“To lead the transformation of Africa through engineering,” this was the vision that propelled the partners Masego Mokitimi and Lerang Selolwane forward, seeing the birth of Lucient Engineering, which means the light of Africa in the neighboring country of Botswana. When they plan to join entrepreneurial forces, Masego and Lerang's experience, working for Anglo America's De Beers and their educational backgrounds, Masego, a Mining Engineer holding a Master's in Engineering (Majoring in Mineral Economics) and an ex-investment banker. Lerang, an Electromechanical Engineer with an MBA from the London School of Business, knew that their business had a real shot at success.

Lucient Engineering's journey began in 2002 as Mechanical Construction Company Botswana (“MCB”), and in 2013 MCB became a subsidiary of The Lucient Group (Pty) Ltd.

In 2014, Lucient Engineering and Construction (“Lucient Engineering”) dug into the Botswana market after the two partners identified that the land was ‘bubbling under harvest,’ mining lingo meaning that they recognized the richness of minerals being mined. With the decision to expand its service offering to South Africa, Lucient Engineering saw itself expanding into the South African market in 2017, with its services including the provision of maintenance engineering services to other companies.

Lucient Engineering's service offering includes building, assembling, repairing, and maintaining heavy-duty industrial plants and machinery, as well as the maintenance, servicing, and complete shutdown servicing of draglines. This success story saw these two entrepreneurs starting their journey with only one branch and fifty-five employees, which is by no means anything to scoff at. Still, they can now proudly declare that their hard work has resulted in six branches and a team of more than four hundred between the two countries. The partners made an executive decision that while Lerang would be based mainly in Botswana, providing direction for the Botswana operations, Masego would guide the South African teams in the process, dividing his time between the current South African branches and branches they plan to establish this year.

Apart from being a Siyakhula beneficiary, Lucient Engineering has been a service provider to Barloworld Botswana since 2018, where it is currently one of the select few engineering maintenance service providers with an ISO9001:2015 Quality Management System (QMS) standard, a reflection of how much the company values providing quality services. Moreover, the invitation to the Barloworld Equipment 2017 Supplier Day, where their determination lay in attracting Barloworld Equipment to their proposal of extending their services from Botswana to South Africa, the company was granted a three-year “maintenance partner” opportunity for servicing draglines, which began in 2018 at Glencore's Tweefontein Mine in Mpumalanga. In May of 2021, Lucient Engineering South Africa was granted an extension of two years and looks forward to continuously improving its service offering to its clients.

Covid-19, the pandemic that impacted many companies in and around Africa, hit Lucient Engineering's Botswana team the hardest. Diamond trading, which relies purely on physical auctions, became non-existent due to the implementation of global travel restrictions and lockdowns. This unfortunate situation caused a ripple effect on the operations in Botswana but thankfully for, Lucient Engineering South Africa, their presence and operations with Barloworld in the coal mines, supplying Eskom with coal for generating electricity, sustained them during this rough period.

The key to Lucient Engineering's success is alignment. Alignment in possessing solutions for the requirements of their clients, alignment to what is relevant and required, and alignment in adapting themselves to business strategy as needed in the world they operate in. Strategic alignment is imperative for any organization's success. Amazingly, having partnered with Barloworld Equipment's Extended Mining Product Range - EMPR division, Lucient Engineering's team, completed their first-ever and South Africa's first-ever dragline relocation during this unprecedented time.

The relocation of the Marion Dragline took the BWE-Lucient partnership 16 months to complete, from extraction at the Optimum Mine to the assembly at Glencore's Tweefontein Mine. After five years of incubation, under the wing of Barloworld Equipment's EMPR Division, Lucient Engineering now stands independently, making its partners proud, finally being recognized in the mining industry and by mining companies with acknowledgments as serious competitors in their field.

When asked about the next five years, the Lucient Engineering leadership was quick to respond by saying. “The incubation of Lucient Engineering South Africa by Barloworld Equipment has reached a point where the partnership can now bear fruit. We, BWE and Lucient, intend to take back control of dragline service maintenance. Furthermore, we intend to cement our position, as a preferred engineering services provider, in Southern Africa and, in 10 years, throughout the rest of Africa.” As Lucient Engineering continues its journey, an African journey more precisely, plans are afoot for Lucient Engineering Zambia, Lucient Engineering Angola, and Lucient Engineering Zimbabwe.

LUCIENT ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION PTY (LTD)
Tel: +27 13 010 1124 +27 78 960 7862
Email: mmokitimi@lucientengineering.com
Website: www.lucientengineering.com
Address: Mpumalanga

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