Designing and maintaining locomotives.

Designing and maintaining locomotives.Working in a dynamic and moveable environment. Antonio Katjipa joined the engineer-in-training programme at TransNamib in 2019. Michelline Nawatises

At the age of 30, Antonio Demore Katjipa is well on his way to becoming a professional engineer. Born and bred in Windhoek, things could have turned out very different for Antonio, who grew up without his biological parents and in many foster homes from a young age. By sheer determination, Antonio completed his high school studies at Ella Du Plessis and went to NUST in 2012 where he completed his studies in 2017. Due to financial difficulties, he was only able to graduate in 2019 with a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical).

In 2018, Antonio joined TransNamib as an intern and it was this position that assisted him in paying his outstanding fees and allow him to graduate. In 2019, Antonio joined the engineer-in-training programme at TransNamib, which is a three-year programme that he is currently in the process of completing.

“My job deals with aspects of middle management, design and maintaining of locomotives. Once I complete the programme, I will be a registered professional engineer,” Antonio says.

Antonio was led to his current career path at an early age. “The second foster father who took me in was a mechanic. We did not have a house so we lived at the back of a garage. So, every day after school I would go help and work on the cars. I used to love working in that garage and the other mechanics would give me chips and sweets for helping them. When I started thinking about a career path, I remembered that time of my life.”

Antonio has had to deal with many challenges from a young age but had the vision to succeed in life and never let go of that vision. “As I said, I come from a foster home environment so one of my biggest challenges in life has been the battle to balance. When I was young, I had to be a child but also my own parent.”

During his time at TransNamib, Antonio says his biggest challenge has been his perfectionism. “I struggle with doing everything perfect, as I always strive for perfection which is not always attainable but I continue to strive for it. I aim for the stars and at least land on the moon,” he adds.

Antonio says no two days at work are the same. “I work in a very dynamic and moveable environment. Some days I spend half the day in the office and half a day in the field, but every day is different. It’s a balance of dealing with the management side of things as well as the technical side and working on projects. I have learnt so much at TransNamib and each day I continue to learn and develop in my field of work.”

Antonio’s inspiration in life comes from the hardships he has faced in his life: “If you sleep and do nothing you get nothing, if you wake up and do something you will get something.”

Antonio’s advice for young people is to focus on the things that give you the strength to move forward every day. “If you are good in academics, focus on that. If you are good with your hands, focus on developing that. Just do something as long as it helps you move forward.”

He has great plans for the future, planning to continue his education at least to master’s level. In terms of career development, Antonio is focused on making an impact on his working environment. “I want to continue learning and developing myself so that I can attain a higher position within the company so that I can use everything that I learnt on the ground to improve and make a positive impact in my work environment. I want to inspire and lead a team that focuses on innovation, productivity, positivity and ultimately play a role in building a better future for our company.

“I can do anything I put my mind to,” Antonio adds in closing and with such a positive mindset and hardworking demeanour he is sure to achieve many great things.