Page 66 - SAPREF 50 year

David Radebe, Safety Manager
“After 32 years at SAPREF, I can safely say that the most important thing in a company is to recruit the right people and put them in the right places — and SAPREF does that exceptionally well. Also, I have noticed even people who trained only at SAPREF have done well elsewhere; I am talking about the learnerships that SAPREF offers, which is a service to the community and boosts the skills pool out there.”
Ralph Adair
Forty years ago on 22 January 1973, Ralph Adair started his career with SAPREF at the age of 17 as an Instrument Apprentice. Ralph was fresh out of school and he remembers his first day at SAPREF as a “shock”, but he was determined to succeed. Rising through the ranks to Foreman and then Instrument Electrical Buyer, he is now Turnaround Commercial Lead. Here we see Ralph with the wooden spoon which, as the longest-serving person at SAPREF, he keeps until he leaves.
Roshini Hiralal’s
stapler
“I am an oldie but a goodie — I work just fine. My memory is not so great, but I know for sure I have been at SAPREF for more than 35 years. I’ve got a feeling I was here on Day One, actually. One of my cousins is in Pat Boddy’s office and he feels the same.”
John Thomson
“During the pipeline replacement project on the Bluff in 1996, Peter Fransen the MD suggested I do something for the people along the road that we were inconveniencing. Being a Dutchman, he loved flowers and suggested I get a bowl of flowers for each housewife in the area.
“I did that, but the trouble was the next day one of the husbands was not too happy with me. So, come Christmas, I gave smaller bunches of flowers to the housewives, and sweets for the husbands and children ...”
SAPREF: FUELLING SA FOR 50 YEARS
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