25/04/2023
𝐈𝐧 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫 - 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐦 𝐝𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐫
In the 80s, when Deca Construction was founded, Johann de B**r was willing to go where few others in the construction industry were brave enough to set foot. To the war zone, which was Northern Namibia. Today many a school, hospital, business complex, and governmental institutional infrastructural development bears testimony to his singular determination to help grow Namibia.
It is there to be seen; the prisons complex at Ondangwa, the state hospital at Oshakati, schools all over the North, clinics, and various business centra.
The company, originally known as Deca Construction, was named after him and his wife Cathrien. As a result of Johann's business model and entrepreneurial philosophy, it soon became necessary to expand and SuperDeca was formed, which took on different projects, amongst which were some private developments.
When the decades-long war in Angola drew to a close and opportunity abounded, Johann entered that arena as a pioneer. He ventured to old battlegrounds in the east of that destroyed country to build a clinic at Nancova and a bridge over the Tumpa-river where one of the final battles for Southern Africa was fought.
Consequently, the original company morphed into Afrideca, when Thinus van Zyl and Johann teamed up in building Shoprite Lobito under the newly fully registered Angolan company Afrideca - Construção Civil E Transportes, Limitada where Thinus and Bruce took control immediately. Afrideca took the company right to the "gates of Luanda" where its monuments stand proud in recognition of Namibian entrepreneurship.
Thinus is the son of an old and dear family friend from the days when Johann first started part-time farming in the Kalahari, near Gochas, Marnus van Zyl. They shared many interests and the partnership was virtually "made in heaven," considering their mutual love of flying.
The growing opportunities on the other side of the border made Johann venture into the hospitality industry, fishing, development, aviation, and construction in the remote countryside of Angola and Namibia. He also had business interests in South Africa, and putting everything together, the pioneer of old was becoming a notable force in the sub-region.
Johann's ventures thrived under the partnership with Thinus and Bruce Gardner who, as a shareholder on site at various ongoing projects, did some heavy lifting for Afrideca.
At the time of Johann's untimely death in 2012, Thinus was already at the reigns at Afrideca and business could go on as per normal. Dirk, Johann's only son, stepped into his late father's shoes as a director of Afrideca, and Bruce, remained at his post as a director of the company that just kept on growing from strength to strength.
Having learned from the best in the construction business, Afrideca’s current leadership lives very much by a set of principles Johann de B**r instilled right from the beginning of his own business and construction days, namely;
✅Use every opportunity that presents itself,
✅Be able to look a man in the eye and be true to an agreement upon a handshake,
✅If you make mistakes, say you are sorry. Correct the mistakes and move on.
Lastly, Johann very much believed in the Art of Deal. Some you win, and some you lose.
He was, to many, a tutor, a role model, a friend and an example of what it is to be mensch!
