DURING the month of May, Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa acknowledged the key role that workers play in driving growth and prosperity for business, and in the broader economy.
For Workers’ Month, they celebrated the success of employees who have shown significant growth within Ford Motor Company, including Mpumelelo Nqebe, plant controller at the Ford Struandale Engine Plant. He has spent his entire career working for Ford. Nqebe has enjoyed an impressive journey at Ford, having started out as an hourly employee working as a machine operator on the cylinder block machining line for the RoCam engine in 2001.
A year-and-a-half later he took on a finance role as a specialist clerk, before relocating to Pretoria in November 2005 to work as paymaster for hourly employees.
In 2007, he was appointed as fixed assets analyst, followed by a stint as cost analyst for the labour and overheads division of the finance department from 2010 to March 2014.
For the next 12 months he worked as manufacturing profit consolidation analyst, before being appointed as plant controller for the Silverton Assembly Plant for a period of two years.
In April 2017, he relocated back to Port Elizabeth as plant controller for the Struandale Engine Plant, where he heads up the finance department and is responsible for managing cost controls, budgeting, forecasting and the facility’s business plan.
Currently in his 19th year with Ford, Nqebe is an integral part of the plant’s leadership team.
“Ford has been great to me, giving me my first job as a machine operator, and affording me the opportunities to grow and develop career-wise, and as a person,” Nqebe said.
“It hasn’t always been easy, but the company has always supported me by providing the necessary training and skills development as I progressed into new roles with increased responsibilities. Having now returned to Port Elizabeth, where my journey started with Ford almost 19 years ago, I am grateful to be part of the leadership team and working to not only ensure that we can maintain the current business, but also working towards securing new opportunities for the Struandale Engine Plant to ensure a sustainable business for our plant, our employees and their families.”
