Steel Construction Vol 40 No 2 - Tubular Steel Feature | Page 18

INDUSTRY NEWS: trends

By Amanuel Gebremeskel, The ‘roving engineer’

Ever since I started working at the Southern

airline in Africa. Not far from me sat a more

African Institute of Steel Construction

notable South African contribution to the

(SAISC) I have wanted to share the wealth

continent; Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and

of knowledge found within our industry

her entourage were travelling back to

with the rest of the continent. So I was

continue leading the African Union.

ecstatic when I received an invitation from
the Architecture Association of Ethiopia

Addis Ababa is a city that is under

(AEA) to travel to Addis Ababa and give a

construction.This makes travel in the city

talk on the state of the South African steel

difficult with most roads and paths blocked

industry.

by sand and gravel ready to be mixed with
cement. Concrete buildings are popping

The goal of the talk was to promote the

up in every corner to house people, stores,

industry and its Institute (SAISC) directly

and increasingly offices. I often sat in heavy

to the professionals who are in charge of

traffic thinking what it would mean for

designing Ethiopia.

citizens of the city if this messy boom could
be replaced by cleaner and faster steel

The flight from Johannesburg to Addis was

construction technology.

smooth.To add to the continental flavor

16 Steel Construction Vol. 40 No. 2 2016

we were carried there aboard Ethiopian

My talk was held in a conference hall at

Airlines – the largest and most profitable

Addis Ababa University’s Architecture