Steel Construction Vol 40 No 2 - Tubular Steel Feature | Page 12

SAISC PROFILE

quite rapidly from the point of view of the software side. I
think we’ll be bigger than we are at the moment.We’ll have
a different emphasis on the service we provide.We’ll be
doing more customising and providing tools to make people
more productive for the particular industries that they are
in. At the moment people rely on Tekla Structures and any
customising or application development they do themselves,
and they’re running out of development space and skills.
We will provide those skills. People will get a lot more benefit
using the software, and we’ll provide that benefit by tailoring
the software and providing additional applications.We’ll also
have a bigger geographical footprint.
Q: What professional accomplishment are you most
proud of?
A: Along the way, there are different things I’m proud of. At
an early stage I wrote some software called XYZ Calc Plus,
which at the time was the first 2 and 3 dimensional skeletal
analysis program available on PC. I didn’t know that. I
thought this technology would be available everywhere. So
that was a very proud accomplishment while I was doing my
MBA at UCT.

Some of buildings I’ve designed and the project teams I’ve
worked with have been really great. They’re not iconic
structures, but the way the teams came together and the way
the guys worked together, under difficult circumstances, and
put up some very good structures in a short space of time… I
always got a kick out of that.

Q: What do you value most about the SAISC?
A: I was fortunate enough to attend Hennie de Clerq, Alan
Kemp, Rob Young and Spencer Erling’s courses at an early
age. I learnt the practical ways of doing things that I’d learnt
at university, and I was able to implement that, which was
really great. I think the very valuable thing about the SAISC,
is that it’s done an amazing job of helping people to do
the things they do in the best way possible because of the
practical knowledge they gain through the SAISC. It’s an
amazing organisation because it’s a collection of professional
people who work for the institute as well as professionals
and others who are brought in from outside. They provide
an interesting mix of courses, meetings, input and it really
just makes it work. This business that we’re in, CADEX SA,
started from a chance visit. The SAISC brought a chap out,
Fikri Garres from the UK. Fikri had been building a standard
so that organisations could exchange information in the UK
called the CIS2 Standard. After the talk I had a chat to Fikri,
and he put me on to a couple of guys around the world,
including eventually Andre Cronje from France. Andre told
me what they did and what software they could provide, got
us trained and eventually came to us and said get out there
and sell this stuff to other guys, the country needs it! And
that’s how CADEX SA got started. It started from an initiative
of the Institute of Steel Construction. I don’t think they
thought about that. They just had this interesting speaker that
they brought out, but for us – it opened up a whole industry,
the steel detailing industry. That is the power that the Institute
of Steel Construction has.
10 Steel Construction Vol. 40 No. 2 2016

Top: 2015 Steel Awards Photo Competition, Sponsored by CADEX SA.
above: Launch of the Association of Structural Detailers (ASSD).

Q: What do you value most about the Steel Awards?
A: The thing I value most about the Steel Awards is that it
gives people the ability to showcase what they’ve done. Its
extraordinary what you find at the Steel Awards.You often
expect that the really big jobs will be done by the really
big guys and that’s not the case.You sometimes expect that
certain guys do certain types of work and suddenly you find
they do other types of work that you didn’t even know about.
You get companies that you believe may be mediocre, you
have this perception of them, and suddenly they pop up with
this amazing structure they’re involved with, with a fantastic
record of how it was developed and built. I think it lifts
everybody’s skills as well. It makes people realise that they’ve
got to market the projects and structures that they do, and
I think because it’s a competitive environment – people do
better. I think the industry is in a better space because of the
steel awards than they would be without it.
Q: What do you think the biggest opportunity is facing our
industry at the moment?
A: We have talented people in the industry of all ages. I think
we’re well positioned from that point of view. There’s an
under-utilisation of technology, and I think that will change –
which is an opportunity for the industry. The work will come
back. The challenge is getting into Africa and being broader
than we are at the moment… also a big opportunity. There
some bright young people and some very dedicated people at
the universities and training colleges. Some great people that
are dedicated to keeping this industry going and growing it,
which I think is very encouraging.We didn’t have that 10 or
15 years ago.We had a lack of young people in the industry.
Now that we have them, the challenge is getting the older
guys to share their knowledge with them and to position
them much better for the future.We will do well. I’ve no doubt
about that.