Table View is a popular suburb on Cape Town’s West Coast and is named after its actual view of the iconic Table Mountain. Johnny Waters, a former mechanic and later a salesman of earthmoving equipment, had the task in the late 1980s of de-bushing large sections of what is now a built-up Table View at a time when there were only a few houses standing as this area was considered rather remote by the people of Cape Town.

“My dad, Johnny, did that with a wheeled loader and worked under the name of Waters Plant Hire,” says his son, Jonathan, who now runs the business. “At one point he had no less than 19 wheeled loaders.”

In time, Johnny added two tipper trucks and an excavator to his fleet and served many clients in the Cape Peninsula working especially on mushroom farms and clay pits associated with clay brick plants, township development and civil construction projects.

“I joined the business in 2017 after qualifying as a civil engineer at Stellenbosch University and gaining practical experience in order to register as a civil engineer,” Jonathan adds. “I had also worked for a while on our family’s farm near Mossel Bay where we prepared the land to plant almonds.”

The name of Waters Plant Hire changed over time to Amanzi Plant Hire, where ‘amanzi’ is the isiXhosa word for water.

“We’d found that the market had changed, and people were not wanting to pay the higher rates for a wheeled loader when they really only needed a backhoe loader,” Jonathan explains. “That is why we now run JCB Backhoe Loaders and focus a lot more on clients working in civil engineering and to a lesser extent on those working in agriculture. Excavators now do most jobs better than what wheeled loaders could and are therefore a better bet to have as plant for hire.”

Jonathan mentions that their first JCB Backhoe Loaders had been bought from another franchise holder before Bell Equipment became the South African distributor for this market-leading machine, but he recalls that both he and his father were very pleased when Bell Equipment took over.

“We have a policy on replacing machines after about 7 000 to 8 000 hours as they still have a good resale value,” he adds. “After thoroughly researching the market, we bought two new JCB 3DX Eco Backhoe Loaders from Andre Jordaan, Bell Equipment’s very experienced Sales Representative in Cape Town, and these machines were delivered in February and March 2022 respectively.”

According to Jonathan, the JCB 3DX Eco’s naturally aspirated 4-cylinder, 4,4 litre JCB Dieselmax 444 engine purrs along while working at the coast which is where the bulk of their equipment is hired. Also, with a lot of the soils in the Cape Town metropole being so sandy, the backhoe has an easy task when trenching. The machine is also used for backfilling trenches, loading trucks with waste and rubble and stockpiling material on construction sites. JCB Backhoe Loaders are known for the fact that they handle housekeeping duties on construction sites with ease.

“We’ve learnt over time how important it is to check the machine before startup and to fill in daily checklists diligently,” Jonathan says. “We’ve also learnt what an advantage preventative maintenance can be and with the way that JCB Backhoe Loaders are designed, they are so easy to maintain.”

“It would be amiss if I didn’t mention that with Bell Equipment now the distributor of JCB equipment, we know that solid technical backup is only a phone call away and we can always speak to someone we know. That’s what makes Bell Equipment the best and will keep us coming back for more machines.”

“In fact, with current demand as it is, if I had the means, I’d buy another JCB 3DX Eco Backhoe Loader right now,” Jonathan says.

Jonathan Waters, MD of Amanzi Plant Hire, with André Jordaan, Bell Equipment Sales Representative.