Ms Winnie Ngubane
Bachelor of Civil Engineering, DUT — now a Junior Engineer-in-Training
I first met Winnie Ngubane as a young Grade 10 Student, back in 2019 when she enrolled in Grade 10 at PROTEC Pmb. Winnie attended the rural Mpolweni Secondary School near New Hanover, Albert Falls KZN, where she lived in Thokozani with her Parents and four siblings. Her Dad was a Truck Driver who had matriculated some years prior to me meeting Winnie, and had even taking a Damlin College Diploma in Production. By writing to various contacts PROTEC Pmb had at that time within SAPPI, we were able to refer him to various Forestry networks, and he eventually to our great joy, re-employed and still is!!
For her part Winnie, who had spoken up about us helping to find her Dad another job, worked her socks off – she attended Mpolweni Secondary School which even in those days, did not have a Physical Science Teacher. Hence, her only source of Physical Science education, was here at PROTEC Pmb – Winnie never let that hold her back; her final Grade 12 Physical Science result was an amazing 61%.
Winnie was accepted into DUT for Civil Engineering and within the minimum number of years, graduated with her Bachelor of Civil Engineering, in April 2026. True to form, Winnie contacted our Offices in July 2026 to say that she was not getting anywhere with the contacts she had tried for locating employment – for herself this time. Well, knowing that Winnie always gives of her very best, we made a call to our long-time donors, Partners in Development to ask if they as a small Civil Engineering company, knew of any employment or learnerships going….
We were surprised with Mr Dave Still contacted us himself to invite Winnie in for an immediate Interview! She was instructed to report for duty the following morning, and off she went…
We were unsure as to whether this was an Internship, Learnership or Employment, so contacted Winnie some weeks later, only to be told that she now had access to a car, a cell phone etc….this seemed to indicate that Winnie Ngubane is now a Junior Engineer-in-Training.
It is truly amazing how a positive attitude, and a hard-working co-operative mind-set propel some people into the workplace, seemingly effortlessly! Well-done Winnie!