.
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population were blue-collar workers who made things with
their own hands, perfecting their own craft and mastering
their skills. The construction industry, of which plumbing is a
core part, built South Africa, and tradesmen were a thriving,
breathing, unstoppable force.
There was no bragging or bravado needed. They could do
the most physically demanding task like it was nothing, and
do it all day long only to move onto the next impossible task.
They were the best at what they did, and they knew it.
Children were proud of what their parent did for a living.
To such people, sitting in an office filling out paperwork or
answering phones sounds horrific. Why would anyone do that
when they could be doing meaningful, physically creative
work with their hands? What people sometimes fail to realise
is that while the bankers and businessmen are making
decisions on what to do with other people’s money or an
investment, plumbers are making life-or-death decisions
because the health of a nation is derived from clean drinking
water and effective sanitation. Puts it in perspective, doesn’t
it? Our problem is plumbers just make it look too easy.
Plumbers should be treated like royalty. However, where
plumbers are treated in any manner other than like royalty, it
is within our control to change that. The journey to changing
that is for every qualified plumber to regard him/herself like
royalty, and to start by being far more professional in the way
they conduct themselves.
People who work with their hands tend by nature to be
humble towards hard work, to be quiet and respectful human
beings with a certain type of dignity. This is quite different to
the egotistical banker or accountant, who has never had to
work until they literally bleed. The truth is plumbers
completely understand what it means to do meaningful work
and feel accomplishment. Everything that they do takes a
mastery of engineering, science, practical wisdom, financial
prowess, and years and years of experience that has been
passed down through centuries of craftsmen.
People — young people in particular — can feel great pride
in being part of the plumbing trade class.
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