Cape Engineers and Founders
Association - The Profile
T
he history of industrial development and engineering in South Africa first started
with colonialism and in providing services to agriculture and transport. It then
progressed to service the growth of basic industries such as baking, milling, brick
making and leather industries. With the discovery of diamonds and subsequently gold in the
late 1800s, engineering services rapidly expanded. After the Anglo-Boer war and the First
World War, the formation of the Union of South Africa took place in 1910.
The Cape Chamber of Industries, which was formed in 1904, provided affiliation for
various industrial sectors and an engineering sector was formed. The early pioneers of the
engineering companies in Cape Town resolved to establish a legal entity of their own and,
on 24 June 1920, the Cape Engineers’ & Founders’ Association (CEFA) was formed. On
24 June 1925, the Engineering Section of the Cape Chamber of Industries applied to the
Department of Labour to register CEFA as an employers’ association under the Industrial
Conciliation Act of 1924.
“It is quite historic that the word ‘Founders’ was built into the name and did not mean
being ‘Founded’ as in time. This can be attributed to one of the pioneers of the steel and
engineering industry, Harry Gearing, who for many years owned and managed Gearings
Foundry. Not only was Gearing the first Chairman of the Association way back in 1920,
but he had a long tenure in the industry, as he also became one of the prime movers in the
formation of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA),
becom