Who Are We?

Kipaji Geotechnical Consulting was established in 2021 by Engineering Geologist Jaco van Tonder. Kipaji, pronounced “Ki-Pa-Yee”, is the Swahili name for “brilliance”, which is exactly the aim of our consulting firm. We strive to ensure that our clients’ needs and requirements are met by providing brilliant geotechnical solutions and recommendations from our investigations.

Kipaji’s mission is to provide cost effective geotechnical recommendations utilising economical investigation methodologies. Aligned with our mission we guarantee to produce high standards to our clients and to ensure our investigation methodologies are innovatively aligned with modern technology.

Founder and director of Kipaji, Jaco van Tonder, is an engineering geologist with over twenty years of experience in geotechnical investigations. Kipaji employs three professionally registered engineering geologists, registered to the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions. Kipaji has also a network of specialist geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists providing supplementary expertise where required.

Our primary expertise lies in the planning and execution of geotechnical investigations for heavy loaded infrastructure of mines and tailings dams, as well as investigations for lightly loaded structures of various nature. We also have extensive experience in dolomite stability investigations, especially for large mining infrastructure and tailings dams. Our expertise covers local and international projects, interpretation of geotechnical conditions, providing recommendations for foundation designs for variable types of structures and conducting foundation inspections during construction for heavy to lightly loaded structures.

Additional expertise includes guidance and compilation of scope of work documents for medium- to large-sized geotechnical projects for consulting firms or mining houses. These include the optimisation of geotechnical investigations to allow for cost-effective investigation methodologies, but to ensure the recommended geotechnical parameters are obtained during the investigations.