Full Names:Frederick Wilhelm Visagie (Fred)
Curriculum Vitae
of
Frederick Wilhelm Visagie
Personal Details:
Full names:Frederick Wilhelm Visagie (Fred)
ID No:4408225015008
Address:46 Korannaberg Road
WaterkloofHeights
0181
Contact:
Home tel:012 3482426
Cellular:084 055 5633
Fax:012 3482426
e-mail:
Qualifications:
School:Hoër Seunskool Helpmekaar
Highest standardMatriculation Exam
First class pass in 1961
Subjects:Afrikaans
English
German
Mathematics
Natural Science
Biology
Tertiary Education:
Institute:University of the Witwatersrand
Degree:BSc Electrical Engineering
Completed: December 1965.
Further degree:BCom Business Administration and Law
Completed:December 1974
Witwatersrand Technikon:
Diploma:Diploma for Technicians in Electrical Engineering
Completed:December 1966
This was done concurrent with the BSc degree as a supplement to obtain a more practical approach to engineering.
Work experience:
1986 to date:
Self employed as consultant in various fields:
Most current:
Self employed as consultant;
Free lance marketing for various companies and also translation of contracts and sales material.
Translations for Dutch Government institutions on Legislative procedures and also for the Dutch Defense Force.
Engineering consultant on a fee basis for African Precious Minerals for the design of a Gold Mine in the Manika Province of Mocambique.
Advisor to CAMEC (SA) (Pty) Ltd on the acquisition of various mining rights in South Africa and setting up a new structure for Camec London in Southern Africa for various mining and industrial businesses.
Evaluation of mining and industrial projects for Taurock Resources related to minerals and precious minerals in South Africa. This includes, inter alia, projects related to gold mining, where we hold the intellectual property, and also tin, platinum, chrome and coal mining.
Also appointed as Director of the Blesboklaagte coal mine to safeguard the interests of Taurock resources in this joint venture.
Evaluation and feasibility studies to set up an industrial business in activated carbon manufacture as well as the international marketing of the product.
1986 to 2000
Undertook studies for international companies to set up business in South Africa. Of note here was setting Merlin Gerin of Grenoble France as a project company in South Africa.
This entailed the complete marketing study and pricing policy of their equipment and business structure.
I was also involved with Sanlam in setting up Employee Benefits for various large corporations
Most notable was
Barlow Rand Group prior to decentralization where I was instrumental in creating tax efficient salary structures and also later in the sale of Barlow Rand coal division and the transfer of the assets.
BHP Biliton in the structure of retirement and medical aid fund for the old Ingwe coal division
Xstrata. I was involved with this company from the days where they were known as Chrome Resources and were taken over by Südelektra of Switzerland and the transformation to Xstrata as it is currently known. Here I was involved in structuring retirement benefits and medical aid as well as investment strategies.
1983 to 1986
Employed by the Aberdare Aycliffe and Contronics group as National Marketing Manager.
My duties were to ensure the company retains and increases its foothold in a declining market due to imports.
This was achieved by working the London Metal Exchange to corner the supply of raw materials such as copper and lead and starving the competitors of this supply and forcing them to buy from us. This worked well and we actually grew our business in this declining market and remained profitable in a time when we had 15% inflation and had to decrease prices by 10%.
During this period we were forced to undersell a specific cable size because we were outbid by a specific wholesaler. Investigation proved that he could only supply one drum of cable, but this was a good nuisance value. As a manufacturer supplier I bought this cable from him (we usually only sold cable) and took it into stock. This put our company in charge of the situation again at absolute minimal cost.
1978 TO 1983
During this period I was employed mainly by LTA Ltd and seconded to various group companies and joint ventures in project management positions for big contracts.
Projects of importance here was involvement in
Finalisation of the Cahora Basa hydro power scheme with Spie Batignoles of France.
Oxbow hydro electric scheme and distribution lines.
A small part in the nuclear radiation protection at Koeberg.
I was also on the management team for the multi-million Rand uranium beneficiation plants at Vaal Reefs now known as Ashanti. This was a R 100 million project in 1983.
Seconded to Jacobs of Houston Texas to write the Project Management Manual for Anglo American Company. On this particular project I advised that we used dedicated phone lines and computers for communication and achieved a 24 hour working day and also early finalization of the project with resultant increased profits. I used this system once before to design an iron ore mine in Australia where it proved successful.
1965 to 1978
Employed first as Assistant Engineer and later as District Engineer with South African Railways and Harbours.
My first duties were to ensure the efficient running of a workshop complex with some 150 artisans and 350 labourers and operators. I also had an ApprenticeSchool with 150 apprentices where I was responsible for the training of the apprentices with the view to accelerate their readiness to be more productive in a period wher South Africa suffered fro severe skills shortage. The training period was shortened from 5 to 3 years provided the apprentice could pass the skills test set first by myself and secondly by the government testing body at Olifantsfontein. About 70% of apprentices passed these tests and could be used as artisans at artisan remuneration whilst still remaining apprentices for the remainder of the 5 year program as then required by law. In this way we remained productive in a period where we lost 25% of our artisan staff to private industry.
I was also responsible for a bonus working incentive scheme to increase production. This entailed time and motion studies as well as innovative methods to improve workflow. For this I replaced a lot of old machinery with more modern machinery where menial tasks could be done by operators and only the set up done by artisans. Use of semi-automated machinery allowed one artisan to operate three machines simultaneously and increase production. In this period we managed in the first year after transformation to increase production by 25% after we 10% of the labour force. Artisans earned higher take-home pay and production costs declined.
A follow-on to this was my appointment as district engineer in charge of new construction. In this position I was responsible for 52 projects varying from electrification of new lines to building the new technical area for the then JanSmutsAirport at which site alone I had 10 projects running simultaneously. These include the Jet engine test cell and the so-called X-Ray building which used radio-active Iridium isotopes. This was what led to my later involvement in Koeberg as not many engineers had experience in protective systems for radio-active installtions. This work was done in close collaboration with what was then known as the Atomic Energy Board.
One other duty was to train Black labourers to take over posts previously filled by White operators on the construction of overhead lines. This project was successfully completed in 3 years.