Port Alfred resident Stefanus “Blackie” Swart captivated PROBUS members recently sharing his storied career in the communications network industry which saw him travelling through Africa and parts of Asia.
“My career started in the avionics industry at the age of 19 and I installed and repaired the electronics that controlled communication between ground and the aeroplanes,” said Swart who was born in Burgersdorp.
Swart says changing countries due to a punishing work schedule was not easy on his family. “By the time one of my two daughters had got to Grade 10 she had already been to 12 schools.”
He began his career with Bill Venter’s Altech Group in Boksburg at the age of 22 as a test equipment engineer in the early 80s.
His employers branched out in to installing defence force systems and Swart began gaining invaluable experience with transmissions networks.
“In 1998 once the army’s budget had been streamlined, I could see this could be coming to an end very quickly and decided to look around for other opportunities.”
Swart took on a job with an American company, California-based Aviat Networks, in 1998 after noticing that positions were available in Africa.
“The first project they gave me was MTN Swaziland.”
“My job was to plan the cellphone networks so communication could get through to different villages.”
Then followed assignments in Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia where he planned networks for Aviat who were contracting for MTN.
However it was in Nigeria where Swart’s resilience in having to set up a cellphone network really came to the fore.
“Nigeria kept me busy for four years solid from 2001, building 4,000 km of backbone – which is the main network that carries all the information. “The country had nothing not even a telephone worked there at the time,” said Swart.
“We planned the cellphone network – I had 14 planners there – it’s a big country and we had to work quickly. We made our proposals to the client and we managed to make the 2004 deadline.”
Swart says Nigeria was something of a rude awakening in terms of his work brief.
“There are about 34 ethnic groups in Nigeria and you need a totally different approach because they don’t trust foreigners who come in there.”
“My job as project network manager included sitting with the chairman of the province and had to convince him I can carry on with my job (installing networks).”
Swart’s stay in Nigeria was not of course without any difficult and hair-raising experiences.
“One day when leaving Kanu province I get stopped. These guys (Boko Haram) with guns and rifles ask …”where are you going ?” “I’m going to Maiduguri … “ They say: “We’re going there too.” “I say sure … and they all get on the back of my bakkie with machine guns in their hands.
“My driver Matthew is getting very anxious now,” says Swart. I say to Matthew: “Don’t worry relax man, they are not going to kill us … and we stop next to the road where they sell fruit and bush meat and so on. They get off and … they say they’re hungry and I buy them food. “Eventually when they want to get off they just bang hard on the bakkie’s roof,” said Swart.
And when I pass through there again they just stand in the road and happily wave me on.
The first night his wife and children arrived in Nigeria proved to be another hair-raising experience for Swart and his family.
“The driver picks us up at the airport after my kids and wife arrive. Some hijackers in a Mercedes are right next to our vehicle with guns in hand,” said Swart. Our driver wanted to stop and I said ‘put your foot down’. I actually leaned out of the car … and tried to knock the hijackers rifle from his hand – they were right next to us.
“We then see a hotel… which is heavily guarded and we pull up there. After an hour sitting everything died down and we went off to our own hotel.
“We were quite shaken of course but afterwards we secured our own private highly trained paramilitary police guards – Mopol – who guarded us wherever we went.”
He said he was situated about 20km from the Lagos armoury ammo depot that exploded in January 2002 with 1,000 people dying in a stampede after fleeing,
“We watched the drama unfold from our 5th floor living quarters.”
In 2004 after a three-month holiday in Europe, Swart resigned from Aviat.
Then came Malaysia after a phone call from Nokia bosses. “I audited their existing network and drew up a plan to take it forward, training up to 64 people and certifying them.”
A phone call from Aviat in 2005 saw him return to the company to restore the Vodacom network in Tanzania. “I was there for 18 months and reinstalled everything and put structures in place.”
Then followed assignments in Ghana where he spent 18 months, and back to Nigeria to restore networks and off to Gabon to work for Danish company, Ramboll, who specialised in the building of cellphone towers.
In 2012 followed Zambia where he was put in charge of laying out a fibre optic network after which the cellphone operator “was apparently sold off”.
The company sent him to Zimbabwe for three months “where there was little work”.
The Ramboll Group started to roll out towers in China and soon Swart found himself in Myanmar where he was put in charge of planning the first cellphone network in the region.”
“However 18 months later (2004) I fell quite ill and decided to return home with my family as I could no longer work with my condition.”
Having gone through these all these experiences and being the avid storyteller that he is – it’s no wonder that Swart is busy writing his fourth book based on some of his experiences.
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, September 26, 2024. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
