Friedrich Slabbert: a steward of progress

Abstract

Friedrich Slabbert started mowing the lawn when he was 10 years old. He explains that it is in part why he is the person he is today. Mowing the lawn was one of many chores Friedrich was responsible for while growing up, and it was one of the ways his parents helped instill two essential values in him: the importance of service and the discipline of systematic thinking. He still mows the lawn to this day, which he considers his quiet time.

Friedrich Slabbert started mowing the lawn when he was 10 years old. "It is built into my DNA," he says, explaining that it is in part why he is the person he is today. Mowing the lawn was one of many chores Friedrich was responsible for while growing up, and it was one of the ways his parents helped instil two essential values in him: the importance of service and the discipline of systematic thinking. He still mows the lawn to this day, which he considers his quiet time - "I've solved many problems while mowing the lawn over the years," he says.

Friedrich embodies the true spirit of stewardship in the civil engineering profession, championing progress, upholding high standards, and setting a positive example for future generations of infrastructure professionals. He attributes this mindset to his parents, who instilled in him the belief that true stewardship begins with asking the right questions:

What needs to be done?

Where must it be done?

When does it need to be done?

Who must do it?

Why must it be done?

How should it be done? He recounts his mom helping him to compile a weekly schedule for all his activities and responsibilities. "I've always had a scientific and orderly mind, but I learnt time planning and dedication to quality from my mom," he says. His dad, who spent 27 years volunteering for a hospital employees association he established, instilled in Friedrich the value of volunteerism. "We are not here only for ourselves. If you have the passion and capacity to add more, you should," says Friedrich.

This is part of the reason he has been a SAICE member for the past 45 years, much of which time he has spent actively participating in the institution's various structures and initiatives.

ENTERING THE PROFESSION

Growing up Friedrich spent a great deal of time building roads and bridges in the

Friedrich Slabbert, 2025 SAICE President sandpit for his toy cars. He had always possessed strong planning and logic skills, but he attests his engineering mind to his parents. "It all started with my parents teaching me to solve problems. That is what engineers do after all," he says.

Friedrich's dad thought he would do well in an engineering environment, and Friedrich began working at the TPA Roads Department in 1974 at the end of his matric year, shortly before commencing his first year of university engineering studies. He did a lot of what he terms "donkey work" in between his studies, often travelling to far away sites to conduct surveys, assist with materials testing, and gaining experience on construction sites. "I was able to do things like ride on graders and learn from the operators, gaining practical exposure before I even studied those subjects in university, which gave me a fantastic understanding. That might be why I'm a bit different from many other engineers - I didn't start with the theory, I started with the practice," he says.

During this time, Slabbies, as his colleagues called him, had the opportunity to engage with and learn from senior engineers, gaining invaluable insights and technical knowledge. He recalls having excellent mentors in his early years, noting that he "grew up" with professionals. He recounts teatime at TPA, where the students and young professionals would sit down with the chief engineers and often discuss projects and receive practical advice.

Upon graduating, Friedrich began his military service in the engineering department and worked in the office of the Quartermaster General under a professional engineer. Much of his responsibilities involved overseeing design and construction and inspecting and conducting repairs on existing installations at various military bases.

After completing his military service, Friedrich returned to the TPA Roads Department where he completed another two years of formal training. This included six months in the road building materials division that included the materials testing laboratory, six months in the structural engineering division, six months in the geometric design division and finally six months in the construction division. During this training he designed a large three-deck bridge and conducted several structural failure analyses as well as an assessment of a super load road that included load analyses for several bridges. His geometric design training focused on a 50 km road in the (now) North West and his construction training saw him overseeing the construction of seven bridges in (now) Mpumalanga. In those days, the work was part of the Pretoria region of the Roads Department.

A DIVERSE CAREER

Friedrich's career is marked by diversity and innovation. Over the years he specialised in various fields, often spearheading groundbreaking engineering work and enabling new infrastructure programmes.

After completing his training, Friedrich specialised in the use of appropriate road building materials. In this capacity, he and Paul Olivier, the current MD of JG Afrika, wrote notes on compaction and stabilisation for the late Prof. Philip Savage's postgraduate lectures.

He then turned his attention to pavement management system development. It was 1985, and personal computers had not yet entered the workplace. In those times, computers were typically large mainframes with minimal functionality. This did not deter Friedrich, who went on the achieve what he now considers one of his greatest career accomplishments.

After acquiring a 64 MB hard drive, which took the form of a large box and effectively doubled the operating capacity of the computer available to him, Friedrich entered the world of programming. The computer did not come with any software, and so Friedrich set to work developing what would become one of the first pavement management systems.

After compiling an asset list along with records of the age and surface materials of all the roads in the region, Friedrich and his team developed the LM3 form. The form listed 22 road defects, considering road surfacing, pavement structure and functionality, with a rating for the degree and extent of the defect. Using this system, the data acquired from a visual assessment produced a curve for each defect, which determined the importance and extent of the remedial actions needed.

Friedrich wrote the programmes to capture this information, produce the defect curves and ultimately provide a grading for each road in terms of the importance of the road and action to be taken. This allowed the department to make informed decisions on how to budget for road maintenance and led to the maintenance budget increasing from R14 million to R150 million in just one year.

Friedrich's work ultimately led to the development of the TMH19 Manual for the Visual Assessment of Road Structures and subsequently the TRH 22 Pavement Management Systems which provides guidance on what to do with the assessment data once it has been captured. "I then trained staff from VKE (now SMEC), Van Wyk and Louw (now Zutari), Scott & De Waal (now Royal HaskoningDHV), and Mackintosh, Bergh and Sturgess (now WSP), who are now some of the biggest consulting firms in the country, on how to perform these assessments. This was a major accomplishment for me in my career," he says.

Having achieved this feat, Friedrich decided it was time for a change and joined Uhlman Witthaus & Prins Consulting Engineers (later renamed UWP Consulting and now Mariswe) as a materials specialist. While there he was asked to consult with the Transkei Department of Agriculture and Forestry who was struggling to complete projects. Friedrich developed an assessment form that was used to investigate the cause of this, and then helped develop a geomatic information system for the whole region and a subsequent five-year plan. "We turned the whole Transkei around," he says.

Based on their work in the Transkei, UWP began doing work for the Department of Water Affairs, particularly related to the institutional management of water systems. Using the knowledge he had gained in the pavement management space, Friedrich was able to undertake an investigation and provide solid recommendations, and thus the roads pavement specialist entered the world of water. After this, the Department appointed a consulting group per province, with UWP tasked with helping set up the (now) Department of Water and Sanitation's community water and sanitation system for the Eastern Cape, which became the strong foundation applied across South Africa. The systems and software developed for this purpose evolved over time, marking the beginnings of what would later expand to the Department of Water and Sanitation's Drop Reports.

With his growing experience in management systems, Friedrich helped develop a template and electronic assessment tool to assist Water Services Authorities in the management and development of their water services plans in line with the Water Services Act (108 of 1997). Then in 2000 he submitted a proposal for the mapping of all indigenous forests larger than 1 ha. This resulted in a three-year project that developed another management system, this time for the country's forests.

In 2004 the focus changed again, and Friedrich got involved in transport planning after a change in legislation required municipalities to provide Integrated

Public Transport Networks related to the National Land Transport Transition Act (22 of 2000). Friedrich and his team developed numerous transport plans for municipalities in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Free State.

He then began a project with Anglo Platinum to help establish relationships with the municipalities in which they operated relating to the provision of services like roads, water supply, power and housing. During the same period, he also began consulting to Rustenburg Local Municipality, providing management support to its Project Management Unit.

Friedrich went on to serve as the Project Lead for the initial phases of the Rustenburg and Ekurhuleni Bus Rapid Transport networks before retiring, after which he continued working as a consultant for UWP.

He has worked on several projects since retiring, including compiling the technical specifications on patronage growth for the renewal of the Gautrain concession contract, and the concession actions required (e.g. rehabilitation, upgrades, etc.) on the 600 km of the N4 between Pretoria and Maputo -one of his favourite projects to date.

Friedrich also established Sciendum Academy and was initially appointed by North-West University to develop a postgraduate diploma for the Department of Transport's staff members with BTech degrees to aid them in achieving the necessary qualifications to professionally register. Sciendum Academy went on to assist SAICE with the development of its 'Grow an Expert' concept as part of the Growing Forward strategy.

FAMILY VALUES

Friedrich has always had strong family ties. He grew up in Pretoria with four sisters and continued to visit his family often after moving to Johannesburg with his wife Joey in 1992. He and Joey met in school and have been married for 47 years, during which time they raised three children of their own. Friedrich speaks proudly of their children and their spouses - Beyers and Liezel, Elbe and Ruan, and Lize and Hannes - and nine grandchildren, who all remain very close to this day.

Joey recalls how, despite his busy work schedule, Friedrich always found time for family, offering support and guidance where needed and becoming actively involved in school governing bodies and joining the board of their church where he also served as chairperson for several years.

A key feature of the Slabbert family is their regular get togethers, which began soon after Friedrich and Joey moved to Johannesburg. All the Slabbert siblings, together with their spouses and children, would gather at their parents' home, totalling a whopping 25 people, and Friedrich's mom would prepare a feast for everyone. Over time the siblings began taking turns to host every few months, and the gatherings grew as the family expanded. Today the gatherings are much larger and typically feature a spit braai for all to enjoy. In January 2025, the family met for their 158th gathering.

RECREATIONAL PURSUITS

Busy work schedule aside, Friedrich has always made time for the recreational activities he enjoys.

Friedrich took up running as a young man in preparation for his military service. This unexpectedly evolved into a passion for running that would see him compete in a number half and full marathons as well as the prestigious Comrades Marathon. This led to him becoming a running coach at several schools, helping them to dramatically improve their results and assisting several learners in qualifying for the provincial team. Friedrich is also an avid cyclist and has completed the Cape Argus Cycle Tour 13 times.

His love of music was evident in his inaugural presidential address, which featured several moving pieces of music that hold meaning for him. This love began in childhood, when Friedrich learnt to play both the violin and piano, in addition to singing in competitions. He joined the Randburg Male Voice Choir in 1994 and sang with them for several years before later joining the Capital Singers, a mass choir initiative that meets four times a year to perform. The last performance Friedrich participated in saw 1 000 singers gather at

Time Square's SunBet Arena in Pretoria. "Singing brightens your life," he says.

Friedrich and Joey love to travel and have visited several countries in addition to their extensive local travels. The standout for Friedrich was their 2018 trip to Budapest and Prague. An avid sports lover, he and his son Beyers attended the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and in 2023 they took their wives along to the World Cup in France.

Photography is another passion, which stems from one of his bucket list items, namely, to take photographs of all his grandchildren with a good quality camera. The day his first grandchild, Lia, was born he purchased a Canon 7D, which he still has to this day.

Another of his bucket list items is to walk from Johannesburg to Cape Town.

While he still hopes to achieve this, he has completed the Tankwa Camino, a contemporary version of the Great Trek that guides participants through the Tankwa Karoo. The 10-day hike covers a 260 km route from Calvinia to Ceres in the hot desert with no shade.

A more relaxing hobby is wine tasting, and Friedrich and Joey meet monthly with a group of friends who love to taste and learn about various wines.

STEWARDINGSAICETO GREATER HEIGHTS

Having lived an impressive career and personal life, Friedrich shows no signs of slowing down. "I really love work. I have a real passion for solving problems, which is what engineers are here to do," he says.

Friedrich has grand plans for his presidential term, which include visiting all 19 SAICE branches across the country, inspiring and supporting as many members as possible in advancing their careers, and even writing a book. He is also actively involved in SAICE's Strategic Infrastructure Working Group and hopes to take the Infrastructure Report Card and SAICE's engagement with government to greater heights.

His vision is to create better engagement with all sectors of the industry, from SAICE members to companies and government entities, and to engage with greater purpose. He would also like to foster greater volunteerism among members and committees. "We need to build better relationships with our members and change how we work so that we can fully understand our members' needs in order to provide a meaningful offering to them," he says. "Ultimately it is time to stop talking and start doing."

As a steward of the profession, Friedrich also aims to promote a matter very close to his heart: to drive continued professional development and mentorship, increase the number of professionally registered engineering professionals, and ultimately inspire future generations of engineering professionals to greatness. D