In fact their beginnings were just as painful as the traveiling labour pains-rejections for funding by banks, shortage of experts, acute shortage of equipment and vehicles, but the early struggles were to be turned into experience’s invaluable lessons with which to gradually forge an unshakable construction and engineering giant committed to only excellence in South Africa, and beyond into Africa as the first African owned entity executing large scale projects.
As Khato and South Zambezi celebrated a rare milestone by any African owned entity in South Africa last Friday as a pioneer boasting of its own world class multi million headquarters in Centurion, fellow director, Ms Sikanyisiwe Phiri, corporate services director with South Zambezi told the delegates that Khato’s reputation and image as a renowned record performer was forged many years ago at its infancy when they were given the Lawly Extension 2 housing project that involved connecting some 1713 low cost housing units to clean water and sewer reticulation in 2011. It was not easy. Ms Phiri says with many limitations and the odds stuck against them Khato Civils took off humbly in 1998 before it bought a struggling grade 4 construction company in 2010 that had no assets, untill it built itself up into one of the very best construction and engineering companies in South Africa today .
