This is an unusual topic for Dispatch Careers, which often features start-up or established success stories but they are seldom driven by older people who could qualify for retirement, if they did not own the business.
Tony Cowen, of East London company Donkcrete Precast Walling, changed the story tradition.
He has been in the precast walling sector for more than 52 years and, refreshingly, said that he was always learning.
He is an Eastern Cape son of the soil, having grown up on his parents’ farm in Fort Beaufort and schooled at Woodridge High School, near what was Port Elizabeth.
“I didn’t start the business that became Donkcrete, but took over from my father.
“He was a hard taskmaster. My first six years with the company were in Mthatha.
“I ran our factory there, next door to South African Breweries, which was managed by the late Kevin Farr, whose father, George, was once the editor of Daily Dispatch.”
Cowen’s first contract was walling the new Upper and Lower Fort Gale housing projects in Mthatha.
“I’d come back home to EL every weekend. One weekend I heard on the radio that the Mthatha fuel tanks, which we had walled, were blown up with explosives, a case of sabotage.
“I rushed back but was happy to see that our walling had withstood the explosions. The walls are still standing today.”
Returning to the present, he said that up until the start of 2024 the walling business was relatively steady but this year “things have gone quiet”.
“I’m not a business analyst but I think the lull might have a lot to do with the uncertainty stemming from the elections.
“Once the concern settles, work should take off again.
“My greatest lesson after being in the walling business for 11 years came from three South African Railways and Harbour (SARH) engineers who were overseeing a job that we had tendered on and won.
“It was for 3km of walling at the Cambridge fuel depot.
“I was in for a surprise at the first meeting. These guys had strict ideas about every facet of the job and it was irritating.
“The first was the foundation depth and shape of the holes. They weren’t allowed to narrow as they got deeper; they had to be exactly 600cm square and 700cm deep.
“The concrete mix had to be exact to their specifications, and machine mixed.
“They would cut a section off one of our concrete poles, take it to the laboratory and pressure test it to make sure we were not cutting corners, but waste the whole pole in the process.
“One of them would check nearly every hole.”
The job took two years. After time, meeting the engineers’ demands became standard operating procedure.
“Despite my walling experience, I really learnt from that tender. There wasn’t one demand that we failed to adopt in our business and still use today.
“It was like two years of walling university. I treasure it still today. Their lessons are still the strength of Donkcrete.”
Cowen said in the past 40 years, none of Donkcrete’s projects had walls that “burst or popped”, which was due to the “SARH university”.
He said the business had changed over the years.
There are more companies using freelance teams, which means shrinking in-house teams.
In his Mthatha days, he played social rugby in the business league, turning out for Murray and Stewart.
“The only reason I mention this is that one of my opponents was then Transkei politician, Bantu Holomisa, who was the captain of the Defence Force.
“He was a reasonable player but a great fellow.”
In his early days, walling was a dawn-to-dusk job, often supervising five crews on five different contracts.
“Only after I knew the craft backwards and forwards, was I promoted into the office to do a management job.
“But a lot of people, far more successful than I am, also started on the shop floor.
“This could be a good lesson for young people looking for a job.
“People ask why am I still working, and working hard. One, I get really bored at home, two I am in love with the business.
“I get a great thrill when driving past Donkcrete walls that I built in East London in the early days and that are still as good as the day they were erected.
“I suppose it is a passion for precast walls.”
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