Ship building: 'Sense of pride for the coloured community.'

Carl Emmanuel … The industry is still dominated by coloured people, many of whom sit at senior level.

Carl Emmanuel … The industry is still dominated by coloured people, many of whom sit at senior level.

Published Mar 14, 2018

Share

Durban - “Back then, ship building gave us independence and made us feel human and not just second-class citizens,” said 62-year-old Carl Emmanuel, who now runs a recruitment company, Dormen Labour Services.

The boilermaker turned businessman got his foot in the door in 1981.

Emmanuel, of the Bluff, said working at SAS had brought a sense of pride and prestige to the coloured community.

“The opportunity to learn and develop a skill brought coloured people to the same level as the whites they worked with. In fact, in the workplace we mixed easily, because we were all skilled and loved what we did.”

He said before the company changed hands, only white people worked at the shipyards, but when the job reservation was gradually removed, jobs were opened up to others.

“The interest in shipbuilding among young men from coloured areas like Sydenham, Wentworth and Newlands East suddenly grew, because there was an opportunity,” he said.

He believes SAS shaped the coloured communities around Durban, as the availability of jobs encouraged a lot of young men to join the industry - and their sons after them.

He said the industry was still dominated by coloured people, many now at a senior level. 

“It was one of the few industries that was open to coloured people and gave them a scarce skill, which meant a stable job and a comfortable living.”

He said as time passed, many began teaching their black friends the trade.

“But the supervisors were strict. They told us, ‘Don’t teach black people the work’. They believed blacks would take over our jobs. It was an unwritten law.”

Emmanuel had followed in his father’s footsteps. The late Kenneth William Emmanuel worked in shipping most of his life, first on whaling boats then in shipbuilding.

“Whatever stories we heard of, was from my father and his friends.”

He said shipbuilding was not his first job: “I first worked in government and later on decided to join the company, which was at the time called Sandock-Austral.”

He said shipbuilding was then at its peak. When he started, the company was building armoured cars for the South African Defence Force and doing work for power stations.

He then became involved in human resources.

Now the owner of Dormen Labour Services, he recruits artisans, including boilermakers, welders, pipe and marine fitters and riggers for SAS. 

This is a job he started while working at SAS when they needed a dedicated person to attract skilled workers for what is now the largest shipbuilding and repair company in Southern Africa.

“It’s a very labour intensive industry so it creates jobs. At one point there were more than 2000 people working at the shipyards.”

Having grown up in Durban visiting the harbour and working there as a packer, Emmanuel said he was oblivious to what went into shipbuilding.

“I didn’t have insight into what went into it until I started working there and the exposure really made me realise the magnitude of what we were doing. 

"To take flat sheets of steel and put them together with other components into this humongous structure that floats on water ” he enthused.

As a recruiter, he has seen many craftsmen who learned trades at SAS go on to become successful internationally. 

He applauds the revival and promotion of craftsmanship as a career among young people, such as efforts by the Department of Higher Education, which is hosting the National Artisan Development Conference.

POST

Related Topics: