Celebrating the end of a tough year

It’s the perfect way to de-stress – three days of fun in the sun at Bivane Dam in Louwsburg, relaxing with fishing rods and boat rides. The short camping trip brought together the teams from Thuthugani Paulpietersburg and its client Mondi Forests, to celebrate the end of a busy year and to cement the excellent relationship between the team members of both companies.

While 2016 wasn’t quite such a tough year as 2015, it was still a challenging period says Nicky Gwende, Contracts Manager for Thuthugani Paulpietersburg. “We experienced a reduced number of fires during 2016 compared to 2015.”

As part of its contract with Mondi Forests, Thuthugani provides silviculture services i.e. growing and tending of trees, as well as fire protection services.

Wasserpflanzer Field Day

It might be a battle to pronounce but the Wasserpflanzer is an amazing piece of technology that can simultaneously manage marking, pitting and planting at a rate of four hectares per nine hour shift with a team of six planters, a seedling supplier, a marker, a supervisor and a driver. This multi-tasking machine is not only faster, it is also cost effective, with a 20% saving over mechanical pitting (MPATS) and planting (FIORI), and a 30% saving over manual pitting and planting.
The Wasserpflanzer was put through its paces at the recent Thuthugani/Mondi Forests jointly hosted Wasserpflanzer Field Day held at Pivaanspoort, which was attended by representatives from all Mondi Forests operations. A Basic Productivity Study presentation was made by Thuthugani’s Planning Manager Onias Chihwai. Other speakers included Paul Vireo, Herman Duvel and Cobus Hitge of Mondi.