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After matriculating, Frikkie
first completed his military training before pursuing his passion to become a
civil engineer. His BTech in Civil Engineering at the Central University of
Technology was the step that paved the way to a nine year stay at Ninham Shand
before venturing to form his own successful civil engineering consulting firm,
Dibanani.
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As an avid AllyCAD user Frikkie learnt how to operate the program inside and out
and then taught his brother who now handles all the AllyCAD designs at Dibanani
on the programs capabilities. "AllyCAD is a fast clever package that allows you
to do big things with limited resources. From this application I've progressed
to work on other modules within the Civil Designer range and find the Sewer
program to be especially useful," he explains.
Dibanani is based in Bloemfontein and consists of Frikkie who is the MD and his
brother Erik who handles the CAD designs for the company. They also have one
Technician in the PE region and another in Aliwal North. "Most of our projects
are handled in the Eastern Cape and at the rate we are going we may have to
appoint additional staff. I am also busy training a Technikon student with the
aim of making him a full time design Technician within the business."
Projects handled by this dynamic company vary and range from a R25 million low
cost housing project in Area 13 Dukhathole, Aliwal North comprising of 300 erven
with corresponding services, to sanitation projects like Herschel. "The
Dukhathole project in Aliwal North is nearing its completion with the second
phase of 480 erven due to commence shortly. We are also working on the Herschel
sanitation project which requires sewer services for 700 erven. This project was
requested by the Department of Housing with the intention of improving water
supply and sanitation within the Ukhahlamba district municipality."
Dibanani was tasked with the upgrade of the existing sewer system which was in a
very bad state, resulting in street overflows. The sewer system design also
included two pump stations. “One of our biggest project challenges was getting
around the many dongas. The area forms part of the old Transkei region which
made trenches caused by erosion highly problematic."
"We eventually created a steel structure over the dongas and placed the pipe inside it to prevent people from walking over it. Community reaction to this project within the Ukhahlamba district municipality is extremely positive as people are receiving basic orientation on what they can do to help preserve oxidation ponds. It sounds incredibly basic but you'll be surprised how the do's and don't of something like washing powder can affect things," he explains.
The construction team for the Herschel sanitation project has been awarded in a joint venture and consists of Ngelethu and Lady Gray Joinery & Construction. According to Frikkie, the first phase of the project is likely to be completed in September 2007 and if an extension is approved, this will be completed by March 2008. The entire project has a total value of R14 million.
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