Moving from a small town to Johannesburg to study was a challenge for Ofentse, not least because of the passing of his mother during his first year. “She was everything I had and all I knew at the time,” he says.
Despite the challenges that arose, Ofentse went back to school to finish his Electrical Engineering Diploma at the University of Johannesburg “While I was studying, I was a bursar for a local mine in Burgersfort, because I had good marks and came from the district,” he recalls.
From there Ofentse entered consulting, and he sees this move as a key catalyst in his professional growth. “I was given an opportunity to work under an excellent mentor who was a Chartered Engineer with the European Council – and he helped me a lot in developing myself. I am an assertive person who likes to take ownership of the work that I do. I entered the corporate workplace with a bit of an inadequacy complex from knowing that I had a diploma instead of a degree, and felt I had to work harder and extend myself to compete. In turn, this has given me the knack of putting in more effort than what is standard practice, so it has served me well.”
Ofentse believes that when you are faced with adversity, and overcome it, you develop an optimism and a drive to do more. “I knew I had nothing to lose, and everything to gain,” he explains. “It has been a truth throughout my life – every year, the more I do, the more my life becomes better in one way or another. I only joined WSP last year, and now I am seen as a Changemaker because of my attitude towards my work and the willingness to extend myself.”
Ofentse is married and has two children – a son and a daughter. His daughter, he says, has been a powerful inspiration for him. “I didn’t know how much loving a daughter could change me. I want to make her safe and comfortable.” Ofentse takes his family, friendships and loyalty seriously. He loves the outdoors and enjoys talking to people to get to know them, their interests and their cultures.
“The education that I have received has empowered me and heightened my consciousness about how to engage with people in a diverse workplace,” he says. “I want to ensure we can deliver our projects as a team, regardless of any personal differences we may have.”
Ofentse has also gone on to complete an Advanced Project Management Programme at the University of Cape Town to augment his technical skills. He is currently finalising an Advanced Diploma in Power Engineering through Unisa, which he aims to complete in 2025. Ofentse is also about to submit his Professional Registration report to ECSA to obtain his PR Techni Eng Certification. From here, he’d like to enrol in a Business Administration postgraduate qualification to empower his growth as a leader.
Ofentse feels strongly about the power of management to foster a healthy workplace and help the organisation retain good people. “I want to be a part of the kind of management team that looks after its people and helps them to grow, no matter how good you are there is always room for improvement” he says.
Ofentse is currently the Electrical Lead for Mission Critical Engineering supporting our international counterparts and fostering collaboration on Data Center projects. He is involved in various Data Center projects ranging from 1MW of IT load on Tier III co-location Data Centres in Africa to 96MW IT load on hyperscale Tier IV Data Center in the United States for different major cloud computing providers.
“No amount of money can be worth more than the incredible experience I have been able to gain from working on challenging multi-disciplinary projects at WSP,” he concludes. “I have been fortunate enough to learn engineering. This enables me to make impactful change in my immediate surroundings and try to better my community.”
