8 / 40
6
AFRICAN FUSION
March 2017
SAIW graduates celebrate
T
he OR Tambo Premier Hotel was
the venue for SAIW’s first 2017
dinner for the presentation of di-
plomas to students on SAIWcourses, the
most successful of these being Welding
Inspection courses.
At the event: 69 SAIWLevel 1 Inspec-
tion diplomas were awarded, five with
distinction. 57 SAIW Level 2 Inspectors
qualified, with six students achieving
distinctions and 13 also receiving the IIW
Standard Level Inspection certificate,
which transforms the qualification into
a globally accepted one.
In addition, Duran Naidoo qualified
as a Welding Specialist (IWT); Nnd-
wakhulu Mufamadi and Pasklys Nhlapo
as Welding Specialists (IWSs) and Mi-
chael Amir was awarded the IIW Interna-
tional ComprehensiveWelding Inspector
Certificate, a Level 3 qualification.
A motivational address was deliv-
ered by Gert Joubert of ArcelorMittal, a
passionate stalwart of inspection and
of the welding industry in South Africa
and chairperson of SAIW Certification’s
Governing board.
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and
At SAIW’s first presentation dinner for 2017, 132
diplomas were awarded to successful students
on SAIW Welding Inspection and IIW Welding
Specialist (IWS) and Technologist (IWT) courses.
African Fusion
reports.
Herman Potgieter and Gert Joubert catch up at SAIW’s dinner for
the presentation of diplomas.
Above:
Mhlungisi Kenneth Zulu and Anele Cecilia Sontaba display
their new qualifications. Zulu received SAIW Level 2 and IIW
Standard Level inspector certificates while Sontaba is now a Level 1
Welding Inspector.
Left:
Michael Amir receives his IIW Comprehensive Level Inspector
certificate from SAIW president Morris Maroga.
Next generation
inspectors qualify
I remember, involve
me and I learn,” Jou-
bert begins, quoting
Benjamin Franklin.
“We gain knowl-
edge to improve
ourselves. A com-
mon denomina-
tor in this group is
that all of you have
gained knowledge – you passed the
exams. A group of you has gained
knowledge but you do not yet have the
experience. Youmay have come straight
from school or from another profession
and you need some experience in the
fabrication industry. Some of you came
with some knowledge and lots and lots
of experience. You know the industry
and are taking things to the next level.
And in between, there are those of you
with some knowledge and some experi-
ence, not new to the industry but not yet
where you want to be.
“Knowledge plus experience equals
aqualification,” Joubert points out, “and
“knowledge plus experience plus skills
results in understanding and the abil-
ity to do. It enables one to think things
through and come up with practical
solutions that work,” he tells graduates.
But also, Joubert points to another
less tangible measure for practical suc-
cess: “What is the knack?” he asks. “I can
explain what it is using a story. It comes
from a factory making rifles during the
war. In this factory there was a group of
responsible for inserting the breech and
locking it into place.
“There was one old guy who could
do this without thinking, in seconds, but
nobody else could. It always got stuck.
“They went to him and said: teach
us how you do that. But he didn’t know
howhewas doing it so he couldn’t teach
them. So one of the other worker sat