PROFILE: This is my story - Chris Tshivhidzo

Please give us a brief summary on your career to date

My career started in 2001, where I was employed as a student engineer in the Civils Division by Stefanutti & Bressan, now known as Stefanutti Stocks, under the leadership and mentorship of Shaun Butler. In the 19 years I worked at Stefanutti Stocks, I have advanced up the proverbial corporate ladder , to Site Agent, Project manager and in 2018 I was appointed as a Contracts Director.

In September this year (2020) I joined Grinaker-LTA: Civils as a General Manager ,. After 19 years with SS, I believe I had broken through the ceiling and achieved most of my set goals. I was ready to take my experience and learning and tackle new challenges. Grinaker-LTA provided me with that opportunity, the company is relatively new, it was started by a group of professionals who have a vision of building a great company, on par with the big names in the engineering and construction industry. I joined the company with the main priority of repositioning the civils division for growth, in line with the company strategy.

Give us details of a project that made an impact in your career.

In 2006, I worked on a project called TOPA (Terminal Oceanic de Porto Amboim. I arrived on site as a young site agent and left a matured Project Manager. This project changed my life and influenced how I approach my career. For the first time I saw the results of commissioning Asian companies to building infrastructure in Africa: the quality of work was poor, the communities didn’t benefit from the work.

As an African, I vouched to build solid, quality infrastructure that would stand strong and leaves us as Africans, proud. Build by Africans for Africans is the African dream for me, and I would say we did exactly that, in terms of quality project delivery, skills development and local empowerment. The project gave me an opportunity to experience how other African countries operate and how different it was from back home.

Map of Angola

What was your position and duties on this project?

Site Agent and later Project Manager

Why does this project stand out to you?

It highlighted to me, how Africans look down on each other, when I arrived there the 1st thing, they said was that I was black and at that time they did not expect to be managed by a young black person. This strengthened by resolve and I was challenged to go outside my comfort zone and deliver a stellar product.

I lost a colleague, on a boating expedition, while we were working on the project. Dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy, with regards to local authorities and the disruption to the project, I was thrown into the deep end without warning and I was able lead the team to deliver on the job at hand.

Also read: This is My Story - Tollo Nkosi

What were the important lessons you learnt from this project?

If you put your mind to it you can achieve anything and working well with people from different walks of life makes it easier to reach your goals.

Aerial view of Plant

What were career  regrets you experienced on this project?

I do not have any regrets working on that project, I still want to work in Angola again. The people there are warm and embracing.

What has been the most satisfying thing for you personally about this project?

I matured and gained experience in a foreign country and I made a good bonus.

This industry is said to be one of the toughest industries, how did you manage to stay in it for so long?

Being an engineer is the same as being a soldier. Someone must do these jobs, or we will have no Infrastructure at all. The fulfilling part is when you show your family what you have built, and they understand why you were away all that time.

In your opinion what are the biggest challenges facing the industry currently and how can they be overcome?

The biggest challenges facing this industry is the market conditions that are driven by a buyers’ market meaning that most companies are pricing jobs at high risks and that leads to companies closing down if they do not perform. 

The other risk is community related risks where we as construction companies are given tight budgets combined with tight timelines to deliver these projects using local subbies/suppliers. It is Possible to work with local companies, but it also does not come cheap.Clients need to work together with contractors in order to come up with better strategies/solutions on how to create a win-win Environment for all parties. The cheapest price is no longer the correct one as you need to unpack and review the package what was priced and do due diligent as the client and understand what the contractor has allowed for in terms of local contractor’s packages in order to minimize disruptions.

We have also priced a lot of projects as contractors and invested a lot of our resources at our own cost. It is frustrating when projects don’t get awarded on time or simply get shelved. The construction industry employs a lot of people directly to the construction site and indirectly to manufacturing industries as well as the hospitality sector. We depend on these projects for survival.

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