Page 40 - SAPREF 50 year

Characters past and present
SAPREF’s people have always been the heart of the refinery. Over the years a host of characters have come and gone. Some of them tend to linger longer in the minds of SAPREF colleagues. We caught up with a handful of the many SAPREF characters.
Eddie retired as emergency services manager at the end of April 2009 after 40 years at SAPREF. Variously described as forthright, crusty and down-to-earth, Eddie built what is today considered a pace-setting industrial fire department. In 2008 a Shell audit rated the SAPREF fire station and its fire- fighting training programme as one of the best in the Shell group worldwide. But Eddie preferred to focus on another of his achievements, the development of people ... and support for SAPREF’s slogan: One Team, One Purpose.
Ernest joined SAPREF in 1977 and retired as warehouse controller in 2009. His passion outside of work was the development of cricket for historically disadvantaged communities. In 2009 he was Director of KZN Cricket and later went on to become a board member of Cricket South Africa.
Piet joined SAPREF in 1970 as a “lightie” and as an “ex-cop”. Who would have guessed that in 32 years he would have progressed from a “junior oppie” at Samco to joining the elite SGSI Consultancy as Competence Consultant for a four-year assignment in the Netherlands, and “travelling around
the world” helping companies improve their bottom line through the development of their people? Piet called himself a “normal oke” and a “simple blue-collar worker”, but everyone knew he had something special and called him “coach”.
The late Krish Mackerdhuj worked in the Technology Department for 27 years before being appointed Employee Relations Advisor in 1994 to assist in the implementation of employment equity. Krish was best known for his involvement in cricket: in June 1992 he was inaugurated as president of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, he was re-elected to the position in 1994 and he represented South Africa at the International Cricket Council meeting in 1994 in London. Late in 1992, he arranged
for the famous Pakistani cricketer, Imran Khan, to visit the SAPREF Club to sign some bats and balls and speak to SAPREF people, their spouses and children. He took early retirement from SAPREF in 1995, and in the same year he received the President’s Award for Sport from former President Nelson Mandela. He also served as Ambassador to Japan.
Eddie Poll Jonker
Ernest Molotsi
Piet Senekal
Krish Mackerdhuj
SAPREF: FUELLING SA FOR 50 YEARS
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