Ephraim the foreman

Ephraim the foreman

From his humble beginnings in a small Mozambican town, Ephraim, a man of few words, grew up.  He was born into an under privileged, poverty ridden society. Thus Ephraim was unable to attend school due to the fact that he had to work and bring money into the family at a very young age.  Unlike many of the young men, he decided to get out of the rut that he had found himself in.  Construction was a growing industry in Mozambique like many African countries.  He decided to approach a contractor for work even though he had no training in this field, none the less, the contractor reached out a helping hand to the community and decided to employ many of the locals, including Ephraim.  Ephraim saw his talent in the building industry grow and decided to follow his career across the border towards the land of hope and dreams: South Africa.

His job lead him to a small coastal town just south of Port Elizabeth, known as St. Francis Bay.  Here his talents blossomed through the guidance of many of his superiors.  He loved every aspect of his work, especially working with steel and the shuttering.  Enough though he had no formal training in his trade, his jovial personality helped him climb the ladder of success from a general worker to a site foreman in matter of seven years and soon found himself working for an established building contractor in the construction boom that is Gauteng where he still operates today.

From pickaxes to power grinders, Ephraim has seen the evolution of his line of work.  These advancements of technology have allowed the industry - according to Ephraim - to meet deadlines, previously thought impossible.  The ability of the excavators to lift heavy loads and burn fuel more efficiently allow them to work harder and for longer hours. 

Ephraim may love his job very much, but that does not mean that he is a master in every aspect.  He is still learning and he finds that leveling is an area which is more challenging than the other parts.  He is constantly trying to improve and values leveling as one of the more important parts of the foundation work, as if it is not done properly it is impossible to complete a job that is accurate and that he can be proud of. 

Ephraim's responsibilities on site is to oversee the general work completed by his workers.  On the site this mainly includes the foundation work.  He is involved with the digging of the trenches, leveling of the site, positioning of the reinforced steel and laying the foundation concrete.

Ephraim’s advice to up and coming people who wish to enter this line of work is to get a lot of practical work done by spending time on site and watching the professionals and learning from them.  Ephraim said to us not just go to a site and be a spectator, take part and have a hands on approach to every aspect, much like in everyday life.  Ephraim also believes that respect is key and that that is the first lesson anyone must learn before starting their career in this field, one must not only respect those above you but those below you as well.  He remembers when he was a labourer starting off his career and he was treat well and fairly and wants to make sure every site he works on adopts the same ideas.

(Picture from Google maps of St. Francis Bay) 

Ephraim feels that the construction industry has given him multiple opportunities to grow and develop not only as a professional, but as a human being.  Much like the meaning of his name, he has had a fruitful life and has made more money than he ever thought was possible due to his under privileged beginnings.  Even though he, himself never studied, he encourages us to keep at it and to never give up on our dreams because if he can make it this far from nothing, we have ample chance to become the most successful professions in the industry today.

Kevin Dylan Reddie         10687638

Ben Ainsworth                  15051392

Danelle Davey                     15007899

Laurence Mowatt              14072638

Narshani Narainsamy       15008275