2007 Showcases >>

The old way of planting a tree into the soil and then letting nature take its course is over. Today we can optimize everything scientifically in order to guarantee the best yields in fruit," says Agricultural Consultant Daan Brink from Agricultural Consulters International (ACI) in Somerset West.... read more

The huge variety of projects that senior professional land surveyor Ken Snowball has had to deal with while working for the City of Cape Town range from measuring swimming pools for international competitions where the lengths have to be determined to the millimeter... read more

Michelle Marijnen always dreamt of working for a company that would take the time to invest in her professional development and ongoing training. Africon Engineering International is a company that incorporates these values, prompting Michelle to make a formal application... read more

One of the subjects that lie very close to the heart of Walter Mercuur is the level of education that will ultimately affect the quality of tomorrow's engineers. With the change in the Curriculum Statement, the subject components for Civil Technology and Engineering Graphics & Design have undergone a major transformation... read more

The Young Professionals Forum (YPF) emerged two years ago with two crucial objectives: to attract young people to the engineering profession and to create an adequate support system so that engineers remain in the industry. These were the objectives that were placed on Jana van der Merwe’s shoulders ... read more

Tsitsikamma is a Khoi word meaning 'place of abundant sparkling water'. However it was water of a different nature that the Masuku Dube Tifflin (MDT) engineers were to deal with when they took on the Storms River West sewer project. ... read more

“The draughtsmen of today have it all too easy. I started draughting when I was eighteen years old and back then everything was done by hand under the watchful eye of our relentless teachers. Each line had to be drawn with painful precision and because it was all done by hand it was very frustrating...” read more

Nosimphiwe "Nono" Mginywa became the first black woman to do the Roads Advanced Training course in 2005 and surprised every male student with an impressive performance. It was also her keen interest in road design that led her to the doors of Masuku Dube Tifflin in Port Elizabeth ... read more

Yvette Rundle began her career at a tiny drawing office in the Post Office where she worked for nineteen years. A new more exciting chapter began at the design office of Kwezi V3 Engineers, allowing her to expand her creativity like never before...
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There comes a time in everyone’s life when you boldly decide to step into the unknown and try something different. For Marike Vreken, this bold move happened in June 2004 when she resigned from VPM Planning to start up her own company, Marike Vreken Town Planners. .... read more

“There’s no such thing as pressure, you simply do what you have to do in the time that you have. It’s as simple as that,” says senior Town Planner Paul Louw from George Municipality, demonstrating his hands-on approach in the workplace. “As a Town Planner you have many responsibilities.... read more

It all started one Sunday afternoon with an advertisement in the Sunday Tribune. The advertisement read: City of Durban seeks deserving students who would like to apply for work and study bursaries in the field of civil engineering. When Mark Moonsamy made application, he never imagined in his wildest dreams.... read more

H Ross Perot, American businessman and politician said, "Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationships." .... read more

“With the right attitude and commitment to your goals, you can basically achieve anything,” says Phil Farrant, GIS Manager for Buffalo City Municipality. Phil is a man with an incredible vision; he is passionate about ArcGIS and has introduced AllyCAD as the ideal feeder to the existing GIS system... read more

"When you get on site, always expect the unexpected, because what's in or under the ground is not on the drawing." Lukas Edwards spends a lot of time on site making sure that the unexpected is dealt with properly and professionally. "It's not the plan that is important, it's the planning,"... read more

Every business is built on friendship, said James Cash Penny, founder of the mighty American retail chain, JC Penny's. Jared E. Mrema knows this only too well, as he needs friends just to survive. Originally from Dar es Salaam, Jared came to Botswana in 1998 and joined his friend in V A Associates (Pty) Ltd,... read more

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water," said Rabindranath Tagore, an Indian poet and philosopher. In April 2000, Sanjiva K. Sharma stopped staring at the Indian Ocean and arrived in Gaberone from the sub-continent with his family. "I wanted to have a new challeng... read more

Paul Silayi radiates enthusiasm as he bounces down the passage, his face beaming with a confident smile. He is passionate about engineering and enjoys using engineering software, Civil Designer and AllyCAD. "At the last company I worked for, we received a job with a very tight deadline... read more

When farmers in the Moamba/Sabie district of the province of Maputo visited the Nkomazi area in Mpumalanga, they were greatly impressed by the activities and success of these small-scale sugar cane farmers. From this visit an idea was born to work together to develop a similar project in the district of Moamba... read more

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"Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no matter how frightening or difficult, a new meaning." Motivational speaker Og Mandino may have had Althea Povey in mind when he came up with this... read more

When you walk into the Habitat Research and Development Centre (HRDC), you find yourself stepping back in awe as you admire the structural masterpiece that greets you. The centre is built with virtually zero cost low-grade material found in rural areas, allowing local residents to be educated on the use of alternative... read more

Some of the most beautiful homes in and around the Western Cape have been designed by Pierre Marais, owner of Pierre Marais Architectural Designs. Each one of his designs is characterised by a high level of meticulous detail and a strong focus on customer service. “When I design a client’s home, I like to get to know... read more

Surveyors are the first people into the green fields to prepare the landscape for future development. People tend to take the hidden parts of infrastructure for granted. Turn on the tap and water just comes out. "Sometimes in the planning not enough emphasis is placed on these non-visible services... read more

For the people in the Insika Yethu Municipal area, collecting water is very hard work. Approximately 75% of the population relies on rivers, springs and small open dams for their water supply. This figure is likely to drop to 55% with the completion of the current water network projects... read more

Owen Hensburg has been with the South African National Ports Authority (NPA) for twenty-eight years, and has survived many industry changes in the last decade. The NPA is owned and controlled by Transnet and has the government as sole shareholder... read more

The Central University of Technology (CUT), in the Free State, has seen many successful graduates land top positions in the Civil Engineering Industry. According to Nico Grobbelaar, lecturer in Civil Engineering, the incorporation of... read more

What grabs your attention immediately with Lappies Labuschagne and Marius Strydom is their firm handshake and warm, friendly smile. Based at the water and sanitisation division of the Mangaung Municipality, these two draughts-men explain how they came to use AllyCAD... read more

Matt Pepe of Bellville based Tritan Survey trading as Matt Pepe & Associates is part of a team that has travelled extensively on the African continent to survey sites for the retail giant Shoprite/Checkers. Areas visited include Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania... read more

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The Mayer Engineering office produces large amounts of intricate mechanical designs and lies tucked away in the heart of Paarl. One of their recent designs include plans for the development of a machine that will automate the process of wool removal from sheepskin... read more

With a new office opening in Umtata during August, NzeleNzele, Preston & Medcalf, is continuing to display the strong growth that they have experienced over the last few years. Now with offices in Port Elizabeth, East London, Queenstown and Port St Johns, partner Mike Medcalf says that they are ready to service the... read more

He's been designing buildings for nearly half a century and is in no hurry to slow down or retire. Architect John Kingsley-Hall received his degree in 1954 from Natal University and has designed buildings as diverse as a Hindu temple, churches, homes, hospitals and even a beach theatre as well as an energy saving... read more

The bright colours and precisely sculpted lines come alive at the desk of Johannes J ("call me JJ") Pretorius as he manipulates his CAD software to design the livery of one of SA Airways' new Airbus aircraft, which are replacing the airline's Boeing fleet. Indeed, some of the most dramatically visible examples of our... read more

"One of the worst things that could happen to a Professional Land Surveyor in the field, in times past, was finding that someone had permanently removed the survey flag from one of your stations or beacons, when reaching the top of the mountain that you had just spent two hours clambering up. The things that I said... read more

"We have the finest land tenure system in the world, it is accurate and it works well," says James Florence, a twenty-year veteran in the Surveyor General's Office in Cape Town. James is responsible for checking that all submitted diagrams are accurate and then passing them on for approval... read more

"The SKC WasteModel(c) program has been used successfully in Pretoria and Durban. We have actually used students to collect waste bags that we then analyse for the waste stream analysis. The content of the bag tells the story," says Chris McKay, manager of the Durban office of SKC Engineers... read more

"In 1945, Heathrow was just a couple of tents in an open field. Fifty years ago, airport buildings as we know them today did not exist," says Themba Mtetwa softly. Themba is the founder and owner of Mtetwa & Associates who were awarded the contract to design the ground level of Durban Airport... read more

The skill of Gary Benatar in designing, planning and managing Industrial Logistic Systems (Pty) Ltd (ILS) is in demand worldwide. Earlier this year, Black & Decker-Europe's parts and accessories distribution centres (DC's) throughout Europe were consolidated into a massive single entity in Brussels to take advantage... read more