Story of Mukela Mabunda at Tractionel Enterprise

Since people are vital assets and at the heart of Tractionel‘s growth and success, we created our internship program to bring out young talent across South Africa.

Our social development goals are to find the best candidates who will have a significant impact on the electrical infrastructure industry.

 

By offering real life work experience to young people, Tractionel Enterprise is actively participating in job creation and enhancing on its succession plans.

This social development initiative will also see the company growing its talent pool by enlisting top performing interns onto the company’s team once the internship period has ended.

Essentially, we understand that bringing in new blood to our company will always lead to new innovations.

And it is our belief that young people are capable of creating, innovating, and impacting any industry.

With technology advancing every second, we understand that it comes down to our ability to be proactive in the face of change.

We’ve interviewed one of our best interns as he has shown exceptional growth and practice in his highly competitive field.

We’ve interviewed Mukela Mabunda, age 24, Junior Project Manager.

We believe he is one of our best interns yet.

 

Mukela Mabunda’s Story

Having attended public schools, high school, and primary school in Soweto, this inspiring story is about a young boy from Soweto who lives in a small four-room house with his grandmother and cousins.

Mukela attended Rishile Primary School in Meadowlands and Lamula Jubilee Secondary School.

Initially, he wanted to be a mechanical engineer, but after working on a science project in the 9th grade, he became fascinated with electrical engineering as a career option.

As a result, this led to his love for electromagnetics when he made up his mind to take electrical engineering as his chosen profession.

Mukela: “In the beginning, I was more passionate about mechanical engineering than electrical engineering.”

The shift from mechanical engineering to electrical engineering was the turning point for Mukela.

He did his BSc in Electrical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand.

During his final year, he took the Project Management and High Voltage Engineering courses amongst others. However, project management was not his desired pathway.

Mukela: “I saw myself on the design side of electrical engineering rather than the project management side. However, since joining Tractionel, I would like to believe my exposure to practical project management has changed how I feel about it. It has not only exposed me to High Voltage engineering which I was already passionate about, but also leadership, stakeholder management, and resource management skills.”

Having been the 5th born out of 6, the pressure to achieve was heavy, especially considering him being the first in his family to study at a reputable university – Wits University.

He tutored high school students in mathematics and physics. Initially, this was his way of giving back to the community.

Mukela’s Journey in Tractionel

At Tractionel, Mukela is a Junior Project Manager, which means he works with Senior Project Managers as well as clients.

During Mukela’s time at Tractionel, he developed leadership, project management, and resource management skills.

Mukela: “The skills I believe I can offer Tractionel are those I obtained during my undergraduate studies, which include the design of High Voltage equipment. This makes me believe I can bridge the gap between design and construction.”

Mukela: “Tractionel has a friendly workplace culture, open communication, and an open-door policy. As a member of Tractionel, you’re part of a family with support, and you’re not alone on your journey. You become encouraged and well mentored. ”

Mukela’s relationship with his seniors, Dwayne Moncur, Hennie Hamman, and Diaan Viljoen, has been supportive and has been an excellent mentor-mentee relationship, providing him with guidance.

Final words from Mukela:

“I admire my superiors because they have paved the way for me. Having applied at Enza and then moving to Tractionel, I found this opportunity to be very rewarding. I cannot ruin it as I believe that doing so will not only ruin this opportunity for myself but also for future interns. Nevertheless, I will definitely set the internship bar quite high.”

Contact Tractionel to Learn More About Our Social Development

If you would like to take advantage of a complete set of resources and expertise that have been developed to grow businesses and the South African economy, be sure to visit Tractionel today and find out more about social development.