Rosherville Workshops
ESTABLISHMENT
The Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company Limited (VFP) established workshops at Rosherville because of its centralised location. At the workshops, crews repaired heavy machinery used at power stations. The workshops were equipped with machine tools that could handle virtually any piece of equipment that the VFP or ESCOM owned. ESCOM (as it was known until its name change to Eskom in 1987) took over the assets of the VFP in 1948. The workshops became known as Central Maintenance Services (CMS).
Rosherville Workshop in 1920’s:
WORLD WAR 2
During World War 2, German attacks in the Atlantic led to a sharp decrease in shipping. This caused the South African government to spend millions developing local steel, chemical and textile industries. South African industry now focused on production for the war effort. The South African Iron and Steel Industrial Corporation (Iscor) produced steel to manufacture armoured cars, shells, bombs, guns and tanks. Railway workshops turned out munitions and heavy armaments. Workshops in the mining sector produced shells, howitzers and mortars. Similarly, workers at Rosherville workshops produced weaponry for the war effort.
POST WORLD WAR 2
After World War 2 ESCOM’s repair needs grew. Rosherville workshops expanded to accommodate those needs. From Rosherville workshops, specialised crews were sent to power stations to overhaul turbo-generators, and to repair large transformers at sub-stations. The CMS owned machine tools capable of repairing the largest 600 MW turbine rotors Eskom possessed. Its balancing machine could handle the largest and heaviest rotating pieces of equipment in South Africa. A fleet of heavy vehicles was established to transport heavy equipment to and from sites where it was used. When Rosherville Power Station was closed in 1966, the site was further developed into a large workshop, garage and stores complex.
RECENT HISTORY
When Eskom established Eskom Enterprises in 1999, Rosherville workshops become known as Rotek Engineering, a division of Rotek Industries, and is a member of the Eskom Group – http://www.rotekengineering.com.
Rotek Engineering has emerged as one of the largest heavy engineering companies in the southern hemisphere. It provides a comprehensive maintenance engineering capability which includes repair, overhaul, commissioning and troubleshooting for power-plant and auxilliary equipment.
www.confex.co.za
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Conradie SR & Messerschmidt LJM A Symphony of Power – The Eskom Story Chris van Rensburg Publications (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg, 2000