Issuu

GRMKER e4ZETTE JUNE

1984

NO 23

Grinaker Equipment Co. a force to be reckoned with by Emil Gebhardt

Emil Gebhardt is a product ol the hard sihool. He served his apprenticeship as a mechanic with Msrcedes in Germany and was transferred to South Africa in 1953. He lelt Mercedes to spend seven years with Barlows Tractor Division on f ield service throughout the country, then ioined Cramond Earth Movers in Swaziland as a mechanic in 1960. He became part of Grinaker when Cramond was taken over by.Grinaker in 1963. He was made a workshop foreman in 1964 and rose to become a directot of Grinaker Plant and Grinaker Construction in 1970. He was made managing director of Grinaker Plant in 1980. He is currently chairman of Grinaker Equipment Company and a director of G naker Holdings.

Grinaker Equipment Company, our latest corporate diversification, had its beginnings back in the early 70s when, as Grinaker Plant, we started selling off redundanl machines lrom the Maragra project, a joint venture belween ourselves and Murray & Roberts. ln 1972 weacquired the Erlau tyre protectjon chain franchise and therealter that 01 the towed Universal Grader. ln.l982 Grinspares was {ormed for the purpose of selling used parts and we commenced the manufacture of our medium sized selJpropelled grader, the Grademaster. Grinaker Equipment Company, however, really came into being with the acquisition of the franchlse for Liebherr, the leaders in construction

equipmenl in Europe, not only in size but also in technology. The agreement w:th Lisbherr was signed jn September 1982 at Colmar in France, and the birth ot a tully committed construction equjpment supplying company became a reality. Since then we have acq u ired other com plementary Jranchises such as Intertracior undercarriage systems, Apex and Bofor wearparts and .ecently the Haulmaster 6668, a 25t articulated dump truck. As a company in the Grinaker family we have embraced the group philosophy ol honesty and integrity in business. Our aim is to provide our customers with a reliable, technologically advanced product which is well serviced and supported and aided by the expertise we have gained over many years in the constructjon induslry. ln our short exislence we have already become a {orce to be reckoned with in the market place. We have eslablished branches in Natal, the Cape and at Sparlan in the Transvaal. We will open our Port Elizabeth depot in July this year and we hope to move into our own premises at Access Park in September 1985. From the outset it has been our policy to establish our presence nationally and wilhin all major growth centres. Our aim is to gear ourselves towards obtaining a realistic market share. Recognizing the Grinaker maxim thal a business succeeds because of its people, we have attracted a high ly qualif ied team ol top people who, together with the former Grinaker Plant head oltice slafl, form the foundation o1 our new company on which we will continue to b u ild. This together with forceful sales, service and product support will enable us to look wilh confidence to the luture. Earthmoving equipment has come through several phases ol development. The introduclion of even more sophisticated machines is inevitablâ‚Ź with hydraslalic propulsjon and operation being the lirst step and, possibly, gas turbine powered units with complicated transmission systems to follow. I also toresee the operator as we know him today bejng replaced by electronic operating syslems. These technological advances will rapidly take place. Machine seleclion crileria, operation and maintenance will become as important and exacting as they are in the aircra{t industry o{ loday. ln {uturs the purchase of new earlhmoving equipment will require a proportionalely h;gher capital outlay than at present. ln conjunction with Liebherr's know-how and our other high quality produci iines, we loresee a bright luture for Grinaker Equipment Company. Our motto is Always something extra: technology quality service.

Gtinaker Galene ,lune 19A4

R70m contract nears completion at Ulco The group's bi ggest-ever construction involvement is winding down successf ully

Part

of the massive Anglo-Alpha cement factory being constructed at Ulco by the Concor-Grinaker ioint

venture team

a't;:,1rt:-' .-

ax!rt:*

-.-

The site covers an area of approximately 50ha. Ghnaket Gazette June 1934

Irlt*if

Concor and Grinaker team up again to do their biggest-ever contract for an old client - Anglo-Alpha supplies and materials had to make the long journey from "A fantastic team spirit deve loped on site," says Grinaker contract director

Howard J ones

min istra tion

Jo han nesbu rg.

There are extremes ol heat, cold,

wind and dust and

lack

organized after-hours entertain ment. Yet a fantastic team spirit developed among members of the Concor-Grinaker team on site. This spirit was in large measure due to the womenlolk who met the challenge of two years in the isolation of Ulco with great success. We also want to thank the local population of Ulco who accepted us with open arms and made our stay the pleasure it has been.

"85 000 cubic metrcs

of concrete have been poured to date," says chief surveyor

The Concor-Grinaker jo int venlure for Anglo-Alpha at Ulco is virtually complete. The f inal conlract value will be approximately R70 million achieved in two years. lt is the biggest single contract ever undertaken by either Concor or Grinaker, or by both companies working to-

agent), Johnny Zaremba (general foreman) and Arnold Olivier (ad-

Tim Fynn

) the contract is

tailing off quite rapidly. Mention

u ld also be made of the larger b-contracto rs who contrib uted very significantly to the whole

sho su

elfort, namely Bravo Construction on earlhworks under Hubert Herb, Amalgamated Reinfo rcing under lan Broderick, Derek Rothman Co n str u ctio n (structural steel erection) under Ron Gray and Cape Steel with contact man John Thomas on site. We should not lorget the smaller ones too numerous to mention. On the social and sporting fronts, concor-Grinaker f ormed teams for cricket, rugby and soccer and took on the local teams as well as sides from Concor Cape and Grinaker North and managed to win every game. Three ralt races were orqanized on the Vaal River with dillerent win ners emerging each time. Vast improvements in the rafts have been seen, brouq ht about main ly by a floating trophy

donated by Barker and Collins, consulting civil engineers on the p

roject.

gether as they have often done rn

the past. The Concor-Grinaker respon sibility involved all the civil and slructural work for a single-unit cement factory which will have a production capacity oI some 4500t of cement per day. Thrs makes it one of the largest factories of its kind in the western world. The s uccess of the venture u nde rlines the ability ol Concor and Grinaker to pool resources and work together. lt also perpetuates a long-standing relationsh ip with

Anglo-Alpha (an Anglovaal

company) which dates back to the thirties when Grinaker built the Anglo-Alpha cement factory on the West Ra nd. Ulco is in a semi-remote, semidesert area Bskm jrom Kimberley and 550km from Johannesburg. ln spite ol its relative proximity to Kimberley most ot our important 2

Since last going to press much has happened at Ulco where the project is about eightyjive per cent completed. 85 000m3 of concrete have been poured, 8 400t of reinforcing steel have been lixed and approximately 5000t ol structural steel have been erected. lnterestingly, the total tonnage ol reinforcing and structural steel exceeds the tonnage of mechanical production eq u ipment to be in stalled. A{ter some ad m irable teamwork by the Concor-Grinaker joint venture under the watchful eyes of Howard Jones (contract director), Dave King from Concor (site

Johnny Zaremba, general toreman

Robbie Schmidt, plant agent Gtin.ket Gazette JLne 1944

llltlil

and then there was the building side

"A high standard

of finishes has been demanded by the client,"

by Greg Smit

rlII

The building work at Ulco Kiln Five for Anglo-Alpha consists of the construction ol all the ancillary buildings and finishes wrthin the main structu re.

The brick and mortar team comprises a combination of personnel from Grinaker Building and

Concor West, with myself as bu ild in g agent, Andreas Kralft (Concor) as tech n ic ian, Rudi

Sturm (Concor) and Fernando da Costa as loremen and Lucas Jannetjies as sen ior clerk. The ancillary bu ild ings consist of

the ad ministration building, control and laboratory centre. main stores, wo rksho p, amenity block, despatch and gate house. A high standard of finishes has been demanded by the client. Speciallst finishes include textu red coatings to walls, terrazzo for floors and steps, scratch-resistant alu minium f rames and featured blockwork. For this work trained personnel and su b-co ntractors have had to be brought in lrom Johannesburg and su rrou nd ing a

reas.

We were delighted to have the client request Grinaker lvlasonry s new products. grey Flutex Six and Trutex, which were used on the workshop and main store buildings. The first building was started in February 1983 and the last building is programmed tor completion at the end of July 1984. Gnnaket Gazette JDne 1934

,:,,:gf

./..

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.**

IfIEfir Amalgamated Reinforcing played a major role "ln our busiest month we produced 1 200t,"

by lan Broderick

ln October 1982. Concor-G

rin-

aker joint ventu re sub-contracted

to Amalgamated Reinforcing the supply and fixing of rebar Ior the Ulco contract. This enabled us to put our advanced ideas on site operatio ns to the test. A rebar yard consisting of three lines and two gantry cranes was immediately set up on site. Key men were imported f rom both our Empangeni and New Germany branches to o pe rate the machines, while the labo u rers were all locals. Our fixing stalf rapidly increased and it wasn't long belore we had four supervisors and twenty fixing teams on site. This made a total of approximately two

hundred people, including a nucleus oI seventy Zulus. The remainder were either recruited locally

came f rom Taung which

,x.1i Y..

is 150k m from Ulco. At the time ol pricing the job we were asked to produce some 400t a month, and to peak at 6001. As usual the d rawings a rrived late, so when we linally got the green

light it was all systems go. We never really settled down to a steady 400t a month and both men and machines were put to the test. A 600t a month peak now became the norm. Our busiest

month was August 1983 when we were called on to produce 1200t. A stag gerin g 748lwere produced in the Ulco yard. The remainder

was made up by contributions rom both Johannesburg and

Welkom.

All praise must go to the men in

the field, who pulled together

when the chips were down and were able to carry out what ever was asked of them.

,-N ..a.:

Braai team in action. Gerhard Gomez, Augusto Esteves, Mario Fernandes, Joe da Costa, Fernando da Costa, Manuel dos Santos, 'Marques' Marques (Concor), Arnold Olivier (btaaimaster)

Billy Zurchet, plant man Gnnaket Gazeue JLno 1984

Illlalil

Some of the people on site

Back: Kobus Joubert, Joe da Costa, Johnny Zaremba, Craig Mohle, Anton van der Westhuizen', Tim Fynn, Mark Alberts. Fernando da Costa. Centre: Mark Smith, Mauro Dudine., Herkies Oosthuizen, Peter Goldsmith,

Robbie Eitzen., Rudi Sturm., Andreas Krafft", Manuel dos Santos, Gerhard Gomez, Mario Fernandes. Front: Rodger Hoopet, Gary de Kokt,'Marques"Marques., Greg Smit, Robby Dolf Oosthuizen, Mac Cassimirc., .Concor Schmidt, Salvador Martlns

Andreas Krafft., Budi Sturm. , Johnny Zaremba, Greg Sm it,

-Concor rnando da Costa, Lucas Jannetiies

Back: Motris Mattala, Netson Ngobeni, Alfred Mngwenya, Edward Gaogiwe, sylvestu Kgopodimetsi, samuel zulu, eiOion NaaOa, Netson R ilityane, i ackson Kona, John Mzwane, Meshack Md unyelwa, Simon Shabalala, Johannes Makua, Anloiv Lenkai. Danrct Mo'totshwa. Centre: wilson Mabaso, John Sebekedi. Andrcw Seame, Bennet Kubai. William Mokoena, Sabela Mngu,ni, u;ii'ooui","Att",t Mabuseta, Benjamin Jayi, Petros Ndaba, Daniel Matangana, Jannie Nisiai,oane Matinise. Front: Joseph Chaka, Wittiam Setebogo, Jeremiah Kgos-ing, Amos Gasela, Zacharia Legong,.Mde

a;iidtixi", ati,ea patjie, Johannes

Mahanukani, Cameion Bhavuma, Morakabe Mothabeng, Joharnes Setshe/e, Eckion Chauke, Shadrack Ndobela, Mfukuzela Bokili

naket Gazette

J'ne

1934

A landm ark in the making on Durban's Esplanade trlt.Lf

: ,

:,,:i{I:aA

6ee' -_-4 Grinaker Projects is the main contractor lor 'Mona Road', the fourteen storey oflice block being built for Frcight Services on the Esplanade in Durban.

Tony Claassen

excavation for and construction ot the pilecaps on this very restricted site bordered by two busy roads. p rog ram me req uires completion of the main frame including precast facade panels by October

The

1984 and handing over to the client by l\,4arch 1985. To ach ieve th is we have lo com plete the 1000m, ol tloor area in a cycle time of nine days. This prestigious office block, new headquarters of the Freight Ser-

\.. 'Mona Road', the fourteen storey oflice block being conslructed for Frelght Services, is rising fast at the corner ot Mona Road and the Esplanade in Durban. A pilecapping ceremony heralded the end of the piling contract, completed on time by Grinaker Piled Fou ndatlons early in October 1983. Grinaker Natal then commenced 6

Gnnaket Gazete JDne 1941

iti

li t!

vices group Durban,

comPanies in

will consist of

eleven

floors of s pacio us, aircond itioned ofJices and th ree floors of pa rking. The strik ing precast con crete facade panels with the ir exposed aggregate finish of pink quartz from Zululand will make this building a landmark overloo kin g the harbo u r. The construction consists oI

post-tensioned troughed-slab

Iloors constructed with the use of the.rnbonded cable system. Th is enables stressing and the removal of Iibreglass troughs to take place three days after concreting.

Grinaker Projects is lhe main contractor. Grinaker Natal is the main sLrb-contraclor and is

responsible for the co nstruction of the building's concrete mainf rame, including brickwork, plastering, tilin g, post-ten sio n in g, painting, waterprooJing and the erection oI the precast panels. By the end of April three and a half floors had been completed and the lift shaft had reached hall

oI its final height of fifty{wo

metres. The h yd rau lic self -climb-

ing shutter system is being used on the lift shaft, achieving a two Gnnaket Gazetle Jtne 1931

metre lift every third day. A pour every second day will be Possible after lurther streamlining of the

operation. The shape of the lift core on plan view has seven external corners and seven internal corners and numerous box-outs and rebates. The staff on site consists of mYself as site agent, Tom Lundy as general foreman, [,4anuel de Souza and Steve Lucken on the decks and Reg Gounden on the lift shaft. Chris Rex is engineer, surveyor and vice-captain of the

nbeaten darts leam, Robin Gopal and Robert Lutchmea do L

the clerical work and

Steve

Nicolay and Lars Jerg form the student contin gent. Grinaker Projects man on site rs

Dave Watson, supported bY Siegf ried Neuschafer in Jo-

han nesbu rg.

Construction on the site is now entering a new phase with nummerous sub-contractors waiting to emerge f rom the wings as soon as the backprops are removed. Work will soon begin on the f irst oI the eleven typical floor slabs. This will sim plity construction for eve ryo ne.

by Dave Maree

The berm being used to put the Umfolozi River back on its old course

With the recent floods resulting from the cyclone Domoina, the Umfolozi River broke its banks in a

mber of p laces, flood ing cane

larms for kilometres arourid on the Umlolozi Flats. At one particular spot the river broke its banks, carved a new course across cane farms arid linked up with the Umzinduzi River some eight kilometres to the

This is what the flood did to the marshalling yard.

south east, causing u n believable damage to the s u rround ing co untryside. Ou r task was to repair so me ol the

more serious breaks in the old

course and having done th is to divert the river back into its old cou rse.

Our team had Joe Lancaster in charge, GIyn McCalgan as surveyor and Victor Da Silva on plant. Using a D9 bulldozer, two

TS14 scrapers and Iwo

672

scrapers and back-up plant we set about taming the Umfolozi.

At one critical stage of the river di-

version the chaps worked thirtyfive hou rs without a break an d still had enough energy left lor beers a{terwards with a Iew of the local larmers. lt was a great effort. 8

A giant girder was carried several kilometres lrcm the old bridge, which was destroyed. Gtinaket Gazette June

19A4

Grinaker returns to old stamping ground New contract on Durban's Maydon Wharf

Piling in full swing on Maydon Wharf in Durban hatbour, where Grinaker Natal and Grinaker Piled Foundations are reconstructing Whart Eight

by Dave Erskine

first Benoto piling rig

timber decking. Our task is to

now.

it with a concrete wharl supporled by cast-in-situ piles.

Nearby are the sugar terminal buildings built by Grjnaker at

The contract is worth R2,54 million with a sub-contract of

was brought out lrom France to work near the spot where we are busy

much the same time. As a matter

of interest, Hans'Benoto'

Klaas,

Grinaker Piled's contracts man-

ager on our present contract,

worked on that original piling job. And the present district manager

for the client, South African

Grinaker is once again working on the Maydon Wharf in Durban harbou r. Back in 1965thegroup's A

naket Gaze\e JLne 1981

Transport Services, was a junior engineer on the same project. This time Grinaker Natal supported by Grinaker Piled Foundations are reconstructing Wharf Eight. lt was originally built in 192'1 with precast piling and

remove the existing wharl and re-

place

R700 000 to crinaker Pited Foundations. This is a designand-construct undertaking and the design was done by the consu lting engineers, van Niekerk, Kleyn and Edwards. Work started in April this yearand

the contract period is

fifteen months. At the moment the piling

is in full swing with the team working a double shitt to

complete a pile every day. Fiftyfive piles of one metre dlameter are required. Each isthirty metres

long and the founding depth is twenty-seven metres below sea leve l.

Hans'Benoto'Klaas is piling contracts manager with Loek Smits, Piet van Heerden and Wilson Mooi running the operation on site. So far the work done has consisted largely of piling. By the time we make our next report the construction side will be in tull swing. On the construction side, John Jackson is contracts manager, am site agent and Howard Watson is assistant site agent. Basie Schutte is general f oreman, Jonas Ngwase is senior section leader and Jabulani Maluleka is the site cle rk. Working in a marine environment

i1 I a

ii-Y r:, i;-

is something diflerent

i-v

ii ',1

for

Grrnaker these days. Perhaps th is is why several oJ our dry-landers have already been for involuntary swims in the bay.

A Benoto working near the spot where Gtinaker's first piling rig operated 10

Back: Basie Schutte, Howard WaBon, Jonas Ngwase, Loek Smits. Front: Dave Erskine, Jabulani Maluleka G

naket Gazette

Jlne

1944

answers u rgent call to replace bridges G rinaker by Bernard Haak

Cyclone Domoina struck Swaziland on January 29 and 30, 1984. During this period the eye of the cyclone passed from north to south through the centre ot the country. The two day recorded rainfall was more than 500mm at virtually all rain recording stations, the highest rainfall for a two day period ever recorded in

New bridge to replace the old at Ngwavuma

February. Grinaker Swaziland was awarded the contract for the

reconstructio n of the lvlhlatuzane and Ngwavuma River bridges on 29 February. Contract value is R2.025 million. The contracts manager for both jobs is Arnold Klintworth.

over the Mhlatuzane, Usutu and Ngwavuma Rive rs.

Two teams moved into Swaziland on 12 February. Derek Alderson, Damiao De Souza and their crew took on the work at the lvlhlatuzane Brver near Siphofaneni. This includes reconslruction of the

is cou ntry. Wh ile some damage was caused by high winds, the bulk ol the damage was caused by flooding rivers. Three casualties of the water were the railway bridges

Swaziland Railways called rn Grinaker to assess the damage caused and to submit proposals with costs for the repair of the bridges. After a two day site investigation had been carried out

south abutment, south pier and forly-eight metres of inc re mentally launched deck, as well as embankment J ill and track layin g.

design had been drawn up by Mr Harry Mills of Van Niekerk, Kleyn and Edwards, a proposal and

Fanie van den Berg, myself and our crew sot up operations at the Ngwavuma River at Nsoko. Here the work includes construction of

by helicopter on 13 and 14 February and a speedy basic

rice were submitted to Swaziland Railways on 20 p

deck, embankment fill and track laying. Bejore we moved to site there was concern at the prospect ot working in the bush outside the Republic, with the associated problems regarding comm unications. accommodation and supply oI materials. However, the teams on both sites found the Swazi people very friendly and helpluland soon had co mf o rtable olfices and sleepin g accommodation. At the Ngwavuma site in

particular, the Nsoko

station -

master was most helplul in allow-

ing us the use of a house lor olfices and accommodation

Jor

foreman Sajine Mafahla and clerk

Petrus lvlagagula, as well as giving us access to the station telep ho ne.

two piers on piles, seventy-lwo

The biggest com mu nication and access problems were caused by

metres oI incre mentally lau nched

had

the fact that

Domoina

The new Ngwavuma bridge will be seventylwo metres long on completion. 11

a number of the national roads and major road b ridges. Deviations crossed rivers on low level bridges and ca u seways which became flooded after relatively m inor damaqed

rainlalls,

uttinq off access to site

by vehicle. On many occasions Grinaker personnel have been seen negotiating rivers on foot.

Grinaker Piled Foundations carried ou't the piling work at Ngwavuma. Charlie Kerfoot as loreman and Aubrey Litkie on plant made quick work of the srx piles for each pier, although the Ngwavuma R iver twice washed the working platform from beneath the old Benoto rig. Charlie was often seen in the river to swim. An interesting complication on

lrying to teach the Benoto

both bridges rs the fact that in each case there was one span still

.'..

The smaller Mhlatuzane River bridge

standing. This means that the launching equipment has to be erected above the existing deck, and the new deck launched out three and a halt metres above its final position. Once the deck is

above

its final position. it

lowered on jacks suspended from

steelwork gant ries. Full credit must go to the teams on both sites, who are workinq long hours seven days a week to complete the work in the required Iour months. Dries Olivier and Giel Leydekkers came lo site in mid-April to set up the deck shutters, jacks and temporary steelwork. Ronnie Kelb ric k took over f rom Derek Alderson in May as site agent at Mhlatuzane. We

also thank Joseph Magagula for competently smoothing the way for our work force to enter and work in Swaziland. At'the time ol writing, both sites are on sched ule fo r com pletion at the end oI June, despite delays caused by the rain with associated access problems.

Parl ol lhe old Mhlatuzane bndge

'r-fe q

G u;

.,1

Construction team at Mhlaluzane. Back: Derek Alderson, Fanie Dladla, Philemon Ngomane, Edward Mogashoa, Philemon Nkabinde, Solomon Malapane, Solomon Twala, Petros Mahlangu, Madliso Dyani, Lucas Mundzela. Front: Clever Madonsela, Enias Chiloane, Simon Zitha, Daniel Kgapola, Shadrack Khumalo, Edward Ophane, Amos Mthimunye, Wilson Rasebotja, Damiao De Souza. 12

Gtinaket cazene Jtne 19a1

Construction teams at Ngwavuma River bridge site

Back: ciel Leydekkers, Bernard (Manyathela) Haak, Ezrom Mngometulu, Francis Mokhothu, Nkomiyadi Zenzima, Jonisile Zenzima, Phillemon Somkoba, Sajine Mafahla, Fanie (Ntabeni) van den Berg. Centre: Petros Mamba, Ephtaim Kunene, Johannes Sejane, Goodwin Masoka, Jackson Mphahlele. Front: Ozias Baas, Edwin Less, Philson Malamula, Delias Morupane, Kenneth Chiloane, Samuel Mthimkulu

Back: Emson Gazide, Elias Maziya, Phineas Ngcamphalala, Jeremia Mbhamali, lsrael Myeza, Ginyukozo Sibongo. Centre: Joel Mabuza, Jackson Dhlamini, Phillip Gamedze, Vusumuzi Nyawo, Jonas Rantso, Radio Vhilane. Front: Samuel Tembe, Velaphi Vilakati, Moses 8aras, Daniel Ngcani, Phineas Monareng. Absent from photograph: Enias Mokoena, Petrus Magagula, Robinson Shongwe, Lucas Ntabane Gtin.kct Ga2erte.lLne

1934

by lan F riend

The Cape building division has recently been awarded the contract to bu ild the extensions to the assembly line lor Messrs Car Distributors Assembly (Pty) Ltd (CDA) on the west bank in East London. CDA assembles all South. Af rica's Mercedes Benz an d Hon da veh ic les. The contract comprises 6 500m2

:", -r:

of factory extensions at

tendered price of R'1,93 million. Site agent is lvlike Nicolay with myself as contracts manager and Tikkie Rossouw as site loreman. I :*ril*

*--* z

,.9

t; rr

-t'

Jack Jankes (architect), Tikkie Bossoutv, Alan west (CDA planning), Mike Nicolay, lan Ftie nd 14

Labour and costing is under the watchful eye of Stanley Mpumela. The initial earthworks and demolitions were successfu lly completed under the expert guidance of Neels Rheeder who has since moved to our Blue Line contract in Queenstown. We wish him the besl of luck. Work commenced in mid-lvlarch with completion expected arou n d mid-November. ln itially, we had to demolish an existing storage area which comprised a 35MPa, 150mm thick reinf orced slab 6 000m, in exten't. This was successfully executed using a D9L bulldozer, the blade oI which cut the reinforced concrete like b utter. The anticipated use of cutling-torches and bolt cutters Jor the reinlorcing was therefore no longer necessary. The o peratio n was completed in only two days. The rest of the contract is prelty straig htforward, barring the construction of some rather fancy precast gutters and sills. Site morale is high and we are looking forward to a safe and lengthy stay on the west bank with Messrs CDA. GLnaket Gazette June 1944

Grinaker se groot vergruiser werk dag en nag in Swaziland

deur Renier Naud6

Dit is ietwat vreemd om Grinaker Plant lnland in die rol van'n subkontrakteur voor te stel, maar dit is presies wal een van die filiaal maatskappye naamlik Grinaker Swaziland op die oomblik in Swaziland is. Noem 'n mens egter dat die subkontrak se waarde ongeveer R3,2 miljoen beloop dan klin k dit heel aanvaarbaar. D ie feit dat die maatskappy in die afgelope twee jaar groot sukses behaal het met die oprigting en bedrywing van klipbreker aanlegte in die Transvaal het ons in staat gestel om Murray & Roberts (paaie en grondwerke afdeling ), wat die hooJkontrak beklink het vir die bou van die noordelike spooraansluiting deu r Swaziland met die Republiek, te oortuig om van ons dienste gebruik te maak vir die myn en vergruising van die 218 000m ballasklip benodig vir hulle projek. Na lywige samesprek ings tussen Brian Herd en Johan van Rooyen G

naker Gazette June 1931

Boorwerk aan die gang

met die hoofkontrakteur

Swaziland Spoorweg am ptenare is die finale bestelling gedurende November 1983 ontvang en die oprigting van kam po n ge, kanto re ens. is in alle erns begin deur Jack De Freitas en Alan Willard. Ongelukkig het swaar rebns daardie tydstip in Swaziland geval en dit was gou duidelik dat behoorlike toegang tot die terrein die bou van ongeveer agt kilometer pad sou benodig en dit is in Januarie van 1984 begin na die Desember vakansie. Gou was Danie Gouws en sy reqter-hand John Oxley ook op terrein om die vergruisings aanleg op te rig. Hulle was ook van tyd tot tyd bygestaan deur SnoWy Du Rand, Manuel Dos Ramos en Aqostinho Dos Santos. Teen die

einde van Januarie 1984

toe

oprigtings werk reeds ver gevorderd was, is die kontrak 'n gevoelige hou toegedien deur dre

sikloon Domoina toe alle toegangspaaie tot die terrein verwoes is. Na'n vertraging van twee weke kon dinge egter

voortgaan en gedurende Maart hierdie jaar kon dre eerste klip deur die prime re verg ru iser gaan. Proelnem ings en verstellings het nog 'n week geduur en ons kon in

Aprilmaand mel die prod u ksre begin.

Om voor te bly om die Tellsmith 30 x 42 kakebeen vergruiser en die 1500SX sekondere vergruiser te voer gebruik ons'n Liebherr 972 uitgrawer en twee Volvo Bl\45350 (221) rotstrokke wat die materiaal aan ry vanaf

ie g roef en 15

dit berq, vanwaar dlt ingevoer word d;ur n Cat 966 rubberwiel voorlaaier. om van enige groot blokke ontslae te raak is daar gedurig 'n Cat 225 wat met'n

Krupp 900 rots hame|toegerus rs byderhand. Elek lriese krag word

voorsien deur drie

200kW

Caterpillar kragoPWekkers met

een wat bystaan.

Dit is Dirk Smith se Plig om met twee Atlas Copco 900kv m/Roc bol kompressor/kruiPboor kombinasies voor te blY met die boor

werk. Die skietwerk van die groef en rotsblokke is ook sY verantwoordelikheid. SY taak word aansienlik vergemaklik deur sY twee seksie leiers StePhen Shongwe en Sipho Nkambule Die nasiening van bogenoemde en ander ondersteunende toerusting word oP terrein versorg deur Hans Heskes onder toesig van Tony Scott vanal Elandsassisf on tein. Twee werkswinkel tente en'n smerings assistent maak hulle staf dan volledig. Laai en karweiwerk uit die groel en by die prtmere vergruiser word cleui Bonakele Koli behartig asook'n belang rike skakel tussen die kantoor en die terrein Die moeilike taak van onderhoud en orbduksie van die vergrulsin qsaanleq word vervuldeurJohn Oitey en bYgestaan deur Bennett Ndzunoa. Louis De Gouveia met seksre leier l\,4oses Dlamini is veran twoo rdelik vir die ha nterin g van die nagskof oP die kakebeen vergruiser.

groef Die Liebherr g72 uitgrawer en'n Volvo 8M5350 rotstrok in die

Chris Jordaan behartig

die

ad ministratiewe pligte op terrein met behulP van Callex lvlziyako wat hom uitsluitlik toespits op die

kostebereken

g en die hantering

van die terrein laboratorium.

Die kontrak onlvang ook

baie

goeie diens van ons subkontrakteur Alan Boyle en sY assistent Willred Gaba met die karweiwerk van die Iinale produk. Johan van Rooven is die kontraksbestu u rder uit hoofkantoor terwyl ek optree as terreinagent lvlet die ondersteuning van al die bogenoemde mense (en ook baie ander) is dit ons mikPUnt om on-

geveer

000m3 produk

Per

maand te produseer wat die voltooingsdatum na November 1984 bring.

Soos die titel van hierdie artikel u i, het on s inderdaad te doen met n baie hatde en digte tiPe d oleriet wat afgebreek moet word en die relatiewe digtheid van 3,04 val aan die hoogste kant van die soesifrkasre soos voorgeskrYf deur dte Buro van Standaarde Die ongekomPakteerde hooP digtheid van 1480k9/m3 is ook buitengewoon hoog as 'n mens dit vergelyk met die normale 1 30okg/m3. As gevolg van die bogenoemde redes en die feit dat die verlangde f ragmentasie van die rots nie bereikword nie (boorspasiering is al gekrimP van 2m x 2m tot 1,4m x 1,4m) rs dit huidiglik

aand

nodig om 'n dubbel skol te werk met die primere vergruiserom die nodiqe hoeveelheid verg ru isde klip deur te laat na die sekondCre verqrurser. Die eienskaPPe en sariestelling van dre rols laat dit ook nie toe om fyn te breek en maklik deur die kakebeen ver-

oruiser mel n oPening van isomm te gaan nie. lnteendeel moet 'n beraamde vyf-en-lagtig

per sent van die maleriaal vanaf d

roef eers atgeb reek word wat

selfi dan ook neig om net in enkel kleiner stukke van minus 150mm te breek sonder om noemenswaardig af te breek na 53mm wat verlang word om aan die ballasspesifikas ie te voldoen. 'n Verdere komPlikasie bestaan op die oomblik as gevolg van die feit dat die boonste lwee tot vier meter van die groef bestaan uit'n mengsel van los ronde rotse omhul met kleierige bogrond tot'n diqter tiPe rotsvorming maar met baie verweerde krake en vlakke. Hierdie situasie sal nog vir ten minste twee maande voortd u u r en dan sekerlik verbeter wanneer ons die huidige vloer begin sak (tot 15m onderkanl die sPoorlYn hooqte) en ons in n meer soliede rots sal myn wat'n beterfragmentasie van die rots sal lewer. As in ag geneem word dat toe geskryf is daar onhierdie artikel geveer .15 OOOm3 van die totale 218000m3 produk gemaak is dan is dit duidelik dat daar vir ons almal betrokke bY die Projek' nog baie hardepad/k liP voorle

Gti.aket Gazette June 1931

Die klipbreker manne in Swaziland

/n ;?t ,!r ^f,

tri

t: ll

rll llr

Hans Heskes, John Oxley, Renier Naud6, Chrb Jordaan, Louis De Gouveia, Dirk Smith

Back: Sipho Nkambule, Bonakele Koli, Stephen Shongwe, Lawrence Hadebe. Front: Callex Mziyako, Josiah Vi I akazi, W i tness S h abal al a Gnnaket GazBtte JLne 1944

the

sp lit r

Fika Patso is blasted to make way lor the dam wall by Jimmy Quail

rinaker Transvaal was recentlY awarded the contract lo b uild the Fika Patso dam in QwaQwa At the site of the dam wallthere was a verv larqe boulder known in the oistritt aJ Fika Patso. The Iiteral translation of the name means a boulder sPlit into two Parts. lts siqnificance lies in the facl thal ii has been one of the boundary markers between the Batlotoa and Bakoena districts of QwaOwa. UntortunatelY Fika Patso had to be removed and because oJ its size blasting was the only solution. A Jurther comPlication arose when it was decided that an extensive rock overhang on the south rock lace was too dangerous to leave in situ The rock overhang was tackled first and the anticrp;ted spectacle was consid ered worthY of the Presence ot an SABC television crew The over-

s?lit The Fika Patso rock before the blast' The name means'a boulder into two Parts'

into The blasting of the boutder changed the Nahamadi River valley mass of broken rock hang was about 60m high and

couple o{ hundred holes were drilled and charged uP at the base. It was hoped that bY removing the base the overhang would toPPle over and roll down the mountainside. This, in fact, did not haPPen and the result was that the over-

hang settled lower down' to hal{ its original height. Drilling was restarted and when this Portion was

blasted the result was

reallY

spectacular with large boulders rolling down to the riverside. The blasting of Fika Patso itself was next on the agenda and this was also seen on television. The result was planned but nevertheless the beautiful valleY through which the Nahamadi River gently flows was changed into a mass ot broken rock. Such is the requirement of progress. We trust that the QwaQwa homeland will reaP unbounded benefits. G"naket Gazette June 1981

Work on the causeway across the Pongola River

Grinaker causeway tames the Pongola by Koos le Grange

During the floods caused by the

cyclone Domoina the bridge

across the Pongola river between Pongola and l\4khuze was washed

away. Grinaker Co n stru ct io n Zu lu lan d was approached by Hawkins, Hawkins and Osborne on behal{ of the National TransC naket

Gazette June 1934

The old Pongola River bridge after Cyclone Domoina struck

port Commission to build causeway. The job consisted ol bu ild

g new

access roads, and placing 1000m3 of concrete while fixing

two sets of culverts made up of 14 armco arches (131m2) across the r

ive r.

Rolf Fagelu nd-Gjersoe is contracts manager, site agent is Peter 19

Frazer and surveyor Martin Reid. Fo re

man Alpheus

N,4azibuko

came up lrom Grinaker cape Planl loreman GarY Le Brasse hails jrom Grinaker Natal. The crew soon got to know the Pongola river. The water level could rise rapidY in as little as twenty minutes and work in Progress was washed awaY four iimes. There are two means of getting from the south to the

lrl'.:

.,..,*}:''

north bank. One is bY boat, tied to

a tancy rope and PUlleY system with a rock for an anchor. The other is bY swimming. Peter

Frazer used method two, but was not so keen after learning that he

had been sharing the water with local crocod iles.

a.:t _

&, Debris against the otd bridge, new causeway in background

Martin Reid is doing his best to f it survey work in belween tigerfish-

ing sessions. Three have

.sr,*3rr.!â‚Źn .sryd-

been

landed on site so far.

'-:

There is no truth in the rumour that Gary le Brasse has his race horse stabled in his room at the Ghost Mountain lnn. He said that it's too noisy for his horse at the lnn, wonder who makes the noise?

Work to date has Progressed hallwav across the river. We wish the

team best ot luck and low river levels ior the next hall.

Women fill sandbags at the Pongola site.

...:'.;

w *;;o-".

*,,.:ll

Meredith, Gary Le Causeway team at Pongola. Back: Sam Blekiwe, Joseph Mhlongwane, Peter Frazet, Brian Brasse. Front: Martin Reid, Louls Scheepers, Alpheus Mazibuko, Sidney Nyanda 20

Gnnakct Gazette June 1931

The Minister and other to p personalities

visit Grinaker

Ele ctron ics H o ld

ings

Grinaker personnel and visitors. Sybrand Grcbbelaar (managing director of Grinel), Bill Paterson (public relations), Tienie Steyn (managing directot of Grinaker Electronics Holdings), Dt. LAPA Munnik (Minister fot Posts and Telecommunications ), Mr DH Botha (senior general manager for electronics of Armscot), Mr RJ Faath fAsslstant Postmaster General), Adriaan Loubser (reportet from Beeld), Mr FJ Bell (executive general managet of Armscor), Don Sherwood (chairman of Grinaker Electronics Holdings), Mr CJ van R Botha (Member of Parliament, chairman of Commission for Posts and Telecommu n ications )

Grinaker Electron ics Holdings scored a major public relations breakthrough on 3 May when it entertained the co u ntry's most senior personalities Irom the Department ot Posts and Telecommunicalions and Armscor. The guests included The Hon. Dr. LAPA Munnik, lvlinister for Posts and Telecommunications, lvl r HO Bester, Postmaster General, l\,4 r

RJ Raath, Assistant Postmaster General (telecommunications), lvl

r GP Swart, private secretary to

the L4inister for Posts and Telecommunications and l\ilr CJ van R Botha, MP, chairman of the Commission for Posts and Telecommunications. Armscor guests included the executive general

manager N4r FJ Bell and senior general manager (electron ics) Mr DH Botha.

On the Grinaker side were Don Sherwood and Tienie Steyn, Gnnaket Gazette J0ne 1981

chairman and managing d irector respectively of Grinaker Electron ics Holdings, Sybrand Grobbelaar, managing director of Grinel, Nanne Potze, manag ing director of Grinaker Electro n ics Agencies, Graham Bell, managing director of G rina ke r Data Systems and a number of senior personalitjes f rom the electron ics division. The purpose of the exercise was to show the visitors what G rinaker Electronics can do in the design, manufacture and supply of sophistlcated electron ic eq u ip ment and to promote the group's research and development pro9

ram me.

At the Grinaker Electronics head office delegates saw an excellent display of radio and communications equipment which is either designed and manulactured by Grinel or handled by the group on an agency basis. Later in the day

the party was taken on a con-

ducted tour of Grinel's jactory at Waltloo, which is probably the most advanced lacility ot its kind in the southern hemisphere. ln a n add ress to the visitors Tien ie Steyn drew attention to the lact that G rina ke r Electronics spends fourteen per cent ol its annual turnover on research and development. This is more than three times the percentage of turnover spent by most leading overseas high technology com-

panies. He said that this emphasis on research and development cou pled

with high standards oI quality

control had enabled the group to earn worldwide recognition lor its products. lt had also led to the establishment

several world

firsts.

"We offer the most innovative non-government research and 21

development facility

South

Alrica for sophisticated electron ic com m un icatio n

equipment systems and related e

lectron ic system

" he said. "The

Grinel freq uency-ho pPin g radio (a world leader) designed and manulaclured entirelY in our Waltloo plant, is on lY one example of the results of such a policy. There are manY others equally as impressive and the list includes a host ol defence Pro-

ducts such as the 400 series UHF,SSB radio and others still in

the development stag e." He mentioned that the 400 Series employs a unique com b inatio n of

system developed for South African Transport Services to

automatically monilor

and communicate brake press u re and other important inJormation from the rearmost truck of a train to the engine driver. He mentioned 'Pe g as us', a comPUterized sensing system designed lor a wide range of industrial aPPlications including telemetrY and the low lrequency sub-strata transceiver. This is the only radio system in the world which can transmit through solid rock underground in the mines. ll is invaluable lor proto teams doing rescue wo rk.

frequency band and mod ulation techniques to overcome Problems experienced with the 200km transmission range. lt aPPears that HF transmission is elfective over distances uP to 50km and then again Jor distances greater than 200km. The'skiP d istance' from sokm to 200km is a worldwide problem.

He said that Grinel's Waltloo tactory is particularly well equipped to manulacture high technology products on short runs although capacity also exists for long runs. lt is not unusual for the assembly and wiring Plant to handle up to thirty dilferent products at the same time."

The 4OO Series uses a combination of UHF and SSB modulation to achieve reliab le communication in this critical range. Clos-

Attention was drawn to the high growth area oJ computer data tran sm ission equiPment. "ll now emerges," he said, "that Grinaker Data Systems dominates th is Portion of the market which is growing al forty per cent Per annum. Current predictions are that this

ing the 'skiP distance' is

another world first for Grinel

Yet

Tienie spoke about'Sarier, the

by Schalk Vorster

Kloppers, was formed to handle these p rod ucts. Storno was founded in 1947. An early emphasis on new Product development and tech n ological leadership placed it in a Position of prominence while still a Young company. This was onlY the beg in n ing.

The many tirsts develoPed

Storno's laboratories have played

tl An agreement in terms oI which Grinel was appointed South African agent for Storno two-way radio equipment was recentlY signed by lvl r Tienie Steyn, managing director ol Grinaker Electron ics Holdings, in Flenshburg, Germany. A new com munications division, headed by Roelf 22

a vital role in bringing the entire industry to its present maturitY. The tone signalling for instance, orig inally conceived for selective calling and mobile identilication systems, is now widely emPloyed in many other applications which are fu ndamental to modern communications by radio.

Among other advances

the

state of the art, Storno introd u ced UHF radio telephones to EuroPe,

rate of expansion will be sustained lor at least the balance oI th is decade." Grinaker Data SYStems reP resents Racal Milgo of Eng land, one of the world's largest suppliers of data comunicatjons equiPment. lt has also developed major national resources for field service, enqineering and sof tware su ppo rt and m ic roProcesso r software development. ln closing Tienie referred to Grinaker being part ol the Anglovaal group oJ comPanies. "We thus Iorm part of a lamilY of more than eighty major South African companies offering a wide range ol products and service6. The linancial strength and stability of Anglovaal and Grinaker Provides a firm Ioundation Ior the future." AIter the factory tour at Waltloo a presenlation was made to the [.4

in iste r.

From all accounts the visitors were most impressed bY what

they saw and heard. There is little doubt that the event gained valuab le p ublic ity where it co u nts most and served to maintain the good relationsh iPs betwee n

Elect ro n ic s, the Department of Posts and Telecomm unications, the Post Office and Armscor.

Grinaker

perlected

ick lilm

circuitrY,

made lelephone Jacilities Portable and the radio telePhone fu llY automatic. Present work in micro-

processor and miniaturized circu it technology is introducing new horizons not dreamt of even five years ago. Storno played a prominent role in the development ol the Nordic l\4obile Telephone (NMT) system. Com pletely integrated and automatic, it is one oJ the world's most advanced networks for mobile p u blic telephones. NMT allows drivers in the Nordic countries to telephone across international borders to other carphones or to regular telephones anYwhere, without going through an oPerator. Storno has Iactories, sales offices

and agents in more than eighty co

u n

tries. Gtinaket Gazette June 1984

SECTI(]N

pLANS OF T\A./cl ETEEIFOC)M FLATS This

THFTEE EIEE|FIcJOM FLAfS

plan shows what the clusters ot apartments at Mondi will look like. Single house units are also bding built.

Grinaker Zululand is on programme with staff housing for Mondi by Dave Price

Ray Caldwell with Ronnie Buchanan, Johannes Pietersen,

with assistance Irom

Dave Ross and Kobus Scheepers. is handled by Dave Da n iels.

Louis Hutchinson and Nabbot Sithole. Gavin Jones handles all costing and tech n ic ian duties, whilst measurement is done by Chris le

The back-up team with the unenviable task of getting the material items on site at the right time and place is headed by Berry Mc.Gee

Gerrard Stott. The contract period is fifty weeks and so far we have managed to keep on prog ramme.

The Loadall at work

One way of overcoming stress

Survey

Roux. Contract manager

Grinaker Zululand has been awarded the contract to con struct 159 housing units for Mondi Pulp l\4ill stalf in Richards Bay. The contract comprises 52 single

and semi-detached house units and 107 apartments. The apartments are in clusters and are mostly two storeys high. The team in the lield is headed by G

naket Ga2ene JDne 1944

How the houses grow

Too much lo W pnce W ork

ln an interview with Contractor maoazine, l\4a rch 1984 issue' G ri-naker chiel executive Jack Saulez makes the {ollowing statement: Presently, comPetition is overkeen and tendering on many proiects borders on the irresoonsible. There is a limit to how many below cost Projects any comPanY can absorb without doing Permanent damage Some comPanies will find that thev have bitten olf more than thev can chew in the form of low p rice work, esPeciallY where longterm contracts are concerned. UnlortunatelY, on the negative side. this will mean that the industry, as ln everv downturn, will lose certain valuable well-trained employees who will be reluctant to return. On the positive side, onlY the fittest will s urvive.

BMW 320\ only 8 500km available

immediately

White, two door. manual. witl't radio Due to an unexpected staff change this excellent car can be acquired

NOW Discuss terms with

Mike Grobler oi Grinakcr ['rojects

(01l) 24

616-2150 G

naket aazetle Jrne 1931

Alfa Bomeo will be sole tenant of the new oltices and warchouse being designed and constructed for Boat Bar (Pty )

Linited by Grinaker Projects.

Grinaker Projects is on target with contract for Boat Bar by Peter Thatcher

and goods receive/despatch facilities. The warehouse is 120m long by 60m wide with an eave height ol 7m and will be cladded with colomet sheeting.

A canteen, kitchen, receptio n area, ablutions area, train in g areas, compuler room and Juture

office space will be provided in the olfice block which has a total area of approximately 1300m:.

?' d' Grinaker Projects is well advanced with the design and construction of a new warehouse and training centre lor Boat Bar (Pty) Ltd. The site is situated on the strip of land between the Old Pretoria Road and the Ben Schoe-

man

H ig

hway near Halfway

House. This R2,5 mlllion project forms part of the rapid development now under way in the midrand area. Alfa Romeo (SA) (Pty) Ltd will be the sole tenant of the

Concrete aprons to receive and despatch areas, service roads, parking lor containers, sec u rity lencing, stormwater retic u latio n, an automatic sprin kler system

designed to extra high hazard to protect the warehouse, electrical power su pply and reticulation and landscaping are also included in the contract. The proiect is under the control of John lvlcKenna, projects manager, and mysell on site. Eric Ho, the architect. together wrth his assistant Bill Mills have done as much as possible to make Boat Bar an imoressive landmark in Halfway House. On the technical side, the operations have been backed up by Rob Horsfield assisted by Malan van Niekerk Ior the earthworks, roads and storm-

4 = rtti..

premises.

The contract includes a thirteen bay steel-framed warehouse, a dou ble-storey office bloc k lacing the Ben Schoeman Highway, change room,/ablution amenities Gr.aket cazefie J0ne

1931

Steel framewotk for the warehouse 25

The office block takes shape.

water drainage. Alan Bell and Chris Ad d ingto n for the elect rical installation and Andrew Starr for the civil and structural work.

Vincent Falck is the director responsible for the contract.

Although the programme schedule is tight, with only ten months to complete all design and construction work, the P roject should be completed on time, bY 31 August 1984.

An early stage in the construction

ot the office block

Back: Peter Thatcher. Wilson Makhavhu (Nekner Construction), Phillomon Nef I (Nekner Construction), Antonio Gomez (Nekner Construction), Andrew Starr' Front: Bill Mills, Eric Ho, John McKenna G .akct Gazette,tLne

1934

O'Flaherty Road in the rain by Keith Kuhn

The contract tor Durban Corpor-

ation involves the provision of a 1,4km residential road for the lndian residents oI Clare Estate and has a value of R l,l million.

August

The contract period is seven months. Therefore, we must complete 385m of box culvert, 2 400m oI stormwater pipes, 70 000m:r of imported fill and

earthworks and drainage foreman, Willie Swart is in charge ol the c u lvert work and Frans Anderson is involved with the installation of the manholes and

ninety-two manholes th

mid-

is year.

On site

l\,4rke

Plessis

sewers. Gavin Ward does all survey and measurement work, students Ray Rughubar and Richard

Harrison handle costing

and

pectively. Solomon Ngxitama is the site clerk and I am site agent. The workshop team which provides us and other local Grinaker f

ield-work

res

m. omi;+n

Grinaker Natal team on site. Back: Petros Mbambo, Solomon Ngxitama, Sam Mabhude, Ray Rughubar, Richard Harrison, Frcns Anderson, Keith Kuhn, Blackie Swart, Mike du Plessis. Centre: Willie Swatt, Gavin ward, Agreement Miggels, Jackson Skepe, Nkwanyana Ntenza, Eric zulu. Front: Andries Nene, Solomon Ndaliso, Robett Mngomezulu, Zeblon Sabasaba, Mkhanyisi Mjwara, Hamilton Chonco, Johnson Wonga Gnnaket Aa2ete JLne 1984

sites with valuable service includes the plant foreman Blackie S wa rt, mechanics Govindsamy Chetty, Sonny Brijlall and Hamilton Chonco.

The plant site clerk and first-aid man is Sam [,4abude. The site, positioned in a valleY with a stream down the centre, has an average grade of seven Per cent. At the time of tendering the stream was bone dry and had been dry for the past two-and-ahall years. Natal was suJtering from the worst d roug ht known for two hundred years with the l\ilidmar Dam at only seventeen Per cent Iull. Three months later the drought was broken and the l\,4idmar Dam level rose to one hundred per cent full. The 1050 diameter pipes and the imPorted fill were washed rnto the Umgeni River and we now have a Perenn ial stream on our site to contend with. To date we have lost twenty-four out of seventy-three working days d ue io rain and we have two insurance claims pending. What can we say but'bite the bullet'and 'vasbyt'until winter. lf c limatic conditions return to normal we aim to Jinish the road in the expected contract period.

:r:

r*3i rt

i4.f

,i:

''. 2A

cr..kct cazette J0ne

1984

Operation 'Swiss Watch' at Keiskammahoek by Jorge Hayes-E'Silva

Keiskammahoek, with in the picturesque Keiskamma valley in the Republic of Ciskei, Grinaker Ciskei shilted 120000m3 ol soil durinq February and N/arch 1984 to construct a platform for the building of a hospital. The team was originally lead by Graham Sanders on site, with Andries

Loubser as the earthworks foreman and Dolf Williams of Plant looking after the heavy machinery. From head office,

Graham Browne saw that all the wheels tu rned smoothly.

Now what connection does

Swrss watch have with the Crshei

bush and these dust eating con-

struction men? Consider numerous heavy ea rth m ovin g machines operating at high

speeds between a well planned borrow pit, along a haul road that could compare with our best airstrip, on to a lill area that wou ld g ive a traffic cop goose pimples of envy; a team with the highest regard towards man and machine sa{ety and, above all, the right attitude towards the satety loss control programme. Then you would have a Swiss watch type oI operation as seen lrom a salety olficer's point ol view. From the lirst day that Graham Sanders arrived on site the salety aspect of the job was considered, a safety programme was formulated, and operating proced u res im plemented. Water distributio n

on the operation surface

was

closely monitored as this was deemed to be one of the most important aspects of loss control in terms of safe and unsafe dust levels. lf too much dust is created

by the machines, poor visibility could cause man and/or mach ine contact with disastrous consequences. On the other hand, iI not enough dust is created by the machines due to there being too much surJace water, wheels could spin causing stones to cut the tyres and this could cause a machine to slip and jack-knife, usually culminating in the machine rollin g.

It was not surprising that th is site was awarded the Grinaker Cape

monthly su pervisor's s afet y competition ce rtificate f or February 1984. The competition involves all personnel in a supervisory capacity in the region and each supervisor is a llocated points on a check lisl according to merit. The supervisor with the highest score in that month rs judged as the winner ot the competition. ltems such as haul roads, hazard notices, caution signs, secondary roads, o perational procedures, etc are included in the check lis't.

During the handing

over

ceremony which was hosted by

G'raham Browne. Graham

Sanders in his speech commented on the importance of safety/ loss controland the role it plays in

reach jng improved man-management, better worker and machine efficiency and in achieving the

ployer's moral obligations with g reater profitability. em

ln conclusion, it was seen at this site that a well motivated and eff

icient safety/loss control pro-

gramme pays

ividends and leads

to the site being dubbed Operatjon Swiss Watch. lt makes you th in k,

doesn't it?

',,,

.,'l

..,

y,l

, ,

v I

i.r

Keiskammahoek earthworks team. Back: Andries Loubser, Erhardt Ladwig. Middle: Piet Burger, James Mkhwanazi, Dave Blasko, Waltet Glennie, Graham Sanders, Steven Evans, Dolf Williams, Mark Qhurley. Crouching: Moses Mqikela. Front: Marooi Malgas, Norman Mxiki, Joseph Msane Gttnakct CaTctc hr.P 1sa4

Grinaker Equipment: making ground in the Ca pe and moving home in Natal by Alan Hector

Cape rugby enthusiasts had a savino that there was reallY onlY oni \laat and that was Ballie Wahi, their Jamous scrum half of past days. Th ings haven t chanqed much in the CaPe since then and CaPetonians still think the world ends at the Hex River and anything north of that reallY doesn't matter. ConsequentlY, having decided

that there was some CaPe business that wouldn't harm the Grinaker elfort, it would have

been a very brave man to select a team to go alter th is business with anyth ing but CaPetonians Derick

Thesnaar who is a CaPetonian from top to toe has PUt together a

CaDe team: Derick Thesnaa(. Yvonne Gildenhuys' George Eichorn Benny Zimri. Helmuth Witulsh Peter Etbich

very well balanced CaPe

team

that is already making its presence felt. OPerations in the Cape commenced in June 1983

with occupation of our new premises in the Stikland ind ust rial area oJ Bellville.

Eighty-tive guests attended the

ofticial opening oI our

new premises on 29 SePtember when

the mayor of Bellville Mr D UYs handed over the keYS to Emil Gebhardt and welcomed Grin-

aker's presence in the CaPe, and particu larly in Bellville. At the time of writinq, five

Liebherr excavators and six Agrigraders have been sold bY the Cape leam and their enthusiasm on the parts and service side is ensuring ou r good rePutation and bringing in more business Natal The December break means lots

of sunny days windsurfing, {ishing or golfing to most Grinaker people. but not so to Grinaker Equipment ComPanY in Natal They spent most of this Period

moving lrom New GermanY to our

fantastic new Premises

ix. These premrses comPleted at the Ph oen

end of 1983 by Grinaker Construction Natal rePresent an

investment for the f utu re and will very adeq uatelY demonstrate our commitment to serve our customers well. Phoenix will become the assemblY Point Ior all the

equipment destined lor sales in Natal. the Free State and Transvaal. Anolher feature of this facility is that it has an area where the equipment can be demonstrated and it wiil thus be an important marketing area. Like the Cape, Natal too has its own little quirks and the team lhere has a distinct banana and curry flavour lo it, with no imPorts

ORIMKER ESUIPMEN]

coMP/NY )I r3;*""4' 1'.---:

_-{'a'

I t:-, -

:': r

'..:...,.--

-Y

Fiona Johnson . John Burton, W illiamson, F Graham Waugh, Peter Francis, Gilbert Maadlala, Te resa Sithole, Amos 'evor Willis, Ma rtin Moitsheki Maxesibe. Jerome Madonsela. Absent: Tre

ln Natal: Trevor Stow, Neville

from the bad old

Transvaal. Graham Waugh assures us however, that the odd Transvaal visitor would be welcomed along with his cheque book. Gtinaket Gazette June 1984

Komati bridge withstands floods to finish ahead of schedule by Brian Stobbart

Picture taken from near the middle of the river bed in July 1983. The site offices are in the top tight hand corner. Here at Grinaker North there is all of a sudden a great deal of wail-

ng, gnashing of teeth

and

thumping of beer mugs. The cause of all this anguish? The Komati River bridge is complete, everyone is off site and we are now denied our continuous su pply oI d elic iou s beef b iltong al R10,60 per kilogram (GST included nogal). The real purpose ol tnis arlrcle is to give some idea by means of pictures of the magnitude oJ the flood which swept down the Komati River on Monday 23 Jan-

uary this year. The river rose seventeen metres and was at one stage 220m wide.

Our bridge withstood the floods and was handed over to South African Failways on 4 April 1984, four months ahead of schedule. This auspicious occasion was marked by the usual pomp and ceremony and most of the revellers were lucky to get to bed by early the next morning. Our admiration for a difficult job well done goes to Jan Hattingh, contracls directo., Flonnie Kelbrick, site aqent, Bennie van Heerde n, senior foreman, Freddy Rantso, foreman, Marius van Vuuren and Sydney Ramokgopa, clerks ano the resl o'the team. Gnnak{

Ga2ette

Jt.e

198a

Slte olllces with bridge standing firm in the background. The hig h water mark can clearly be seen on the nearest office, as indicated by the fire

extinguisher arrow.

The rivet rose seventeen metres and was 224 metres wide. 31

What they do at Grinaker Transvaal mechanical division's new workshop G

rinaker Transvaal's mechanical

division has recently opened a new labrication workshop in Vanderbijlpark. The team moved in on 20 March this year. The workshop has a working f loor area ol 1858m': and is able to handle the labrication oI steelwork, vessels, tanks, pipes and H/D bolts, as well as general fabrication.

The first order came in on 25 March, this was for loundation bolts lor the Lethabo Power

Station near Vereeniging. Su bseq uent orders included silos for Kleinkopje and Lethabo, cooling tower filter frames,

.T: :;

1l ,24 t--; '

.''.

structural steelwork and pudd le flanges tor the cooling tower at Lethabo. and some steel lor Ulco. Although there have been a few teething problems in the shoP, things are now reported to be running smooth ly.

Dave Strachan, head of Grinaker Transvaal's mechanical d ivision

clnaket

Gazetre JLne 1944

Creative paving solves Problems

Grinaker precast used a combination of Uni-Decor and G-Bloks for the large paving contract at Water wondetland on the Snell Patade in Durban. f

rom

Carol Thomas

Datryl Crouch

local point. Water

Greg Bosch

Wonderland

was to be all curves.

Proprietor Nick Steyn was laced with a problem when it came to deciding what paving to use for his new Water Wonderland on the

Snell Pa rade in Durban. For him, heat attracting asphalt was out. So was concrete; prone to cracking and difficult to repair. Brlcks and tiles were rejected because they would give a regimented straight line effect. The arch itects, Johnson l\,4urray, wanted a neutral colour effect. with no str aig ht lines or particu la r G

naket Gazette J)ne 1981

The contract for the paving was negotiated by Darryl Crouch of G rinaker Precast. Water Wonderland was to consist of two paddling pools, several waterslides and two large catchment pools. Grinaker Precast's non-slip, interlocking multiblend UniDecor was a good choice for around the pools, with Classipave

being used for the pool coping and other hardstanding areas. There was 1000m of paving in the in itial staqe, which was laid by

Steve Denton

our contracts team, Greg Bosch and Steve Denton. Th is operation 33

took them three weeks in total, due to the intricate and difticult cutting around the curved pools.

Steyn said: "You just can't beat

these Grinaker interlocking

blocks. They have made a great

contribution to the overall appearance

Water Wonder-

land."

Mr Nick Steyn was so impressed by our blocks and laying expertise that he has now given us the undertaking to pave the whole ol the second phase, which will comprise more pools and several large water chutes. Uni-Decor will be used for the 5000m2 of

paving around the pools and slides, and tan and charcoal Classipave will be used for the covered floor areas and walkways, measuring approximately 2

000m2.

When asked to comment, Nick

rinaker Projects does it again I{ETT IIOME TOR SREYH(IUilD <

:.1

l'tj.i.,,'l; ",,,,,

'q.,ryr e a(9?rm!tcta.l

in the construction of bus depots

by Ken Macumber

lor United Transport Holdinqs. This depot. our fifth. located in

RandJontein, is valued at 81,1 million and is designed to service over ninety buses by 1986.

ln a series of success stories lhat started in Witbank and has moved

from Natal to the

Western Transvaal, Grinaker Projects is once again showing its expertise 34

George Swindlehurst, technical executive of Uniled Transport Holdrngs. has shown his extensive knowledge of depots consistently throughoul all the contracts, and his work with Kevin Oliff and Eric Nicholl of Pro,ects proposal staff. and Eric Ho and Keith Whitehead ol Projects' architectural staff, has proved to be exceptional on the Randfontein project. ln total, there are seven buildings on site, the largest being the 1500m2 workshop spacious l\4

enough to meet the high

demands of Greyhound Bus Lines (a subsidiary of United Transport Holdings). Work on the depot began at the end of Jan uary 1984.

The contract's stafl is headed by John McKenna, project manager, and myself , site manager. Excellent support has come from Alan Bell and Rod Carr (electrical), Rob Horslield and Malan van Niekerk (civiland roadworks) and And rew Starr and Rod Dansie

(structural). The team o{ subcontractors, Grinaker Construc-

tion Transvaal, Nekner,

Cheater and Clearspan, have used their experience gained in the past and have maintained a tough program me. Completion date is to be.1 September 1984. Ctinaket Gazette June

1981

of the residences built by Grinaker Building Company on the University of Bophuthatswana campu s

Fine example of bricklaying skill Work began in early September '982 on the first ol lhree residences for the Universi'iy ol Bophuthatswana. These residences were designed by the award-win n ing architects, Jon l\4ehl and Llew Bryan of Pretoria. Each residence gives the occupants a community feeling by

of a

Each residence has a house lor the warden in charge, a la u nd rY, a

sick bay and a central lounge. This lounge has an extremelY attractive suspended wooden floor, which can be used for dan ces.

Al the peah of construction this project employed 550 peoPle, the

quadranqle tYPe design. The buildings use load-

vast majority being Bo Ph uthatswana people recruited locally.

bearing brickwork and the overall appearance is one of extremely attractive face b rick.

Th is local recru itment was made a great deal easier by the fact that

a very able trade school

The face brick used on this con-

dence u ses approximatelY

means

tract is Klerksdorp's lronspot.

The complicated face brick work gave Grinaker Building Company's training department a Par-

ticularly interesting problem:

ninety per cent of the brick laying

was done by local Bophuthatswana people and they had to be trained to do highly specialized tasks. Each resrdence has cosl approxi-

mately R4 million and is designed with 250 rooms. Every student has a single room complete with bed, cupboard and study desk. Gr.aket Ga2ene.lrne

1931

situared in [,4mabatho. Each rest-

1750000 bricks and the {inished rod uct is a line testimon ia I to th e skill of our bricklayers. The site team lor th e co nst ru ction of three similar residence blocks consisted from time to time of management and planning - lan Decker (who took over Jrom John lvlcLaughlin who is now at Johannesburg Tech nikon), Don Brown, Gerry McKelvie and Pieter van Stad en. The field work was headed bY Jurgen Ktllper and Hennie Brits p

who had Hennie Erasmus, Lucas

Labuschagne, Jerry

To rod e,

Willie Barendse, Abilio Feijao (on loan from Grinaker North), Sam Ba rnard an d J Gerber with train ee foreman B rlly Becker. Danie Venter and Garry Burford. John Huckle was responsible for the finishing work and lsmael Tshaele (translerred f rom Grinaker Precast Paving) completed the paving. Steel fixing was bY Prins Serane. The clerical team consisted of Bill McKenzie (who took over from Glen Haworth and Elias Serite) with some initial input by Malan Gerber on purchasing and stores. Quantity surveying input came

from Eddie Beckett and lan Donnelly assisted by tra inees

Mark Zoghby, Ralph Scorgie and Zonda van der Merwe whilst Duke

Schwartz handled daily costin g. Thanks also go to the other team members down line. The plant spread was handled excellently by Les Howard with

head oftice support from

Les

Winter, Jack Denz and currently Tommy Thomas. 35

New training centre fulfils vital function for Grinaker Cape by Pat Moran

b ]l -il The Grinaker Cape civil training centre at Gonubie, East London, was opened by Peter Nuyten on 29 Aug ust 1 983. The open ing was one of the last duties carried out by Peter N uyten prior to h is retirement. Always interested in training, it must have been gratifying for him 1o see this vitallunction of the company expanding in the Cape.

The training cenlre as well as the main otfices are established at an

old brickfield and the building housing

ly the

th is

centre was previous-

compound. This. was revamped to make it more suitable to train ing's needs and cred it goes to Frans Fourie, the centre's first training olficer. He was also

instrumental in establishing the in itial training modules. Unfortunately Frans was u nable to continue this good work as his valuable services were required on site. The position of training ofJicer is now filled by me. The centre comes u nder the wing ol services manager, Gil Tucker, and control of all training is done here. The centre provides skills training in shuttering, scalfoldin g, reinforcing, bricklaying, p lastering, vibrating and f in ish ing as well as those of the general construction hand in co rporatin g pipelaying, kerblaying, tencin g and guardrails. The timber skills section is in the process of de36

Nelson Ngxenga shows them how at Grinaker Cape Training Centre.

velopment and recently we completed ou r f irst course for trainees as pedestrian roller operators.

Due to the remote nature ol contracts in the area, the trainees live in the centre's dormitories for

the duration of a two

week

training module. Authority had to be obtained from the East Cape Administration Board for this to be possible and twelve to sixteen trainees can be catered lor at any one time. Our instructors are Nelson Ngxenga, Simon l\4bhele and Pa u lus lvlarutha, all of whom have completed their instructional techniques I course through the

Civil Engineering lnstitute

Training Board (CEITB). lt was a proud moment Ior all when Simon l\4bhele was recently appo jnted to permanent staff. Other train ing

staff are Charlie Ntlombeni and N4angele Leleka. Our sec retary, Desiree'Desirable' Muller, covers a host ol Iunctions, from doing the course bookings, to being mother to our technicians - with no objections trom them. The pattern of training at the moment is to evaluate ou r present labour force and train for any

shortcom

ings. We are

also

looking at a planned intake for training on the various courses and one of deman d -train ing. Th is will give us an overall upgrading

of labour where necessary and also ensure that we meet site requirements. The centre is proud to have received a National Occu pational Safety Association lour star

safety

ach

ievement grading

which will hopefully become live

stars when we are reassessed later this year. Our three

instructors have all com pleted th e National Occupational Salety

Association Adyanced Skills

Development Training (ASTRAC) examination, allowing them to teach the basic safety GL (group leader) 1 and GL 2 courses. One of these safety courses is included in

the training module done at the centre, so increasing the safety knowledge of the trainees and hence general salety all round. The concept of our own training centre in the Cape is still relatively new but with continued co-operation from the sites this important industrial relations fu n ctio n can only continue to grow and enjoy success, as it has over the past {ew months. Atinaket Gaze e .JLne 1984

The Sandile Dam built

Grinaker Cape/Ciskei was oflicially opened by His ExcellencY Dr The Honourable LLW Sebe, President of the Ciskei, on 9 December 1983. Sandile is the largest dam yet constructed in any of the National States and

was com pleted by G rina ker in just under three years lor a total contract value of .R23 million.

The dam wall is B00m long,55m

high at its highest Point and contains 2,7 million cubic metres oI matenal. The storage capacity is 30,5 million cubic metres ol water and the spillway is designed to handle a flood volume oJ 2800 cubic metres Per second. During the peak co nstruction period there were 550 workers on site and more than R10 million worth ol plant was being used. Fuel consumption during the const ruction period amounted to 4 m illion litres. At the handing over ceremony Grinaker was rePresented bY chief executive Jack Saulez, Don Sherwood, Bean Bornheimer, Des Wearne, Graham Browne, lan Friend and many ol those who had been involved with the Project.

ln his ollicial address

President

Sebe said: "Many Ciskeians leave

their homes year after year to seek employment outside our border. My people make many

sacrifices by having to Ieave their lamilies for long periods at a time to earn a livelihood. "We have in th is dam the means to bring about true integrated de-

velopment so that town and country, men and women, can join together and enjoy the Iruits of their labour in a permanent, prog ressive and flourishing

community." He went on to pay warm tribute to consultants Hill Kaplan & Scott and'the Grinaker construction team. "Well done," he said. "May this only be the beginning of many challenges in the luture."

His Excellency Dr fhe Honourable LLW Sebe. President of the Ciskei unveils the plaque to mark the opening of Sandile Dam.

Part of the crowd at the open.ing

Looking ovet the dam from the outlet tower Gnnaker Cazetle

Jr.e

1944

Grinaker chief executive Jack Saulez and his wife Jane chat to President Sebe.

by Vic Church

roads at Dukuduku in the Mtubatriba/St Lucia area. The contract is the first of its kin d lor Grinaker Zu lu lan d. The job involves digging, loading and cartin g, with approximately 25000 cu bic metres of material having to

be brought to the site.

This Iorm a stable to material includes sub-grade as well as gravel for a

A Cat D3 is being used for g rad ing. A 910 front-end loader, a D7 bulldozer and a fleet of

to the floor slabs being Poured. A special epoxy Iinish is required over a major part of the floor slab. Work on the contract has recentlY commenced and the comPletion date is February 1985. The archrtects for the project are Franklin Garland Gibson and Pa rtners, and quantily surveYors are Walters and Simpson.

153mm deep layer.

bulldozer

eighteen trucks are also in action.

The maximum haul distance

52km.

Umzinto Dam comPleted

Grinaker Natal comPleted the construction of the Umzinto Dam on the Umzinto River last Year. lt supplies water to the Umzinto/ Mtwalume areas of the Natal South Coast. The value of the contract was R2,1 million, and the work was undertaken for the Umzinto Regional Water Services Corporation. The dam was officially opened on 11 November 1983 bY the Adminislrator of Natal. l\4 r Stolfel Botha, who was accomPanied bY Mr George Bartlett, the local MP, and Messrs Ray Haslam anP Fred Clarke, Natal members o{ the Executive Council. Mr Botha told assembled guests that the dam would be raised bY thirteen metres at some time in the future, and thereby increase its capacity from the Present 750 megalitres to over 3000 megalitres. He prarsed the contractors for having conslructed a most pleasing and essential facility and unveiled a plaque on the bank above the dam.

Earlhworks al Dukuduku

Grinaker Zululand has been awarded a contract valued at R200000 by the Department of Forestry. The Department is Preparing earthworks lor access 38

Work started at the beginning of April with RolI Fagelu nd-Gjersoe as contracts manager, Alex 'Ferrari' Ferreira as assistanl site agent and Joe Lancaster as foreman in charge ol the work. John Rumahlo and l\4anuel Raposa are on p lant. There have been a {ew special problems. lnitially the state oI the haul roads made lravel by truck very difficult. A more unusual problem occurred one night when a group ol men approached the Grinaker watchman and informed him that they had come to steal the motor pumP on Caltex's diesel tank. They did so, and the watch man disappeared into the bush lor the rest ol the night. The project was scheduled for completion at the end of l\ilay.

Nalal build new lactory lor Reckitt & Colman The building division o1 Grinaker Natal has been awarded a R4 million contract to construct a Phar-

maceutical factory for Reckitt & Colman on the south coast road at Mobeni. An interesting aspect ol the construclion is a post tensioned oround slab some 80m x 50m in Jxtent. The remainder of the

structure consists of conc rete columns with brick infill, and a structural stee I roof wit h insu lated

ladd ing.

A special requirement of the con-

tract is that the rool be

bu ilt

prior

A bridge, lour pump statiqns and township services lor Zululand

Grinaker Zu lu land has recentlY commenced work Jor South Alrican Transport Services on the construction of a concrete bridge over the Bhizolo Canal at Richards Bay. The contract, worth R3,4 million, involves the elimination of the existing level crossing over the coal line and the replacement of the existing Bailey Bridge over the canal on the road lo the coal te rm inal. Work is also under way on a R1,3 million contract for the conslruc-

tion ol the Ngoninga PumP

Slation, rising main and gravitY main for the Richards BaY Town Board. This will take sewerage from the Veld en Vlei townshiPs, for which services are being developed by Grinaker Zulu la nd at a cost of R5,6 million. Grinaker Zululand has also been

a contract bY the Richards Bay Town Board Jor the

awarded

construction

stations at

of lurther

see

and Arboretum at an estimated cost of R600 000. When work on the three [,4"ee

pump stations is comPlete,

sewerage from all the townshiPs

in the area will be

PumPed

through macerating Plants and

then discharged into the effluent outlall pipeline presentlY being constructed by Land and [,4arine.

Worh commenced Ja

on site in

ua ry.

Also in January, Grinaker

Zululand started work on the development ol Wildenweide for the Town Board, involving the establishment oI all necessary services G naket

Gazete June 1984

(excluding electrical) for the proposed township ol 308 stands. The contract is valued at R3,3 mrllion and in ludes 100 000 c ubic metres of earthworks, 8km ol premix surfaced roads, 15km oI extruded kerbing, 2,65 k m oI stormwater drainage, 10,07km of sewers,8,7km of water mains and

house connections (using

PVC

pipe), and the construction oI two conc rete Pedestria n underPasses and two cu lverts.

Grinaker Zulu land intends to complete the"contract within the short period of ten months.

The earthworks Jor the new sections of the freeway are being carried out by the Natal Provincial Ad min

istration Roads Depart-

ment. Work will commence immediately and is due lor completion by the end of next year. Together with the Umkomaas and Mahlongwana viaducts, recently completed by Grinaker Natal. this contract is a major step in the construction ol the new south coast freeway between Durban and Scottb u rg h.

struclion of a turther two major bridges for the N2 freeway on the south coast has been awarded to Grinaker Natal. This award follows close on the heels of the completion of the Umkomaas and lvlah long wana viaducts by Grinaker Natal on the same route. The new bridges will carry the f reeway over the lvlpambinyoni and Amahlongwa Rivers. The

contract has been awarded to Grinaker Natal on a design and construct price of R9,4 million. This brings the lotal value of work awarded to Grinaker Natal on th is route to more than R22 million.

The larger Mpambinyoni bridge will be launched incrementally. This will involve a total of twentysix segments over a deck leng'th oI 256 metres for each carriageway. The incremental la u nch method of b ridge construction has been successlu lly employed by Grinaker Natal on four previous major b ridges. The smaller Amah longwa bridge is ninety metres in length. lt will be constructed by using the conventional method, a cast-insitu beam and slab arrangement. Both d o u b le-ca rriag eway bridges will be founded on large diameter bored cast-in-situ piles. Gtinaket Gazetle June 1981

point.

the final deck launch oI awarded R12 million

worth ol contracts

The Natal Provincial Administration contract for the con-

The Mahlongwana bridge is one of several incrementally la u nch ed bridges built and still to be built by Grinaker lo torm part of the new south coast freeway. lt has two decks 1B5m long and is 51 m above lhe river level at the h ig hest

On 16 November 1983 at 18h00

Cape is

Mpambinyoni and Amahlongwa bridge contracls tollow the complelion ol the Umkomaas and Mahlongwana bridges on Soulh Coast lreeway

lncremental launching at Mahlongwana the system of the f uture

Grinaker Cape has recently been awarded contracts to the value of R12 million in the Eastern CaPe. The largest of these are two services contracts, stages five and seven, for the black township of Kwazakhele near Port Elizabeth. The value of this work is R6.7 million,'to be carried out tor the East Cape Adm inistration Board.

The contracts involve the uPgrading of roads and services in the township, including I resh water reticulation (with a water po int at each house) and the con -

version

of the existing

bucket

sewerage system to a waterborne sYStem.

ln Oueenstown Grinaker Cape has started work on the construc-

tion oI a new depot and work-

the

Mahlongwana viaduct olf icially began. John Jackson ol Grinaker Natal welcomed the guests and press contingent. Peter Nuyten, recently retired head of the group's construction divrsion showed great interest in the construction of this bridge

since the Iirst concrete was poured on site. ln a spbech he referred to the incremental launching method oI b u ild ing

bridges and said: "Grinaker utilizes this system of the future which will enable us to collar the market." Amidst the clinking oI champagne glasses Grinaker chiel execulive, Jack Saulez, who cut the ribbon to mark the start ol the final launch, said: "Bless lhis bridge and all who drive on her." The g uests then enjoyed a sheep spit su ppe r.

shops for Blueline Bus Company. This contract, worth F11,8 million, also includes large areas oI interlocking b rick paving. The company is also undertaking the earthworks. concrete slabs and associated services lor preIabricated buildings at the new Keiskammahoek Hospital. This is

sub-contract, valued

R1,1

million, awarded to Grinaker Cape by the main contractors,

Dur Corporation of lsrael. rinaker Ca pe is also b usy on two building contracts in East London. A half-million rand contracl has been awarded for alterations and additions to lhe Suncrush G

bottling plant, and work

has

recently been started on a contract valued at R1.9 million for extensions to the Mercedes Benz assembly plant.

Mahlongwana is the second of the South Coast freeway bridges built by Grinaker Natal. ao

Grinel: good results without the hard sell GRI}IAKER ELT TRONICS GROUP

by Nanne Potze

PR0r$sxlltAl coxsux lcATlol{s

demonstrations

ol the

latest

state-of-the-art technology

Grinaker Electronics held an exhibition at the Boulevard Hotel in Pretoria on 20 March this year. lts purpose was to introduce our latest product additions in the lield of p rolessional elec'tronics. We are convinced that intormal private exhibitions ot this nature have'a greater impact than large public exhibitions. We do, however, participate in selected PUblic exhibitions as they have the advantage of exposing p rod ucts to a great number of people, including decisio n-makers .of the future, in a very short time. The decision-makers oI today are invited to our privale exhibitions. There we have the benefit of seeing the majority ot the toP people in one evening while, at the same time, devoting more attentio n to the individual.

The

inf

ormal atmosphere, with-

out an apparent hard-sell

approach, makes these even in gs very popular with our customers.

They are given hands-on

(olten by international

rep resen -

rincipals) and also renew their acquaintanceships with old colleag ues. What is most important are the results, wh ich are n ot icea b ly rewarding. tatives of ou r overseas

The following equipment was on d

isp lay:

Calibratio n equ ipment for ch eck-

ing e lectron ic test equipment and, if necessary, making the required adjustments to bring the equipment back to spec ification standards. Communication test eq uipment, embracing a wide range of extremely accurate test eq uipment. For example. such as thal required to repair and adjust a mobile radio to the high standards of its o rig inal design. General electronic m easu ring equipment similar to that used in research and develop ment laboratories, educational institutions

and

dust

a I/ c o n s t r u c t io n

plants, including

a range of

measuring, monitoring and record ing equipment.

Communication equipment cov-

ering HF, VHF, UHF and microwave products and peripherals. HF radios are used for comm unication over long distances, while the VH F and UHFtransceiversare those com mon ly used for the vital communicalion lin k between the olfice and a vehicle fleet, or between loreman and crane driver, for example.

Other products on display included headphones, phones, cables,

icro-

lti-chan nel remonitoring ol all inm u

corders for coming and outgoing m essages and sound-powered te lepho nes for use in hostile environ ments i.e. mines, defence force field use, or construction and in d ustrial sites. Once again the evening was a resounding suceess with a very good turnout ol the right people. When our guests left the bar (and everyone has to leave the bar eventually) we were requested to give more demonstrations of our equipment until after 11 pm - a sign of a good evening.

Gnnaket Gazette Juoe 1984

World Famous

Storno

two-way radio equipment

is now distributed by G

rinaker

Electron ics Agencies lnstead of buying two-way radios from our competitors co ntact

Storno

BILL WESSELS oT ROELF KLOPPERS at

(012) 62-2024 Preferential discount Excellent sales service

GRIMIGR RAD

O CO M M U N I CATI R

N SYSTEMS

AD IO KO M M

/KAS/ES TELSELS

Grinaker Building Company's elegant new off ices in Sandton were olf icially opened in April. Sunninghill Ext 6 Telephone (011) 803-4120 Gtinaket Gazettq June 19a4

Peltier Drive, 41

Looking back The Edwin Swales bridge: Durban 1958

Con'struction in progress on the Edwin Swales bridge, the first post-tensioned bridge built by Grinaker

The Edwin Swales bridge

was

built in Durban in 1958. lt was the first post-tensioned b ridgd built by Grinaker in the days when prestressing was new to South Africa. lt was designed by Grinaker engineer Erwin Bauer, who also supervised the building o

peratio

Grinaker lor five years from 1955 to 1960. He returned to Austria to work as an independent engineering cons u ltant an d now lives in Vienna. ln recent years he and his wile have spent several holidays in South AJrica. He writes: "Dur-

ing my last visit in November 1981 I inspected the underneath o1 the Edwin Swales bridge and noted

that Grinaker's concrete. aJter

twenty-three years in the coastal atmosphere, is still in excellent shape."

Erwin Bauer came to this country

lrom Austria and worked tor

Erwin Bauer 42

One main girder with'fan anchorage'on the fixed end ctinaket Gazeue Jtne

198a

Elandsf ontein t.J

workshop

I I

safest

, I

The Grinaker Plant lnland shield for the best workshop in accident prevention and safety was awarded to Elands{ontein workshop for the financial year 1982-83. lt was accepted by Andries Kruger, who was in charge of this workshop during that period. The Elandsfontein workshop also achieved a NOSA (National Occupational SafeJy Association) four star rating during the same period.

Andries Kruger with the Grinaker Plant lnland shield, Tom Knight, group vice chairman Jack Saulez

Jack Saulez and Gtinaker Precast Transvaal managing director Tony Taylot. The occasion was the winning of the chairman's safety sh ield by

Grinaket Precast. Group slalistics Financial year

ing J une 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981

Disabling lnjury Frequency Rate

Plant Acc ident

22,3

3,02

12,4 11,9

13,1 11 ,7

0,59 0,73

8,2 8,91

1,08 1 ,97

1,78

2,23

1982 1983

To date (January 1984) Note: Disabling

only R45 for Gazette readers instructions supplied

,62 ,53

iniury frequency rate lot lhe conslructian industry as a whole ia

crrhaket Cazetle J)ne 1981

f ully electronic car burglar alarms

Rate

Protect your car

Phone Chris Botha 14,7

Grinaker North (0121 86-2028 43

Looking at people

Jorge de Nobrega in Johannesburg. I was general foreman on the cantilevers and Dennis Cowell looked after the pre-stressing. That was an exciting contract though I lost my you nge r b roth er there in a welding acc ident. " He had become a joreman for the big contract and was sent back to Zimbabwe where he worked at Kwe Kwe. the l\4ashaba

(Mashava) mine and the giant asbestos mill at Shabani (now Zvishavane). "l was general foreman on the fit-system," he says, "and Johnny Zaremba did the other section. Joe Armstrong and'Van'

van der Walt were in cha rge. Harry de Bruyn, Bob Allen, Ken Leach and Peter Kent were also

there.

Jorge Amancio de Nobrega reminds one of the expression'they any more'. He belongs to the c lassica

don't make 'em like that

school of Grinaker loremen and has served the group for twentyseven yea rs.

He was born on the island ot Madeira in 1930 and served his pp renticesh ip as a carpenter. He came to Africa in 1 956 and joined a

the Grinaker group at Ndola on the Zambian Copperbelt in 1957. "l worked on a number of jobs there," he says, "and I learnt about'Rhodesian-style' carpentry. Mike Bush was the boss and Lou Gluckman and Dave [,4arais were there too." He was transferred to South Africa in 1964 and worked as a chargehand in East London. "Then l went to Lichtenburq as section foreman and began getting into conc rete. "The big contract in those days was the Standard Bank building 44

"This same team came down to South Africa and we built Ellis Park. Then I was general foreman on the central lecture block at the University of Bophuthatswana and now I'm general foreman on the Technjkon in J oha n nesb u rg

Amon Buthelezi matriculated at Menzi High School in Durban and ioined Grinaker Natal in 1976 as a clerk in the ttaining school. "l was then tranaferred to G rinaker Zululand," he says, "and I'm now site clerk on the big proiect at Mondi." He is married. with one daughtu who was ten days old at the date of this interview. "l used to play soccer," he says, "but due to being injured in a car accident I had to give up active playing. But l'm still involved as secretary of the Zululand Golden Pirates Club." He is a regular reader of historical works and is well known for his ability to deal with people. "But Iwant to learn more about them," he says, "l think that lwill be dealing more and more with people in the f uture. I want to be ready for it and that is why l've been taking a course through the lnstitute of Personnel Management."

Lrnder Ken Leach "

He marned his wife Tsaura

in 1 955. They have th ree children and the eldest daughter was married in May this year. Jorge celebrated the event by lalling on the dance floor. "l enjoy construction," he says, "and lcan do carpentry, concrete, a whole building f rom the bottom to the top. l've never looked around tor another job because there can't be two Grinakers. "l'm a big soccer Jan although broke both my legs at ditterent times playing the game. lalso p lay darts and cards and my main sport for forty years was smoking until I gave it up. "So I'm still fit for the job. As for the future? Man, I just want to go for it " N,4adeira

Martin Louw, a graduate in civil engineering f rom the University of Pretoria, joined Grinaker Precast Transvaal as a contracts manager al lhe beginntng of thts

year. He spent the I irst th ree years of his professional career with the

firm of consulting engineers Van Wyk & Louw lnc.. of which hts tather is the founder. "Then I swopped one excellent fitm for Gnnaket Gazette JDne 1984

another,"

he says, "l

joined

Grinaker Piecast and lenioy the scope for innovation, buslneas flair and responsibtlity ollered in lhe construction and building industr'les. " He likes music f rom c/asslca/ lo jazz, "so long as it's good," and he is an active light plane pilot currently studying for his commercial and instrument ratings. He is also a keen squash player at league level and says: "Whenevet there is time I like to go to wild and rcmote places like the Okavango. and Kosi Bay and share an intense interest in wild

life and flora with my

wife

Maureen."

their house. "My patticipation in this," he says, "will be purely on a prc ject management basis."

to deal with people. "l also run the

breakfast club and the single quarters and other things," she says, "and this is far more interesting than iust a straight tYPing iob." She plays hockey for

Grinaker zululand and also enjoys squash. "l'm getting

Dennis Brown, CA(SA), studied at the University of Natal and joined Racal Electronics in 1974. He passed the Public Accoun' tants and Auditota Board examinations in 1979 and became a Grinaker man when Racal Eleclronlcs was taken over by Ihe group in 1978. He became company secretary of Grinaker Natal and was recently made an

married in July," she says, "and l'm nervous. We've bought a brand new house and we'll have to start the garden and everything from scratch. I also do sewing and make my own dresses and l've done a course in interior decorating because one never stoqs using it. lf thete's any money left we'll take a holiday to the Greek lslands and get a good tan."

alternate d irector of that company. He is married, with three sons, and says, "l've been

into all sotts of sports, cricket, Kevin Oliff , B.Sc. in quantity surveying and diploma in civil engineering, ioined Grinaker Natal in 1967. "l was signed on by Peter Nuyten in the old double storcY house they used as head office," he says, "and the group sent me

to the Durban Tech. as it was called then, where ldid the diploma in civ il engineering. Later, aftet I had been ttansferred rc Gnnaker Alrica lo work in

Botswana and the Northern Cape, lwas given a Grinaker bursary to attend the University of

Natal where I qualitied in quantity sutveying. The group has been

to me." He moved to Grinaker Projects in 1978 where he ls proposals manager and has recently been made an alternate director. He is married, with three sons, and says, "l once played rugby for Northern Free State under twenty and now it's surting, fishing and sailing lstill have a boat down in Durban. Then of course I lead the Projects unbeatable squash team. I prelet to be called 'manager' because 'captain'sounds lar too active." He and his wife are planning an oyerseas trip next year and, in the meantime, are calling for tenders to have a tennis court installed at

squash, rugby, tennis, you name it and lseem to play lots of underwater golf whenever I go out on the coutse. But soccer has always

wilh Cramond Earlh Movers in 1963. He is currently with

Cup and we won it." He maintains a substantial keep-fit programme and has earned a bronze medal in

minot accident. He is married with ftve children and lives in

been the big one. I played for Norlhern Transvaal in the Currie

the Comrades Marathon. He is a hard wotking organizer of group soccer evenls and also a keen gardener. ln a new house lhis takes up iust about every spare moment," he says, "and I'd like to see my family do well - lguess that's my main ambition."

good

cnnaket Gazette JDne 1984

Elias Mhlambi joined the group

Grinaker Equipment Company as Emil Gebhardt's personal d river. ln all

is time he has had only one

Tembisa. "l like gardening," he says, "and I clean my own car (a Toyota Corolla) until it sparkles." He does church work and bible reading. "And l'm a big soccer fan," he says, "l'm an Orlando Pirates fan and lhey are on their

way back to the top." On the subiect of successfu/ driving he

says: "lf another driver does something wrong don't shout and hoot at him because it on ly makes him worse. Give him a chance."

Jane Brockman ioined Grinaker Zululand as a typlst secretary in 7987. She currently asslsts Jos6 Figueiredo who handles labour telations. This iob suits her ability

Brian Story qualif ied as a civil engineer at the lmperial College ot 45

the University of London. He came to South Af rica in 1969,

after spending two yeats tn Zambia, and joined Grinaker Natal in 1980. "l'm a wanted man so I avoid publicity," he says, "but ldo a lot of civil estimating on the

about six months solid. I'll probably be killed for saying lhts in South Africa but I've played both rugby and soccer and soccer is bY

lar the better game."

concrete side and l've been involved in a number of larye conttacts includ ing Alusaf at Richards Bay. I was seconded to Grinaker Zululand for that and it didn I do my ltver any good. He is married, with three childrcn, and says: "l've retired lrom physical activity and now il s chess. Al one time I played the clarinet and New Orleans jazz wds my lhtng. He ts interested in contractual law and arbitration cases. "/'ve been involved in a number ol interesting cases, "he says. "lt's a fascinating subject which lwant to pursue

and lhave joined the Association of Atbitrators."

come back by plane because she likes flying and I can get back to the office faster. I'll be going on Andreas Gumede ioined Grinaker

Zululand as a heavy vehicle driver in 1973. Since then he has been

has never had an accident of any kind.

He recently came tirst in a Natal driving competition held in Durban. "My main interest is the

church," he says through

grandchildren. "Having that

"l've been in buying since Ileft school," he says. "There's a lot of psychology in it. You have to get the best terms for the company without earning the reputation of being too difficult to deal with."

He is married. with

many children is not a problem," he says, "because we like children. His advice to other dnvers is simple and touches on a point which many road users seem to have torgotten. "Just obey the law," he says, "and take notice of the road signs, and you won't go wrong."

three

daughters, and is an accomplished sportsman. "l played a lot of

Comrades for which he holds three medals, two bronze and a silver. He recently organized the Grinaket Natai sports day with great success and says: "l m a big Manchester United lootball fan and it's my ambition to see a cup linal. One day I want to go to the UK and watch British soccer for 46

Anyone seen my company? Reptoduced ton Consttuction Waek ||ith the p6ts nissioh al lhe edilor.

One occasionally hears oi equipment being lost in transit when companies move to new bu

ild ing s.

But Construction Week learnt recently just how ditlicult the logistical problems are, when a construction company lost one of its employees during a move to new headquarters. Grinaker Building Company until earlier this year occupied a large part of Systems House, the home ot Construction Week, in Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg, but a few months ago moved to its new purpose-built headquarters in Sunninghill Park. On Monday 2 April, however, a young man looking lost and confused appeared at the Systems reception desk asking for Grinaker.

The man, obviously leeling

sporfs," he says, "and I played soccer for Natal in the eatly fifties. lalso played league tennis and I statted running in 1970." He prefers the standard marathon distance but has done very well in the ultra-marathons includ ing the

pension next yeat in June but I can t see myself sitting around I want to go on working."

driving day altet day and

interpretet, "l'm a Zionist minister and this takes much of my spare time. But I have a house in Esikhaweni where ldo gardening and I grow lruit and vegetables and I find time to read the Zulu newspapers." He is married, with no /ess than nine children and two

Ashley Harrison joined the group as a buyer in 1978 and is now the senior buyer lor Grinaket Natal.

gat snarled up. Then Ibecame a bowls lanatic but lwas scared of growing old too quickly so I took up goll which is more invigorating and I have a big collection of golting books." He is an avid reader of thrillers and westerns and an accomplished mouth organ player. "l've always loved cars," he says, "at one time lknew every make and model on the road and I could draw them because l've always enjoyed sketching. My wife and I want to take a long boat trip and

ulius Kieser ioined Grinaker

Natal back in 1965. "1 started as a paymaster," he says, "and I'm still the paymaster but on a very much bigger scale because the iob has

grown wilh the company. He is maffied, with three married childrcn and four grandchildren. "l used to like swimming," he says, "and I tried fishing but everything

little sheepish, said that he had joined Grinaker recently, but had gone on three months' leave shortly alterwards. At the time he left, there had been talk of moving, but as far as he was aware no date had been set. On return, leeling fresh and raring to get on with the job, he discovered that Grinaker had apparently disappeared. Construction Week, of course, steered him in the right direction. Gn.akct Gazetre,tune

1944

Team eff ectiveness

workshop for Grinaker Projects by

John Mc Kenna A repeat o1 a previous team effectrveness workshop Ior senior personnel of Grinaker Projects was held at Hunters Rest Hotel near Rustenburg late last year. [.4otivation and enthusiasm ran high. Fleproduced below are

some of the pu nch lines that ca me

out oI the session and added to the spirit oI teamwork, co-operation and good humour between deleg ates: Shave off your beard, so lcan see

when you are scared about your design. There's a liqht at the end oI the

tunnel but watch out, it might be nothe r train. You have a lot of experience, rub something on me. Put a successful proposal to bed. l\.4anageme nt by terrorism Planting seeds in Germiston a

(misheard from'motivational

seed is germ inating'). All present on the course found it motivational and stimulating al-

though the going was pretty tough at times. Wives and f amilies

jolned the 'in n-mates' Ior the weekend at the company's invitation. There will be a tollowup review.

Bedfordview pub on the level

A stalf pub was recently

opened at Bedford Centre by g rou p's chief executive, Jack Sau lez. Prospective visitors please note that Friday night is ladies night. A competition to find a name for the pub brought some excellent submissions includ ing the winning name, 'The Spirit Level'. lt was contributed by Doug Hardy of Grinaker Projects.

the

Crnaket Gazette Jtne 1931

'Com pute

r Karin' joins

the senior ranks

Doug Botha, alternate director of Grinaker Cape Tony Bowen, direclor of Techton ics

Parklown Boys' High where taught Dave L4arais' twin boys. Then lcame to Grinaker in 1977 to team up again with George I

Tempest who had started a com-

puter division for the group." She has a daughter of seven and says, "l used to do pottery and play ten n is about once a year. My garden is my passion and I read a lot, mainly thrillers but almost anything really, I even read the G rinaker Gazette." She is a natural leader and a true computer prolessional who literally exudes competence. "lt's an exciting job, " she says, "and now the micro-computer boom has im proved com puler awa reness all I

Karin Havenga has made her mark. She recently became an alternate director of Grinaker Computing Services. Th is makes her the only woman besides the

chairman's mother, lvlrs S O Grinaker, to have attained director level in the group. She completed her B.Sc. at

Rhodes University and worked as lor the Coal Bureau. "Then ljoined Tempest Computer Systems as a programmer,"

a statistician

she says. "This was the same George Tempest who is now managing director of G rihaker Computinq Services, and .Grinaker was one of our clients. "l left to teach mathematics at

nd.

"Computers used to be tor boflin s only but now there are quite a lot of people who realize that you don't just pat a computer on its head and it spits out Jig u res. They know that you have to tell it what 'to do and this makes it easier lor us to communicate with them." And how does Karin plan to live the new execulive lile? Yachts, golI, a turbocharged Porsche? "Actually I'm going to buy a home computer," she says eagerly. "Then when there's extra work won't have to stay at the office until all hours of the night I'll simply take it home." I

Group deputy chairman Don Sherwood, Karin Havenga, Grinaker chief executive Jack Saulez 48

Dennis Brown, alternate d irecto r of Grinaker Natal Graham Browne, director ol Grinaker Cape, director of Grinaker Ciskei and director of Grinaker Transkei Tony Cooke-Tonnesen, d irector of Grinaker Equipment Company Apie de Jager, alternale director ot G rinaker Electron ics Jan Engelbrechl, director of G rinaker Construction ln land Pieter Fourie, alternate d irector of Grinaker North Jimmy Grinyer, director of G rinaker Construction Coastal Sybrand Grobbelaar, director of Grinaker Electron ics H old ing s Karin Havenga, alternate d irector ol Grinaker Computing Se rvices John Havinga, manag ing director of Grinaker Precast Virg in ia John Jackson, d irecto r of Grinaker Natal Slewart Kennedy, alle rnate d irector oI Grinaker Natal Arnold Klintworth, alternate d irector of G rinaker Transvaal Les Knoesen, director of Grinaker Precast Natal Dave Maree, director of Grinaker

Zululand Kevin Oliff, alternate director ol G rinaker Projects Chris Ooslhuizen, managing d irector of Grinaker Property Development Huw Pritchard, alternate director oI Bay Stone Sales Gordon Radloff, director of Grinaker Conslruction (Pvt) Limiled Rob Selfe, alternate director ol Grinaker North Geoll Skeen, d irector of G rina ke r Construction Coastal Minze Steen, d irector oI Grinaker Projects Dave Slrachan, alternate d irector ot Grinaker Transvaal Ted Todd, managing director of Bay Stone Sales Peler Thomson, managing d irector of Grinaker Construction (Pvt) Limited Brian Whittingham, alternate director of Grinaker Precasl Virg in ia Larry Wittslock, alternate d irecto r of Grina ker Mining Gtinaket Gazette June 1984

Dave Larsen earns twenty-five year servi.ce award

OBITUARY Rob Campbell Rob Campbell passed away suddenly in

N,4arch

this year at

the age of th irty-n ine. He held a civil engineering d iploma and

joined the group in 1968. He worked on several major pro-

Group chairman Ola Grinaker presents a twentyJive year service award to Dave Larcen, non executive de puty chairman of Grinaker Electronics

Holdings. Dave was managing director of Racal Electronics South Africa when that company was taken ovet by Grinaker in 1978. He is an intetnationally known radio ham and has been involved in several world firsls in the field of communications. On his farm he has the largest privately owned radio station in the wotld.

Defence Force Fund thanks Grinaker for support

jects including the Mnjoli Dam in Swaziland. Alter this he ran the Grinaker Transvaal yard and train ing centre at Brakpan with great success and was made an alternate director ot G rinaker Transvaal. He had a gift for dealing with people and became a leading motivator ol sporting events in the group. He was exlremely popular and was himsell a sportsman of considerable ability. He had played professional football and was well known in the

group as a cricketer, t'ennis player, qolfer and Com rades

Marathon ru n ner. His many friends in the group were deeply saddened by his loss and we extend condolences to his family and those who were close to him. ln memory of his contribution lo sport and good fellowship in the group the Rob Campbell Memorial

Trophy

lor cricket will

played lor every year.

Colonel Moolman, Jack Saulez and Major General Black duting a visit to the operctional area.

Chief executive Jack Saulez re-

cently received

a letter Jrom

Major General W Black, chairman

of the SA Defence Force

Fund liaison committee: "We would like

to thank you for giving some of your precious time to accompany us on our recent visit to the Northern Transvaal operational area. We hope you will be able to Gt naket Gaze e

Jtne

1984

gain some idea of what

the Defence Force Fund is doing to help those who are involved in the prolection oJ our country. The Fund is greatly appreciative ol yo u r su ppo rt in th e past and looks forward to any futu re s u pport you and your organization may be able to provide."

The Rob Campbell Memorial Trophy 49

Twenty-f ive years for Souza We are living through a technolog ica I revolution. Before long eve ry c h eese and tomato

sandwich will come eq uiP Ped with a memory. As you lift the sandwich a computer voice will announce your

Group chief executive Jack Saulez presents Damiao De Souza with an award tor twenty-five years'service with Grinaker. The presentation took place in December 1983. 'Souza' ioined the company in 1958 in

Zambia as a carpenter and is naw one of the group's outstanding f oremen.

Half a million kilometres without an accident

age, pulse rate and ulcer exPectancy. While you munch you will be able to dictate a letter to Your secretary. (We already have a whole generation of secretaries who can acce pt d ictation th roug h a cheese and tomato sandwich.) J ust befo re you take the last bite it will give a quick weather rePort and the latest gold price in Hong Kong. Then, as it goes down, it will sing oJt: Have a good day" in one of those receding voices used by film producers for people Jallinq over cliffs. L4ost ot us can accept progress at the sandwich level. However we become confused by real heavyweight technology. For examPle take the group's new lntergraPh co m p u te r-a ss iste d d es ig n sysrem. Apparently it com'n u n i-

cates through the medium

rawing pictu res. ln other words we spent a cool million bucks on a device which

uses h rerog

ry ph

ics. On my desk is

a sixty year old typewriter which uses a much more modern system called the alp habet.

Never mind.

lhe purpose

saying all this is to announce

th at

Gazette will oppose the technological revolulion. This is not because we are against progress, it is in retaliation for a remark made by one of our

the

reade rs.

"So you want a modern word pro-

cessor al the Gazette." he said.

Jeremia

khoh

liso, driver for

rinaker Transvaal, has comPleted 500 000 accident-tree kilometres in his l,4ercedes 1 1 13 lruck. The vehicle was boughl in G

Aug u st 1978 and has had no othe r d

river.

On Friday 25 May a presentation was made to Jeremia at Elandsfontein. He received a television set from Grinaker Transvaal, a cheque lrom Grinaker Plant and 50

two certilicates from Cargo Motors in recog n ition of his ach ieve ment.

"What lor? The only process which can reasonably be applied to the words you use is the process of annihilation. All you need for that is a rubber." Very well then, so it's war. We are going back to the stylus and clay tablets and instead of the new constitution we want the Romans back. And in all luture issues we will refer to the SAA as the Stone Axe Association. Have a

sandwich.

N.4S.

Gti.aket Cazete J".e

1984

by Les Winter

Du rin g October 1983 Kingsley Williamson and I spent three weeks in the USA attending courses at Caterpillar and visiting coal min ing o perations. On Friday I October 1983 we left Jan Smuts Airport en route to New York via Sol lsland, arriving at JF Kennedy Airport the

lollowing day. Saturday

and nday were spent sightseeing.l fou nd Ch inatown pa rtic ularly fascinating; you would think you were in Hong Kong. From New York we f lew to Peoria, where we were to attend a tractor Su

at Caterp illa r's train ing department. Our instructor, Roger Look, com menced scraper course

with a slide presentation on the 3400 series engine cooling and fuel system. The machine for the course was a 637

On Tuesday 11 October we were taken to Dectur about 130 kilometres jrom Peoria, where the '120G, 130G, 140G, 14G and 16G motor graders, the 630,640 and 650 series scrapers and the 760C and 7738 dump trucks are assem-

where the 3200 and 3400 series eng ines are assem bled. Wednesday and Thursday were spent studying the tra n sm isslo n, with slides and explanations. Each student had to set the transmission shift points using the phototach. On Friday we were visited by Dave Grinzel and Peter Prittinger, prod uct analysts from the service engineering depa rtment. They asked iI we had any

problems reqardinq Caterp illa r eq u ip ment. We asked various uestio ns an d were told we wo u ld get feedback later. Our next stop was Casper, Wyoming, a city of 80000 people about 1 600 metres above sea level. Casper is rich in oil, coal and uranium. Caterpillar representative Steve Sorenson took us to the Iinals of the prolessional rodeo series, where we saw all facets of rodeo. There are certain ly safer ways to earn a living. q

On Monday we were given a gu

ided

to u r

of the wo rksh

ps and

stores of Wyoming lvlac h inery, the Caterpillar dealers for the area. Their workshop was well 6rganrzed and therr eleclronic tooling was excellent. An interesting leature of the stores was the computer which was linked to

Caterpillar Peoria. From Casper we went to Gillette in the Powder River basin, the

energy capital of the nation with six surface mines, boasting the larqest coal seam in the world. We visited the Jacobs Ranch lvline, which has a daily output of ap-

p,'oximalely

0001. Coal

stored in conc rete silos.

On Tuesday 18 October we visited the Amax Coal Mine, where we were shown the workshops and tool store. lt was interesting to note that they had Jew special tools although they were up to date on the latest Caterpilla r e lect ron ic tools. ln all the m ines the coal is of a low quality with a high sulphur content, so the o utp ut is an important cost factor. Both the mines we

visited used lhe Bucyrus

Erie

P & H 28yd shovels,

with

24yd and

Wabco Haulpacs and Ca't DgH bulldozers and 16G graders. The Cordero lvline, which we visited the same day, was the first mine we saw to keep a history f ile on each machine. Bill Halroyd, the mainlena nce s u perinten den t, took us round the various departments. This was the most main-

tenance-orientated

ine

visited, but it seemed to us a long way beh ind Grina ker Pla nt. ln fact it was satisfying to discover that the maintenance carried out by Grinaker Plant is far superior to anything we saw in the USA. Qur tool store is more comprehensive,

bled.

ln the evenjng we visited Mossville

the ine assembly pla nt,

BE 24cu yd face shovel loading coal onto a truck annaket Gazette JLne

A P & H 40cu yd face shovel and 170t Haulpac truck 51

thoug h their specialized Catelec-

dication which

tronic equipment is superior. Our fellow students were very impressed when we told them of our planned component replacement prog ramme and analytical inspections. The latter service even the Cate rpillar training instructors had never heard of. Our next port of call was Atlanta, Georgia, where we visited the Hughes Micon company which manufactures the Williams diggers. We were shown two Willjams LLDH 100s in operation on a site. This machine can be supplied with either a GM model 4-71N65 engine or a Cummins 8V555 engine and must be the Rolls Floyce o1 diggers. After a visit to my sister and her lamily in Tennessee, I returned to Peoria on Su nday 23 October. On Monday we commenced the oft hiqhway truck cou rse. Th is beg an with a slide show on en g ine components and the setting up of the multitach group part No. 6V3121 This lncludes the 6V2100 multitach which is a small digital tac hometer containing a micro computer which can be programmed to directly convert vario us input sig nals into a r.p.m. in

fronl panel. The lollowing day, aJter a slide presentation on engine coo lin g

displayed on the

part of whlch is hand.

itially welded by

The following day was

spent

detail. The most interesting part was the Jabrication ot the

studying the electric monitoring system which will soon be fitted to all machines and using the electronic wiring tester part No. 1P3550 to check for a leak or short in the system. On Friday we were given feedback on questions we had asked previously and inf ormation literature. The following day we lelt ior home, having enjoyed a most interesting and inf ormative three weeks. I am most gratefulto management for being given the opportunity to visit the USA and to participate in the Caterpillar

excavator boom and stick, a large

cou rses.

systems in the

orn ing, we spent

the afternoon using the special tools, i.e. the air llow meter and en g jne set

point ind icato r, in conction with the eng ine pressure group and the inlra red thermometer g rou p. On Wednesday we were taken to Aurora to see the plant where hydralic excavators and loaders

are manufactured. Our

tou r

guide, Ron Puyter, knew the assembly ljne down to the last

King

sley Williamson

A Wabco 200t Haulpac

lndustrial relations symposium highlights problem solving by Theo Hef f er

Management and worker representatives on the new Joint Consultative Council at G rinaker Bu ild ing Company's Technikon site have been experiencing a new way of learning to deal with prob lems. They have undergone training with Dawn Bell in dealing

with face-to-face situations, group problem solving and joint problem solving, by act ually practising these skills. "The best way to learn how to deal with any 52

ry -t&.r-

At the symposium. Standing: Dawn Bell, Theo Heffer, Welcome Tamcu, Phillip Mngadi. Seated: Niker Mkhatshwa, Abram Bham, Joseph Shange, Wlness Godwana

situation is to see it demonstrated by a skilled person and then to practice doing it yourself," says Dawn, who is a master trainer in behaviour modelling and an experienced industrial re latio n s practitioner. Trainees are g iven Ieed-back by the group and the master lrainer to reinforce their

UCCESSES.

"We have learned what to do and why, but ndw we are learning how," said one oJ the trainees. "Alter all, you can't learn to d rive a car or operate a machine by listening to a lecture or reading a

book." Glnakct GaTcte h)nc

1sa4

'rwhy do we never'see any of the Grinaker sites?" and "lf the men can vlsit construction sites, so can we," are just two examples of the mutterings which were heard emanating f rom the Grinaker ladies based in the Transvaal. Afraid ol an ensuing uprising by the female sector of the co m pany,

some worried Grinaker men decided to give the ladies the

opportunity tp actually see construction in prog ress. Brian Oliver of Grinaker North in Pretoria, lan Johnston and Brian Herd of Grinaker Transvaal and other brave men, together with Rina Wentzel oI Grinaker Transvaal, set about the unenviable task oI organizing two site visits. A luxury bus left Elandsfontein in November last year with some

thirty women and five

men

around the site. Before

any

aboard. A wholesome lunch of cold meats, salad, cheese and rolls was served on the journey. The first port of call was Kloof Mine. The bus ground to a halt at 10h45 where the ladies were met by Brian Cawood of Grinaker Transvaal who escorted them

further activity the visitors were requested to don overalls. outsize boots (mine boots do not seem to

be manufactured in any size smaller than size ten) and hard hats. And so, on to the action which was to go down the mine shalt in a kibble. What an experience it rs descending a wet, murky and

extremely noisy mine shaft in a crowded kibble. The cond itio ns that mine workers operate in came as quite a shock to these office bound ladies. They suffered Irom reduced hearin g ability lor the next few hours. After liq u id relreshments everybody filed back onto the bus and departed for Lethabo power station near Vereeniging. Due to strict security measures it was some time before the Grinaker visitors were permitted to enter the gates. At 14h00 Mr E van lmmeron of Escom conducted a very enlightening lecture on the functioning of the power station and future advantages it holds for South Africa. Grinaker's role in the construction ol this immense system was also h ig h lig hted. The

Desaending the shaft in a kibble

ney built by Grinaker

consortium with Tilemans ol London. Two groups of ladies climbed into the wire-meshed lift which creaked its way to the top of the chimney, where they were able to observe the breathtaking panoramic view ol the surrounding countryside. A lew white Iaces emerged from the lift as it stopped on solid ground after the d

esce nt.

A delicious mutton and pork spit

with salads and dessert

was

enjoyed at the peaceful Party Hut log cabin near the site. Spirits were high on the bus back to Elandsfontein and a tired but happy bunch of ladies, and rather more exhausted men, tumbled oII

the bus at 21h00. Another co nq uest

for lem inism

rou p was cond ucted arou nd

the entire site. which included a trip into the tu rbine room which is protected by an extremely thick and strong wall to be used as a defence mechanism against any Iuture terrorist insu rgence. The highlight o1 the trip was a journey up the 300m high chim-

f' l;

Klool Mine boutique

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Watch out guys G .aket

cazette June 1981

thls is the beginning of a total onslaught. 53

Paulvan Dyk, person nel manager three Grinaker group employees who recently received ce rt ificates from the Wits Business School u pon su ccesstu lly com pleting the certilicate program me in industrial relations. Linda Cele, industrial relations olficer for Grinaker Zululand and Gil Tucker, contracls service manager at Grinaker Cape, were the other two. The course Jocuses on the area of interdePendence between organ ized labour and

of Grinel. was one ol the

management and includes modules on labou r law and labou r

economics, as well as covering induslrial relations in dePth. The qroup will again be represented on the 1984/85 certificate prog ram me. Jos6 Figueiredo, conlracts services manager for

Grinaker Zululand and Jack Denz, manpower manager at Grinaker Plant lnland have both

R10 crossword No 20 Please send entries to: Crossword. PO Box 8042, Elandsfontein 1406

,. Paul van Dyk, personnel manager of Grinel, is congratulated by Theo Hetler, Grinaker group manpower consultant, on receiving a certificate in industtial relations f rom Wits Euslness Schoo/. didates to participate in the probeen accepted for the course gramme. The bursary fund is adwhich started in June. ministered by the SA lnstitute o1 The certiticate prog ram me is Race Relations. One o1the underdesigned to assist trade union

ofticials and office-bearers

well as managers responsible for industrial relation s. The Grinaker group has underlined its commitment to sou nd ind ustria I relatio ns by making donations last year and this year to a bursary fund which enables trade union canTo I it's a pick-me-up (5) Small capital expenditure for an unknown headland (5) l6Thanks are due, it seems, tor the bitumen (3) 17lan, in a muddle, follows the fellow to get the padre (8) 18 The last of Dover is fin ished (4) 20 Show concern for relurn on investment (B) 23 Kit and Mona get together to f orm an accord (7) 24 The nuts return and they're a knockout (4) 12 13

lying beliels stated in the Grinaker group code of employment practice is: "lndustriaI

peace and stability can best be n izing the existence and legitimacy of both em ployee and em ployer pa rt res in industrial relatio ns. " ach ieved th roug h recog

15 I leave 7

down

that's obvious

(6) 19 Change

the text when the tide

turns (4) 21

A tree lrom

east Lourenqo

L4arques (3) 22 Not back (3)

Solution to Crossword No

'19

Oown

Across

1 Lax asset provides government levy (5,3) 4 Accountant from Cape Town? (2\ 8 Lacking freshness. a friend is d rawn (9) I lnitially, the national industrial council (3)

2 Take out the former passage (7) 3 Late to change a story (4) 5 TV',s first side? (1,4) 6 T at's Grinaker's businessl (12) 7 Stoical while under treatment? h

(7) 10 L4ake it smaller and close the deal (8) 11 Negotiable letter {rom Standard Bank perhaps (8) 14 Exist in the Far East (3)

The lucky winner was Jean van der Westhuizen of Grinaker Electronics Agencies, PO Box 14551, Verwoerdburg 0140. Gnnaket Gazeue June 1984

Ladies' squash: Transvaal makes it one all The second annual

Grinaker

ladies' squash tournament was held in Durban on 10 December last year. The plane on which the Transvaal

team was travelling on Friday I December was delayed by two hours, so all plans to 'paint Durbs red' (not Grinaker red) were abando ned. The lad ies were all awake with the birds on Satdrday morning and

were greeted by a light drizzle which persisted for the rest of the day. They enjoyed an enormous breakfasl at the Elangeni Hotel, where they were spending the weekend. News tha't the Christmas bonuses had been paid into the Grinaker stall accounts added an extra spurt to the trip lnto Durban city to view the local goods. Two hours later the ladies managed to curb their spending spree and relurn lo the holel to prepare tor the squash competition. The tournament was held at the nearby Disc Bowl squash courts and commenced at 13h00 amidst

The handing over of the trophy. Transvaal captain lrene Roland receives the cup lrom Nalal caplain Joan Fouq uereaux.

much pre-game bantering between the Transvaal and Natal ladies. Each team consisted of six

players and the tournament was

played in a round robin fashion. that is, everybody played against the opposing six players. After extremely hard-played

6 a-\

The teams: Back: Colleen Lennie (Natal), Patricia Day (Transvaal), Heather Davies (Transvaal), lrene Roland (Transvaal), Kathy de Goede (Transvaal), Jenny Dias (Natal), June Badenhorst (Natal). Front: Felicity Cross (Transvaal), Dorothy Joubert (Transvaal), Jane Collins (Natal), Joan Fouquercaux (Natal). Absent: Helen Jansen (Natal) 6nnaket Gazette JLne 1984

squash lhe ladies linally completed their games at 17h00 and settled down to cups ol well deserved orange juice and champag ne. The Transvaal team emerged the victors by beating the Natal team 23 - 13. The Transvaal ladies returned to the hotel for a quick shower and change of clothing then crowded into Joan Fouqueraux's car and met the Natal team at the quaint Coaster Carvery restaurant in Durban. Over a traditional English dinner of roast beef, mint sauce, vegetables and Yorksh ire

pudding f ollowed by dessert, Joan (the Natal team captain) handed the win ner's cup

(donated by Flemingo Plant Hire

at last year's competition) to lrene

Roland (Transvaal team captain ).

After dinner the ladies, in true Grinaker style, hit the nightspots.

They enjoyed

cabaret Iloor

show at the Ruby Tuesday night-

club and eventually crawled into bed at 01h30. By Sunday morning the drizzle had stopped and hardly had the sun had a chance to appear than the Transvaal Iadies rushed down to the beach altera hurried breakfast. The sun shone lierce and bright the whole day and it was a g rou p ol rather reluctant and s u n-

burnt ladies who boarded the Elangeni bus which took them back to Louis Botha Airport lor

their relurn flig ht. Now that both teams have won the cup once, it will be very. interesting to see who the victors will be at this year's tournament.

Gtinaket cazete ,trnc 19a4

Bedford Boykies hit the road Liberty Lite Executive Challenge

John Mc Kenna

Liberty Life Exec utive Challenge

in 359th position, but lailed lo beat the Grinaker Plant and At 05h30 on Friday 6 April 1984, a bunch of suspicious characters gathered outside the main enlrance of Bedlord Centre attracting the attention ol a passing security guard. Giving the correct

password, five dark figures entered the build ing, emerging ten minutes later with beers and Cokes and loaded these on to a Grinaker Hi-Ace bus, where five more members oI the gang had gathered. At 05h50, the master plan was

is-

cussed. Members of the gang split up, leaving the main assault party aboard the bus, heading with determination towards Sandton City. Here the parly met two other suspicio us characters, one bearded man and one muscleman. both clothed in yellow under darkcoloured tracksuits. After discussions at a table, one collected a black cosh. After more discussion and much drinking ot water and rubbing ol bodies with Vaseline, one member of the party left the bus after being given words of encou ragement and linal instructions by the others. The bus left Sandton City. This procedure ol drinking water and rubbing on Vaseline was repeated another five times en route and members were dropped off like paratroopers out of an airforce plane. Three hours and sixteen minutes later, the Grinaker Projects team

'Bedford Boykies' finished the Gnnaket Gaze e June 1984

Equipment team who came 327th, eleven minutes ahead ot us. We thereby lost to the latter six sixpacks oJ beer.

All in all, the exercise proved interesting as all departments and disciplines in Grinaker Projects were represented by the team, i.e. sl ructu ral concrete design. arch itecture, proposals, projecl management, electrical and site administration. As with a work environ ment, each team member was totally reliant on the preceding runner handing overthe cosh. All runners, including two re-

serves (who also trained for the race) were very enthusiastic about the fact that with minimal training we had succeeded in finishing in the first half of the field .of 760 ru n ners, and all vowed to put in more ellort and training to ensure that we finish in a much better position in the Kelloggs Executive Relay race, to be run on Sunday,23 Septem ber 1984.

To all the group's

runners get on your

aspiring running

shoes and start training. We would like to enter al least one mixed team and one ladies team in the Kelloggs Relay race. Please contact me at (01 1) 616-2150 for fu rther inf o rmation.

,ft,

tpr

The Grinaker Projects team

'Bedlord Boykies': Back: Minze Steen,

Tony Diepenbroek, Chris Addington, Chris Bodmer, Front: Saul Mogosetso (the driver), John McKenna, lngo Hildebrand, Gtant Veckranges, Ken Macumber 57

Zululand captures squash trophy by Terry Walton

ln the men's team championship ZulLrland were made to f ight hard for th eir v ictory. ln the sem i-f inals

both Colin Opie and Alan Hector Equipment won their games

and the winners were determined by game count. ln the final, En-

gineefl

ng held

championshro

points against Zululand at one

stage so the outcome of the competition was in doubt untilthe last point in the final game. Transvaal won the p late event. The afternoon and even

They got up at 05h00, travelled one and a hali hours by road, flew 800 km by plane, took on the best Transvaal could offer and wonl Zululand we salute you on a fine team effort.

The first company squash competition was held ar the Benoni Country Club on l6 November 1983. Eight teams participated: Hold inqs, B u ild inq, North, Tra nsvaal, E ng ineerin g, Precast, Eq uipment and Zu lu la nd. Two sepa rate competitions were held an individual championship event for ladies and a competitiqn for men's teams oI lour. Felicity Cross of Eng ineering beat Heather Davies of Holdings in the final o{ the ladies championship and Kathy de Goede of Building won the plate event.

in g

were a

great success, many new lriends were made and the spirit of s ports man sh ip was tremendous. Roy Bennett and his team of Jeff

Charters. Frank Tennent and Gerrard Stott, the worthy

winners, have threatened to keep the trophy permanentJy in Zululand. However, we in Engineering believe that they do not make bolts long enough nor g lue stron g enough to stop the trophy moving back to the Transvaal. Special thanks go to Felicity Cross of Grinaker Eng ineerin g f or all hereflorts in o rgan izin g the tournament and cong ratu latio ns on winning the ladies'championship. We look forward to a bigger turnout this year with Natal and Cape being able to partic ipate.

Holdings contingent among the cups at Grinaker Zululand sports day Grinaker Zu lu land he ld its an n ual sports day at the Felixton Country

Club on 12 May. There was an excellent turnout and from all accounts the event was superbly organized by lsak va1 Nielerk. lnvitations were extended to a

p from Grinaker Coastal wh ich inciuded Bean Bornheime r, Deryck Howard and grou

Amadeu Nunes. Then the natural hospitality of the Zululanders got the better of them and they in vited Jach SaJlez, Peter Lart and Ernle

Vels f rom Grinaker

HoJdings.

This is where they went wrong. It is being said in the corridors oJ Braamf ontein that the Holdings contingent'cleaned up, wiped them off the courts, slew them by 58

the dozen'and generally

destroyed all opposition. These claims are based on the fact that the group's chief executive Jack Saulez and his wife Ja ne cam e out top in the ten n is with the

runners-up being Brenton

Brouard and Liz Vels, wife of E

ie Vels.

So far, the price of

Grinaker

shares has not reacted ro lhts news. We were told in Braamfon-

tein that this was due to d

the

roug ht.

However, there was no drought at

the Felixton Country Club where a memorable day produced the following results in the other eve nts:

Bowls: Berry

l\ilc

Gee.

Beaton, Anke Gjersoe

and Ewalda Simpson took the honours lrom Francis van Niekerk, Annelien le Grange, Dave Price and Gregg Booth. A consolation

prize went

to Joe

Reis, Gisa

Nunes, Piet Joubert and Heather Da n ie ls.

.ln the squash Jos6 Jardim was

followed by Peter Carty

runner-up and in the golf Willie Knott and Ted Fountain carried the day with Colleen Eaton and Bichard Adlem close behind. A consolation prize went to Peter McKenzje and Jenny Bowen. ln the tennis the consolation prize was given to Joan Knott and And rew Civil.

Craig G

naket Cazeue JDne 1981

It wasn't cricket but soccer match was f un Cricket trophy will be memorial lo Rob Campbell A Grinaker North versus Grinakei

Coastal cricket match was arranged to take place at the Datsu n

Sports Club in Rosslyn, Pretoria, on Sunday 25 March. A strong coaqtal contingent arrived at a pre-match bottle party on the Saturday (nobody can remember the address) and looked set to take home the cricket honours on Sunday. Hqwever, heavy rains had made the Datsun cricket pitch unplayab le and it was decided to have an impromptu soccer match instead. The score was 4 1 in lavour of Coastal. There was a solemn moment before the game when Brian Oliver, managing director ol Grinaker North, called on those present to observe a one minute silence out

A one minute silence was observed out of respect for Bob Campbell.

of respect tor Rob Campbell who had passed away two weeks prev

sly.

A trophy had been prepared for the cricket match. lt is called the Rob Campbell l\4em orial Trophy and will be played for each year. This is a f itling tribute to Rob who did a great deal for sport in the G rinaker g roup.

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The artist is Tony Morris, nicknamed'the Camel', of Grinaker North. Gin.kar Ga7.tt. trna

19a4

I I

Grinaker national soccer team chosen

I.t i

by Dennis Brown

X'";-_

,.+ Th

is year's soccer tournament

was held at Umbogintwini, south of Durban, on Saturday and Sunday 17 and 1 8 l\4arch, and

at. Kin

Park soccer stadium lor the lwo final games on lvlonday 19lv1arch. Playgrs and ofticials were accommodated at Umgababa Seaside Resort tor the duration of the tou rnament. Grinaker Natal hosted the tournament, with myself as teurnament o rg an izer, ve ry ab ly assisted by Rowell Haigh and Ashley Harrison. At Umbogintwini we laced the daunting task of converling two neglected lootball grounds into suilable playing surfaces lor our teams. Flood waters were diverted, goalposts uplilted, moved and painted, bush cut back, holes filled and grass cut regularly Ior a few weeks beforehand. ln addition, there being no lacilities

at the grounds, ablutions, showers, tents, a tem porary

stand, lridges, tables, chairs, power connections and water containers were all estab lished. However, by the even ing of Friday

16 March all was in order and lor kick-off. A total ol 230 people including eight teams, off icials and ready

supporters arrived at the resort by 60

Players selected for the first Grinaker national team: Back: Mike Minnaar, Daniel Mogaiane, Gregory Lucas, Yuyu Skepe, Christopher Shezi. Middle: Howard Bergman, Hartis Jacobs, Thomas Mhlanga, Maria Sangweni, Dennis Gwensa. Frcnt: Willy Ntuli. Patrick Wiseman, Kohla Mbuthu. Nhlandla Zulu. midday Friday and the draw lor the lwo sections of four teams took place that afternoon. The competition kicked olf at

Natal 4 Transvaal 2. Precast 3 Building 0. Precast 3 Transvaal 1,

09h00 on Saturday under hot and humid skies. which were to continue unabated for the remainder

Section placings in the blue section were: 1 Zululand, 2

weekend. Referees and linesmen were appointed by the National Referees Association. Their Iirm and controlled handling of the sometimes heated exchanqes was magnif icent. OI equal merit was the performance of the St John first aid team, whose treatment of lhe lame and weary ensured that many a player was still hobbling

section placings were: 1 Natal,2 Precast, 3 Building, 4 Transvaal.

of the

on lvlonday morning. The prelimjnary round results at the end of a strenuous Saturday and Sunday morning were: in the blue section, Grinel 6 Cape 2, Zululand 7 North 1, North 4 Cape 2, Grinel 1 Zululand 1, Grinel 2 around the lield

North 1, Zululand

Cape

Results in the red section were:

Natal 8 Build jng 3, Natal 3 Precast 1, Building 4 Transvaal 1.

Grinel, 3 North, 4 Cape. ln the red

After lu nch on Su nday the k nockout games commbnced in earnest with tremendous excitement. The bottom teams played olf for their final placings and results were: North 4 Building 2 (tilth and sixth

places), Transvaal

Cape

(seventh and eighth places).

ln the competition for a place rn the finals on lvlonday morning,

Zululand and Grinel cruised through with convincing wins.

Results were: Zululand 3 Precast 0, Grinel 4 Natal 0.

Kings Park Soccer Stadium has been known to house crowds of 35000 in the past. However, forGnnaket Ga2e e June 19a4

tunately tor the organizers, the crowd anticipated was a little fewer than 300. However there was lots of enthusiastic support lor the participants. Amongst the crowd were many disting u ished names, including Messrs Sau lez, Sherwood, Bornhelmer and Lait Irom Grinaker Holdings. Th e lootball proved to be of a h ig h standard. Natal secured third position and the bronze medal with a 3 0 victory over Precast. The final between Grinel and Zululand proved to be the most closely contested in the history of the tou rnament. Grinel had already won the tournament for the previous Iour years and Zululand turned out to be the surprise package of the tournament with some very talented players. The two teams had already met and drawn 1 - 1 during the league sections.

ties each commenced.

Excitement was high as the teams proceeded to score goal for goal.

to be physically restrained by their fellow players as each shot scored. Eventually Zululand missed and Grinel ran out winners by 4 penalties to 3. The presentation oI medals and trophies was made by Grinaker chief executive Jack Saulez, who congratulated all the winners. The linal placings were: 1 Grinel, 2 Z\luland,3 Natal, 4 Precast, 5 North, 6 Building, 7 Transvaal, 8 Cape. The award Jor the most sportjng team went to Cape. ln addition, for the first time, it was decided to choose a G rinaker national team from the players. lt was decided to arrange a match Players had

for lhe leam later in the

year.

Judged on the quality

oI lhe players chosen there is no doubt thatthe opposition will have to be of a very high standard. The fourteen players selected lor the team were: Howard Bergman (Grinel, goalkeeper), Willie Ntuli (Zu lu la n d, defender), M ike [,4

naar (Grinel, delender),

Harris Jacobs (Grinel, defender), Thomas [,4 h lan ga (North, defender), Patrick Wiseman (Zu luland,

midfield), Daniel Mogajane (Precast, midfield), Gregory Lucas (Grinel, midf ield),

Christopher Shezi (Zu lu land, forward), Nhlandla Zulu (Zululand, Iorward), Kohla Mbuthu (Natal, lorward ), Maria Sangweni (Natal, reserve), Yuyu Skepe (Natal, reserve), Den n is Gwensa (Natal, reserve).

half-time Grinel led 1 0 although both teams had missed opportunities. Zu lulan d equalized in the second hali which left the teams deadlocked 1 1 at the final whistle. Extra time of 15 minutes each way commenced, and Grinel appeared to have done

it again with.a goal in the first period. However,

Zu lu

land were

not to be denied and again equalized during the second

period to level the scores at 2 - 2. Unfortunately the rules state that

there must be a winner, and a penalty shoot-out of iive penalG naket

Gazeue June 19A4

Grinaker chief executive Jack Saulez and deputy chairman Don Sherwood being introduced to the playe rs 61

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