Algate Panyika Mtemah is an Engineering Institute of Technology born and bred in Zimbabwe. He is currently working in the Metal and Minerals Processing Plant industry. He studied EIT's Advanced Diploma in Civil and Structural Engineering. To say he has done it all is an understatement.
He is fond of the application of knowledge in innovative engineering design, construction, operation, and maintenance. His daily responsibilities include quantity costing of mining project processing plants.
Algate loves witnessing the building of mining plants from scratch, seeing the final product and seeing it ready to be sold on the market. He is fascinated by the interdisciplinary fashion in which the industry operates. He says you can expect to see all sectors at work: civil, mechanical, industrial, electrical and chemical engineering.
Algate has enjoyed a wonderful career of employment and on-the-job learning — while also studying towards achieving recognition in the engineering industry.
He spent his tertiary education years at Bulawayo Polytechnic to pursue a Mechanical Engineering Diploma in the 1990s. He got a job while studying at a foundry and engineering company named Issels in Bulawayo, then as a mechanical engineering technician.
After he completed his diploma, he joined Portland Holdings as a technical engineering officer — where he worked for many years. He then relocated to Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe, and started his own company in the engineering field.
Around that time, the Zimbabwean economy began struggling. Algate reflected:
"Due to the economic meltdown, there was high inflation in Zimbabwe at a stage. I was left with no choice but to go back to 8am-5pm full-time employment."
He joined a company named Cochrane Engineering as a senior estimator in 2000 and worked extensively in the boiler manufacturing industry until 2008. He relocated to South Africa in the same year. He joined a company in the Western Cape Province and started work as a technical buyer at Gascon - a pressure vessel manufacturing. Inside the company, he worked extensively in the department that was responsible for acquiring gas containers.
Opting to relocate once more, he moved to Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. He joined a company named MKA Chartered Quantity Surveyors. He then moved on to Richards Bay Minerals as a junior quantity surveyor, assisting with the complete overhaul of one of their furnaces.
A year later, in 2009, Algate joined Kentz Engineers and Constructors as a quantity surveyor in electrical and instrumentation. He spent a year there as well, and upon the completion of the Richards Bay Minerals Tailings Treatment Project, he obtained a position in the Middle East.
He began work for a company named Prolog Construction, based in the United Arab Emirates. He once again found in a quantity surveyor role, but this time in the civil engineering department. Algate flexed his ability to learn quickly, becoming proficient in the world of concrete structures during this time. He was, in this time, a part of the crews that built NATO hostels in Afghanistan within the NATO Military Fraternity - work that kept him occupied for the extent of 2011.
In 2012, he went back to South Africa. He joined SENET as a senior estimator in the metal and mineral processing plants - where has been working until today.
Graduation
During his tight work schedule, Algate also managed to graduate through EIT’s 52724WA -Advanced Diploma of Civil and Structural Engineering course. He became one of our Honorary Students of the Year 2018. Nobly, Algate, amidst Zimbabwe’s politically and economically complicated 2018, assisted students with transferring money from Zimbabwe to South Africa to pay for their tuition fees. Talking about why he took the course, he said:
"I chose this course specifically to gain in-depth knowledge about construction as a whole in regards to concrete and structural engineering on how they marry each other in the formation of a firm structure."
Algate is set to relocate to Australia to further develop his skills and grow his knowledge of civil engineering and structural projects. At the same time, he says he will be pursuing his studies further with the Engineering Institute of Technology. Algate is a valued member of the EIT alumni and are immensely proud of his achievements in his career and in his studies. 2019 is his for the taking! Talking about his future, Algate said:
“I see myself advancing and soaring high like an eagle in whatever I embark on at any stage within my career and become a well recognized Professor."