The Civil Engineering Contractor July 2019 | Page 30

PROFILE
to ‘make a plan’, when the normal
way of doing things does not work.”
The undeniable highlight of his
career was starting up Gauteng
Piling from nothing in 1996, with
the help of Barrow Construction.
“It was probably a mistake not going
on my own earlier in life — I was
becoming stale, and only did so
when I had a disappointment in a
promotion possibility. However, I’m
a firm believer in timing — and the
time was right when I went on my
own. There were people willing to
back me, which probably wouldn’t
have happened five years earlier.
Working to get the company so well
recognised and successful still gives
me a lot of satisfaction.”
He was founder, co-owner and
managing director of Gauteng
Piling until October 2010, when
he was kicked upstairs to become
chairman. He retired and handed
the reins to his son, Ignatius Maas.
On the latter’s emigration he
commenced working full-time again
at the beginning of 2019.
Maas’ real contribution has not
been in simply running his own
successful business, but a leadership
role he has assumed in the industry
and manifold intellectual participation
in professional platforms and
academia. He returned to university
in 1986-1988 studying part-time at
the University of Pretoria for M.Eng
(Constr. Management) with his
dissertation, ‘Low Utilisation and its
influence on Plant Management’.
As a result, throughout his working
life he has received many awards.
“For this I am grateful — a lasting
highlight of my career has been the
recognition of the industry.” His
leading accolade, he suggests “was
when I was appointed chairman of
Federated Employers Mutual”.
Major challenges
During a long career, it is inevitable
that Maas would face some more
challenging projects. He lists these
as “getting difficult contracts to
28 | CEC July 2019
completion, among them being the
river bridges in Wilderness, the two
silo contracts at Lichtenburg, the river
bridge in Soweto and the silo contract
for PPC in Hercules, Pretoria”.
“Many sleepless nights were spent
thinking and working on solutions.
Nowadays I go to sleep easily, asking
the Lord to give me the solutions
and then waking up knowing what
to do. I am very honoured to have
experienced a lot of good things in
life, including workwise, golfwise and
in associations like Master Builders.
“The Baakens River Bridges,
in 1976, when I just started with
Grinaker, was an important project,
where difficult piling conditions and
a very tight programme meant that
we had to work a double shift. Seeing
that being completed on time was
indeed satisfying. Many other projects
also had their challenges and when
completed gave satisfaction. When
you work in piling the underground
conditions very often change from
what could have been foreseen and
dealing with these is satisfying.”
Notwithstanding highlights and
challenges, Maas — like many other
civil engineering contractors — lists
the present state of the construction
industry as being “in its worst state
ever”. Not only is there not enough
work, but payment has become “a
nightmare”, and conditions so bad
that a large number of contractors
are closing down voluntarily or
being liquidated.
Piling is high risk, explains Maas,
and a mistake that companies make is
to spend too much on equipment on
borrowed money in an environment
where even the few contracts available
come at almost no margin. “In this
industry, if you have a comeback —
it’s major.”
“Subcontractors are the ones that
suffer most, because most of the
work is being done by subcontractors
these days. Unless something drastic
is done to ensure that payments are
done in 30 days, more contractors
will close down and the skills will
be lost. The youngsters leave the
country in droves, because they do
not see a future in South Africa.
When government [finally] starts
spending taxpayers’ money wisely,
on infrastructure, it may be too late
and skills will have to be imported,”
chides Maas.
An uncertain future
“Technology is playing a larger and
larger part in all spheres of life
and construction is no exception.
Piling machines can already operate
remotely and the days of using a
tacheometer for setting out is also
old-fashioned. Artificial Intelligence
will be used to predict outcomes
and assist in making decisions and
we have to adapt, or we’ll be left
behind. Notwithstanding all that, I
do believe that there will always be
a place for entrepreneurs and hard
working people.
“Newly graduated engineers must
find a job where they can learn from
basics and get the right experience.
There are not enough engineers in
South Africa, yet we have qualified
engineers who cannot find a job.
However, too many youngsters do
not want to start at the bottom. When
we started as young engineering
graduates we had to fold drawings
and measure areas with planimeters.
The advent of super computers make
it easy to do most of the mundane
tasks a lot quicker, but they still have
to be done,” he adds.
He offers some advice to today’s
youth, to ask questions more: “One of
the mistakes I made in my early years
was not asking enough questions. It’s
only later when I was speaking to a
guy Ben Spies, who said, ‘You only
ever want to tell people what to do,
but you must learn to ask questions.’
I took that advice on board, and it
transformed my life. I learned that if
you’re in a tight spot, you can get out
by asking questions and let the other
guy think. It gives you time to think
more clearly.” nn
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