Planning

On 1 March 1972, probably as a result of my proven planning bend, I was transferred to the Planning Division as Assistant Chief Engineer under Dawid Keyser, the Chief Engineer. The other ACE was At Rabie. When I arrived in his office, Dawid told me that I would be responsible for hydrological analysis in the Division, while At would be in charge of Project Planning. I was aghast! Rabie had a hydrology background, while I was a complete novice it the field! I wrote him a letter of protest and proposed that he divide the country in a Western and an Eastern half and that he put me in charge of the latter. In the end he accepted my proposal. Some of the staff allocated to me, later became well-known, such as Bob Pullen, later President of SAICE and John Briscoe – the latter receiving the Stockholm Water Price shortly before I wrote these lines. Other staff members that I remember are Hill-Smith, Kay, van Heerden, Lategan, Gelati, Graham Grant and Eschberger (the latter the same one I worked with at Hydroonsult). Hans Pettenburger also joined my team a bit later. I shall have to say much more about him in another context.
An important event in my career was attending a two week course in Water Resource Project economics, given by Prof. Ed Kuipers of Manitoba University, Canada, as arranged by Prof. Des Midgley of the Witwatersrand University. This course proved extremely valuable and was presented by one of the best lecturers I have experienced. Kuipers also provided a book with the same title, which I have extensively used since.