Johannes Grobler, ZZ2’s Head of Technical Services, was bestowed a great honour when he was presented with a gold medal for outstanding service to the agricultural engineering industry at the bi-annual symposium of the SA Institute for Agricultural Engineers (SAIAE). The medal was last bestowed in 2002.

Johannes, a registered professional engineer, joined ZZ2 in 2006 after twenty years in the armaments industry and 10 years at the Division for Agricultural Engineering. At the time, ZZ2 employed one engineer, but by 2014 this was increased to eleven.

Under his leadership a number of initiatives were introduced at ZZ2 to make the practice of agricultural engineering a greater reality for students and candidate engineers, showing other employers the way to go.

Johannes, an industry board member at University of KwaZulu-Natal (the last remaining university to present agricultural engineering), introduced bursaries for students from UKZN, presenting them with the opportunity to complete their compulsory six weeks per annum of workplace exposure.

The further financial support from ZZ2 towards final year and post-graduate students by allowing them to undertake research assignments at the company and Johannes’s assistance to engineers to fulfil the requirements to register as professional engineers, have positively influenced many lives.

Agricultural engineering is and will always be a key enabler at ZZ2, says Johannes Grobler.

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