CIP | A member of The Corrosion Institute of Southern Africa
CIP | Members: P Rajcoomar & P N Maharaj
(CK No.: 2008/091748/23) VAT No.: 4510249784
Pratesh Rajcoomar
A man of ethics, honesty, and honour
Pratesh Rajcoomar is a gentleman, honourable, hardworking, trustworthy, intelligent, very capable, yet humble. He commands the respect of everyone who knows him, works alongside him, or engages CIP to conduct project work. It is these same character traits which enabled Pratesh to start up and grow CIP into the successful business it is today.
“I will always be grateful to Sappi, and Churchyard & Umpleby for believing in me all those years ago,” says Pratesh. “It was through their support I was able start CIP and take it from humble beginnings to the successful business it is today.”
“For me, no matter what business you are in it is all about people. Treat people with respect, train them well, keep them safe and give them responsibility and your efforts will be returned tenfold through loyalty and professionalism.”
Pratesh started on the road to success as a painter for then D Steward Painting, contracted to the Sappi Saiccor site at Umkomaas. In the following years D Steward Painting was acquired by a company called Churchyard & Umpleby. This was the early 1990s and mergers were the order of the day. Churchyard & Umpleby were absorbed by the Steeldale Group, which in turn was acquired by Grinaker. This business went on to merge with LTA to form GrinakerLTA.
“During all this, there was a management buyout of then Churchyard & Umpleby business and they retained me and promoted me to supervisor. I didn’t know it at the time, but the experienced I gained going forward was the foundation upon which CIP rests today.”
Pratesh quickly displayed the talents which were to propel him to start his own business. He was called upon to oversee site work, liaise with the client (Sappi) to carry out all painting, waterproofing, floor coatings systems and other ad-hoc projects. He also took on transport and labour hiring responsibilities, all aspects of client/contractor safety and safety training and even planned work schedules around any Sappi maintenance shutdowns to ensure deadlines were always met. “When you have such a high level of hands-on responsibility it is stressful to know people’s very lives, jobs, families and futures depend upon you, your decisions and leadership,” says Pratesh. “Anyone who has started a business from scratch will recognise that stress as well as the satisfaction which comes with leading the right way and seeing the success it brings.”
Pratesh Rajcoomar is an example of what dedication to professionalism and customer satisfaction can achieve. In early 2008, the contract with Sappi came up for tender and the team received notice that if the company lost the contract, everyone would be retrenched. This was Pratesh’s crossroad – step up and show the courage of his convictions, belief in his abilities and leadership, or face the possibility of the whole team disbanding and losing their livelihoods.
“I will always be grateful to Mr Luigi Mazzaro. He was the civil engineer I reported to at Sappi, and he spoke to Sappi management, and I was given the opportunity to tender for the contract. Keith Ball from Churchyard & Umpleby gave me the company’s blessing and even offered to assist me with a vehicle should I be successful.”
In September 2008, CIP won the tender and was fully operational as a business in October. Since then, Pratesh has steered CIP to success. His commitment to ethics and honesty has never wavered and he is always conscious of the opportunity hard work afforded him, the good people who believed in him, and today’s customers and staff who put their trust in him.
“It has been 30 years now,” says Pratesh. “And all those experiences remain the backbone of CIP today. I have always been a man who respects personal honour and integrity. It is an inherited cultural character trait and one I have instilled in CIP. We stand by our people; our service offers to customers, and we always keep our agreements. CIP is more than just a business, it’s a family I’m very proud of.”
Neesha Maharaj
A woman of substance
Neesha Maharaj has faced many challenges in her life. From near poverty in her early years, this role model for women in Africa today let nothing stand in her way, gaining a diploma in nursing to help the sick and injured to moving into business in later years.
“I was a woman in a male dominated world,” says Neesha. “In that respect nothing has really changed over the last 20 years. I was fortunate in as much as I took the opportunities life presented to me and I had a supportive family and work colleagues about me.”
Neesha started her work career as the Lenmed Clinic in Johannesburg before joining the medical staff at the Albert Luthuli Central Hospital where her management abilities first came to the fore. “Nursing is a calling not a career and at the time I joined Albert Luthuli I had no other thought than to help thesick and injured, give back to society in the only way I knew how – nursing people back to health.”
Neesha had Matriculated in 1984 in the thick of Apartheid and coming from a poor background there had never been the opportunity to attend university. “Today, South Africa is free and young women need to take every opportunity in education, from Matric through to University and beyond, if they are to realise their ambitions.
“Of course, you can still achieve much without a university degree, I’m living proof of that,” says Neesha. “But it requires dedication, hard work and personal sacrifice and above all the mindset to recognise and take opportunities when they present themselves.”
Between 2000 and 2012, working conditions and the calibre of care provided to patients in the healthcare service had deteriorated to the point where Neesha could no longer ignore the futility of nursing as a career. She had a family and children to look after and her career as a nurse was going nowhere fast except to drive her into the ground both physically and mentally.
For Neesha an opportunity to change direction presented itself when CIP started expanding into servicing industrial customers in need of professional clean-up operations. At first, the demand for the cleansing of industrial areas, sites and buildings had proved a challenge for CIP. For Neesha it proved to be a golden opportunity to take that step into the unknown and steer her life and career in a new direction. Pratesh Rajcoomar, (click here for more information on the man who built CIP from the ground up and still leads the company today), recognised the potential in Neesha and extended her the opportunity to prove herself in a tough working environment.
“I joined CIP back in 2014 as head of the Cleaning Division,” says Neesha. “I had management skills, and these were the tools I used to build the business from a team of 23 people then to 63 today. CIP offered me an opportunity and I took it and have never looked back.
“But it wasn’t easy, believe me. There were times when my instructions were not taken seriously, the men would laugh at me. Simply put, women are not often recognised for the skills they bring to the workplace. Male managers would not want to deal with me; it was absolutely unfair, and it was like a battlefield.”
Despite that initial male denial, Neesha persevered and proved to everyone, colleagues, and customers alike, they had seriously underestimated her capabilities and stamina for the work. Male prejudice soon turned to respect, and CIP’s Cleaning Division began its journey of growth.
“Respect is earned and is not an automatic right of the managerial position you hold, nor can be bestowed by equality laws,” says Neesha, who is also CIP’s onsite medical and first aid educator. “I earned respect through doing every job I asked my team to do. I got down into industrial tanks and cleaned them out myself. Boilers, conveyors, I can today handle every aspect of the Cleaning Divisions service offer.
“I won’t say that male prejudice is entirely banished because it is not,” admits Neesha. “But I will never let it slow me down, hinder my career, my aspirations to be the best at everything I put my mind to. And I think CIP customers have come to appreciate that as they experience only the best in service practices on offer in our industry. At CIP we do everything to strict and high standards, and we do it safely – my nursing background wouldn’t allow for anything else!”
