ON THE GROUND
TEAMING UP TO TEAR DOWN
By Robyn Grimsley
Forte Demolition Services, based in Fochville in the North West Province, is involved in asbestos
abatement, rehabilitation, and demolition work. Its partner of choice when it comes to equipment?
Hyundai distributor, HPE Africa.
F
orte Demolition Services, an asbestos
contractor registered with the
Department of Labour, was established
in 2012 by husband and wife team Edward and
Marolize Gibbens. Today, the company employs
around 100 people with decades of cumulative
experience in the demolition field, and has
teams working throughout South Africa on
multiple demolition projects.
According to CEO Edward Gibbens, who
worked as a field engineer on the London
Underground Rail as well as numerous
skyscraper projects, he and Marolize started the
company because they saw a gap in the South
African market for not only asbestos abatement,
but zero waste to landfill for the material.
“Now, we mainly pursue two avenues: that
of asbestos abatement and full mechanical
explains. To date, Forte Demolition Services
specialised demolition,” Edward Gibbens
Asbestos was once used extensively in buildings due to its fire protection and thermal insulation
properties, but has now been banned in over 50 countries, including South Africa, because of the
serious health hazard it poses.
has completed some of the biggest clean-up
projects in South Africa, including projects in the
mining and petrochemical industries. “We have
created specialised business models to handle
asbestos in a way that suits the market-related
constraints in the asbestos abatement field.”
Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous
material that, due to its fire protection and
thermal insulation properties, has been
extensively used in buildings. However, the
has resulted in the material being banned in
South Africa and more than 50 other countries.
Asbestos fibres inhaled into the lungs
may cause a range of serious lung diseases,
resulting in respiratory failure, cardiac arrest,
and death, and the World Health Organisation
(WHO) estimates that there are more than
100 000 asbestos-related deaths across the
world every year. In South Africa, about 200
cases of mesothelioma — a rare, aggressive
form of asbestos-related cancer — are reported
each year, but it is likely that many more go
unreported considering the country was once a
leading global supplier of all types of asbestos.
serious hazard that asbestos poses to health
Crocidolite (blue asbestos) from the Pomfret Mine in Vryburg on display at the Mineralogical
Museum in Bonn, Germany.
JANUARY 2018
15