Burmeister & Partners

Burmeister & Partners (PTY) Ltd Multi-Disciplinary Consulting Engineers & Project Managers

BURMEISTER & PARTNERS

2 | Africa Outlook issue 91

CONSTRUCTION

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS FOR NAMIBIA We speak to Perez Goseb, Associate Director and Head of the Roads & Stormwater Department at Burmeister & Partners, about the practice’s provision of engineering consultation services within Namibia and the wider continent Writer: Marcus Kääpä Project Manager: Donovan Smith

Growing up in a small town, I had a love for the outdoors.

What really sparked my interest in engineering were the illustrations in the then popular encyclopaedias. I had the opportunity to gain more insight from practicing engineers in my last year of secondary

school, at which point I decided that civil engineering was for me.”

For Perez Goseb, Associate Director and Head of the Roads & Stormwater Department, at Burmeister & Partners, this early academic influence led him to the position that he holds today.

“I obtained a bursary from

Burmeister & Partners to pursue a degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town,” he reflects.

“I then joined the practice after completing my studies. After years of working in the design office and on multiple project sites across Namibia and Southern Angola, I was promoted

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BURMEISTER & PARTNERS

to the position of Associate Director and Head of the Roads & Stormwater Department.”

CIVIL ENGINEERING SERVICES A renowned practice based in Namibia, Burmeister & Partners exists as a multi-disciplinary consulting engineering company, offering the full spectrum of civil, structural, mechanical, electrical and project management services with over 41 years of local and pan-African experience.

“We are a Namibian owned company with the head office in the capital of Windhoek,” Goseb tells us. “We also have branch offices in Swakopmund (Namibia) and Kigali (Rwanda), which sets us up well to serve our clients.

“Our main capabilities and services include agricultural and industrial business, logistics and transportation solutions, hydro-business, urban development solutions, energy solutions, fuel and gas solutions, mining infrastructure solutions, building environment engineering solutions, 4 | Africa Outlook issue 91

Africa Outlook: How has COVID-19 affected Namibia and the civil engineering sector?

Perez Goseb, Associate Director and Head of the Roads & Stormwater Department: “Namibia has not been spared from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The necessary measures taken to save lives, has unfortunately led to a contraction in the economic. This has adversely impacted work prospects, not only in the engineering industry, but across the country as a whole.

“The reality is that some organisations have had to downsize, while some others have closed down altogether. A small comfort is that these changes in fortunes have spurred on skilled individuals to outsource their skills, to build on the gig economy.

“However, at the same time, the worldwide drive towards sustainable energy is the reason to be excited to be working in the engineering industry. This can be through direct involvement in the research and development of sustainable technologies or the delivery of auxiliary services such as access roads, water supply, electricity supply, among other aspects, to project sites.”

BACKGROUND Namibia Welding Building Civil Works (NWBC), is a family business and has been in existence for more than 30 years. Our strength lies in the ability to execute turnkey projects as we are a multidiscipllinary construction company. NWBC can do projects from earth works right to finishes, including major steel structures. The close corporation consists of two members and has a staff compliment of more than 80 people. Our company is actively involved in the following types of projects: Construction of schools, police stations, road blocks/border posts/investment houses, office buildings, clinics, telecommunication masts, water borehole installations, bulk services, civil works, government projects, a variety of structural steel projects, warehouses, shopping centers, workshops, security fences and rennovations.

Current management consists of Harold Mouton Snr, founding member, with over 40 years experience and his son Harold Mouton Jnr (Nat diploma Civil Engineering; B-Tech Structural Engineering) with 15 years experience.

Our aim is to build a sustainable business built on integrity.

Our head office is situated in Prosperita industrial park Windhoek with office and workshop facilities in excess of 3000m2.

We have satellite offices in strategic regions within Namibia but do however have the ability to work across the entire country as is often the case.

CLIENTS

Our clientele consists of a mixture between the private and Government sector. We try and maintain the balance to ensure sustainability. We want to continuously maintain a professional service of high standard and one which meets all the clients requirements with regards to quality, cost and duration.

Our objective is to be a market leader in the sector of the construction industry, and to maintain a high level of staff, environment and community wellness and awareness.

We strive to ensure that at the completion of a project, all parties involved will be satisfied with the end product which was delivered on time and within budget.

EQUIPMENT - OWNED - Rigging equipment - TLB’s - Tippers - Crane trucks - Bakkies - Compactors - Rammers - Scaffolding - Building tools - Concrete mixers - Bending machines - Welding machines P.O. Box 32111, Pionierspark, Windhoek. No 5 Gold Street, Prosperita, Windhoek.

Email: nwbc@iway.na | Cell no: +264 81 129 6403

Located in WINDHOEK, Namibia and is part of the Specialty Contractors Industry.

BURMEISTER & PARTNERS health and pharmaceutical solutions and special projects. Our client base consists of government agencies, private developers and investors on turnkey projects,” Goseb outlines.

Burmeister & Partners holds a philosophy based around being fluid, responsive and adaptable to the everchanging industry demands, as well as the notion of creating smart, creative and sustainable solutions for its clients whilst having due regard for the environmental, social and economic realities. It is this philosophy that has kept the company both contemporary and enduring. Burmeister & Partners’ multiple decades of experience has ensured an intrinsic understanding and knowledge of the demands in the Namibian and African engineering industry market.

Africa offers an abundance of raw resources and opportunities, and amid the industry challenges, Burmeister & Partners focuses on translating these opportunities into wealth.

INVESTING IN NAMIBIA A core and vital component to Burmeister & Partners’ operational success are the employees themselves. Because of this, and in recognition of their importance, the practice continually seeks to upskill and invest in its staff through continuous learning, for example by offering bursaries to prospective students in education in order to enhance their skill base.

But on top of this, it is equally Burmeister & Partners’ years of experience across a multitude of projects that make it stand apart from its industry competition. The company’s experience gives it a unique opportunity to hone the skills of its teams to allow it a competitive advantage, as Goseb explains.

“With vast experience we have developed expertise in niche fields such as road safety audits, traffic engineering and agri-industrial engineering, to name a few,” he says. “We also have access to other professionals and 6 | Africa Outlook issue 91

FROM PAST TO PRESENT Since its establishment in 1978, Burmeister & Partners have been an independent engineering firm of planners, designers, engineers, financial consultants, project managers, technical specialists, and facility managers working across the full spectrum of today’s infrastructure and built landscape.

In collaboration with its clients, the company converts exciting ideas into tangible projects and sustainable solutions. Burmeister & Partners’ strategy is to offer involvement, not only at the planning and engineering stages of new infrastructure and built developments, but also to provide pre-planning and after-sales support when needed. This is in order to successfully set-up, run and sustain new business ventures and infrastructure projects.

Burmeister & Partners offers complete innovative engineered solutions with legal compliance throughout a project’s life cycle. Its services may be provided in conjunction with specialists in the required fields, for example geotechnical investigations, environmental impact assessments, surveys, and more. All services are provided in different engineering stages, namely, reporting, preliminary and detail design, tender documentation and process, construction supervision, contract administration and project management.

CONSTRUCTION

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specialists across various industries with whom we collaborate, where needed, to provide clients a one stop shop option in the market.

“An example of this is our involvement as design engineers for the ongoing upgrading of district road DR3671 to low volume seal road standards (LVS) for the Roads Authority of Namibia. Namibia has a high-quality road network, however, there are still certain areas of our vast country which require surfaced roads for improved accessibility. Low volume seal roads are constructed to relaxed standards from standard bitumen roads at lower costs. In addition to the reduced implementation costs, the benefits of surface roads and savings on maintenance are some of the reasons the Roads Authority and the Road Fund Administration of Namibia have adopted this strategy. This initiative is further supplemented by research in the utilisation of sand, which Namibia

has plenty of, in road construction.

These are exciting times in road infrastructure development, and we are thrilled to be involved at the early stages of this initiative.”

Burmeister & Partners focuses on enhancing its service delivery making use of the latest design and draughting technologies, and its software and hardware suppliers additionally play a major role in the success of the business. In its drive towards honing expertise in sustainable energy solutions, the company acquired SolTec Solar Technology (Pty) Ltd. SolTec is a one-stop shop for renewable energy solutions and has been in operation

since 1996.

“Another of our ongoing projects is the design of access roads and pads for a wind farm in the south of Namibia. The project is for the design, documentation and construction supervision of roads to four wind turbine sites,” Goseb tells us.

“With sustainable energy being a global initiative, Burmeister & Partners are excited to be involved on this project, which would position the company favourably on projects of a similar nature in the future; a future that we all have to work towards for the betterment of society and the environment.”

BURMEISTER & PARTNERS Tel: +264 61 379 000 bp@burmeister.com.na www.burmeister.com.na

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Burmeister & Partners (PTY) Ltd Multi-Disciplinary Consulting Engineers & Project Managers

BURMEISTER & PARTNERS Windhoek Namibia (Head Office) Corner of Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo & Van Zyl Streets, Suiderhof Mr. Ronald Kubas Tel: +264 61 379 000 bp@burmeister.com.na www.burmeister.com.na PRODUCED BY AFRICA OUTLOOK MAGAZINE