Gqeberha technician bound for China after local win

Jonathan van der Merwe, Working Foreman at Kelston's Chery operation in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), is one of a handful of South African technicians who will represent the country in China this November. He earned his place after coming through as one of the winners at a local competition held at Chery's newly acquired plant in Rosslyn, near Pretoria, qualifying in the Omoda Jaecoo category.

It is a personal achievement, but Dealerfloor asks Jonathan about the trip, and he quickly circles back to what it means for the people around him. "My phone is always on. The guys know I'm always there to assist as best I can. Knowledge is not for you to keep to yourself. If you have enough, it makes someone else's life a lot easier. It costs you nothing to assist someone." He sees it as a two-way street. "If you can help somebody, one day you're going to need help, and they'll be there for you."

That willingness to help runs through his day job too. Working Foreman is Jonathan's official title, and in that role he oversees all the technicians at Kelston’s dealership on Circular Drive in Gqeberha, covering Chery, Omoda, Jaecoo, Lepas and iCAUR.

He joined Kelston in 2023, having served his apprenticeship with Ronnie's Motors, where he qualified as a motor mechanic during 2015. Originally from East London, he moved to Gqeberha around two years ago.

His route to China began with the competition held locally. Chery brand technicians and Omoda Jaecoo technicians compete separately. With both brands, a tough competition was first held locally at the Rosslyn Training Centre, on the site of Chery's newly acquired manufacturing plant outside Pretoria, where the top five from Chery and the top five from Omoda and Jaecoo were selected, Jonathan tells Dealerfloor.

That round combined an introductory session, where competitors spoke about their background and time with the brand, with a practical diagnostic test. "They will build faults into the vehicle, and then, looking at the symptoms we had to find and fix the faults in a specific time frame."

For Jonathan, the real test was mental rather than technical. "The biggest challenge is not to fight yourself, not to let your nerves get the better of you. You try to stay calm, use the training you've been given, and implement that into the diagnosis. It makes it a lot easier to find faults," he tells us.

Having come through that, he now faces something new again. The trip to China will be his first outside South Africa. "I'm very much looking forward to it. A bit nervous, but I think it's going to open a whole new set of challenges, for the brand and for my own capabilities." Jonathan says new techniques and skills learned there will be transferred locally to his colleagues.

Back home, that same appetite for a new challenge shows up in how he talks about the shift towards electrification across the brands he works with. "The EV side of things has taken off over the last year or so. It's brought its own challenges to get up to speed with, but once you understand how the system works, it's more than manageable. You still need to be trained to work on them." Hybrid models, he adds, still need conventional servicing, since their combustion engines require ongoing attention.

For all the talk of new technology, Jonathan's personal taste comes down to something simpler. Asked by Dealerfloor which of the brands he works on he would choose to drive himself, he named the Omoda C5 hybrid without hesitation. "I'll definitely go with the Omoda C5 HEV. There's a beautiful car inside and out." He also singled out the Jaecoo J7 for its lighting sensation on night drives.

Away from the workshop, Jonathan tells Dealerfloor he used to spend time around stock cars, helping friends rather than racing himself, but has focused solely on his career in recent years. That focus, he says, is down to the opportunity Kelston gave him in the first place, for which he is very grateful.