Based in Pretoria, a city in South Africa that despite holding parliament has for many years been stuck under the shadow of Johannesburg, SNA Civil & Structural Engineers have been working tirelessly to establish themselves as one of the most prominent and trusted consulting engineering firms in the country. As South Africa’s infrastructure is about to receive a major boost from governmental funds, SNA finds itself in the enviable position of already having everything in place to capitalise on this influx of much-needed cash. Endeavour Magazine correspondent Jack Slater speaks with Managing Director Johan Stoltz about how.

WRITTEN BY JACK SLATER

SIXTY AND GOING STRONG

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SNA CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS

“It’s all in the name,” Johan says as he explains the key areas that his company focusses on, “We began as a civil and structural engineering company focussing on rural road

design and supervision and this developed into a series of full services,”

For a company as old as theirs, SNA Civils and Structural Engineers have had to diversify their services over the years to help ride the tide of political and social changes that have shaped South Africa. Few countries can boast of businesses that offer clients a one-stop-shop and while SNA may be best known as Transportation Infrastructure Specialists, they offer a full range of solutions. Including within their list of specialties are roads, freeway and bridge engineering, structural engineering, railway engineering, township civil engineering services, traffic and transportation engineering, geotechnical engineering and material testing, pavement design and management and project management.

Johan says, “In addition to Transportation Infrastructures, SNA is involved in all types of structures, mainly bridges, commercial and industrial structures and railway lines. We have also developed a strong materials division with our own materials laboratories.”

With SNA offices spread across South Africa, project management skills are available throughout the country from Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Pietermaritzburg through to Richards Bay, Nelspruit and Polokwane, “We also have operations in Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya and are increasing our presence in the SADEC region,” he adds.

Johan explains that they are involved in transportation

infrastructure in all its guises, including Toll roads, railways and other projects with Public Private Partnerships . Examples of these would include the N4 (Pretoria to Maputo and N3 (Heidlberg to Hilton Toll Roads) and the Gautrain, “SNA is currently working on several Mega Projects and many upgrade of roads for SANRAL,”

THE SPECIAL TOUCH OF SNAIn Johan’s own words, “Although SNA is seen as a large

organisation, the company culture is very much that of a family business and each and every employee is valued,” he says, “SNA’s level 2 BEE status is a true reflection of the transformation that has taken place to ensure that all employees are stakeholders in the company.”

SNA also believes in supporting the community and demonstrate this through their Socio-economic development programme where the focus is mainly on the education of underprivileged youths by paying school fees and building class rooms and administration blocks to assist schools with better facilities. SNA is involved in various projects, such as Bhukwana High School (class room and administration block), Oliver’s House (school stationery etc) and Pure Hope School (donations to equip class rooms) to name a few.

THE STATE OF THINGSThe transportation infrastructure industry has a bright future

in a developing country like South Africa as aforementioned. SNA is also winning tenders in South African and Sub Saharan Africa, places such as Kenya, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Zambia in particular.

SNA CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS

Celebrating its 60th birthday this year, SNA has undergone some changes since it was first founded by Mr. F.W Strydom, in 1955, as a single person enterprise. From this humble start, the one man band operation was developed into a partnership known as Strydom and Newmark. Years later it became Strydom, Newmark and Anthony and from here it eventually became SNA Civil and Structural Engineers (Pty) Ltd.

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THE HANDS ON STAFFAs there are approximately 300 staff members working for

SNA, the company must comply with a Quality Management system that is ISO 9001:2008 accredited and the requirements of the industry regulating bodies. To this end, skills development is a very important part of the employer-employee culture, not only to ensure that the professional registration requirements are complied with but also to ensure that employees skills are in line with the changes in the global market, technology and maintain an understanding of the industry.

“Employees receive yearly formal training from outside institutions, as well as in-house training. This is especially true of the candidate engineers/technologists/technicians as part of SNA’s registered mentorship programme,” Johan says, “SNA believes that employee development emphasises lifelong learning to ensure that SNA can compete with national and international organisations.”

CUSTOMERSThe mission of SNA is to provide clients with engineering

excellence in all of their projects using state-of-the-art technology, teamwork and professionalism to grow and develop in terms of

the political landscape and the demographics of South Africa. Johan explains that this is why clients recognise SNA as their first choice when deciding on what civil and structural solution provider to use, “By adding value through the employees, associates and business partners we can ensure that the product and service the client receives is of the finest possible quality,”

According to him their reputation depends on the delivery of a superb product at the completion of a project, “SNA considers that the client, consultant and contractor are a team to deliver infrastructure projects to the public,” he says,

“Our project management approach has been very successful in providing clients with projects that are fit for purpose after handover.”

The approach to ensure this is a simple but effective one and it starts with everyone involved in the company’s future believing in the basic values of excellence, integrity and quality delivery of projects on time and within budget, to all clients.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS FOR

2015 AND BEYOND Expansion is the word for

2015 as SNA are spreading their footprint into Africa and have been awarded two contracts in Kenya and two in

SNA CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS

Zambia. Continued expansion into South Africa has seen them busy in the Eastern Cape where they are currently contending with several large contracts.

“One of our focusses is on the Integrated Rapid Public Transport Networks or IRPTN, which will be for all the metro areas in South Africa,” Johan explains, “And this is coinciding with new opportunities for growth in staff, recruitment and experience.”

“All in all,” Johan says, “At sixty, we’re still going strong,”

“STRONG LEGACY – POWERFUL FUTURE”

CONGRATULATIONS

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