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Company Overview


Ultimately the objective of infrastructure is to connect the world, its cities, its people, business, in an efficient and organised way. So, if we will

be building new infrastructure for the future, or re-building our existing infrastructure, it needs to serve a future world where everything will

need power and connectivity, electric vehicles need a range of charging stations, where power is generated from wind or solar plants

located in non-traditional areas. It means we need to get smart about this.



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The world is fast entering an era where a complete rethink of how we build, upfrade or

overhaul all of our infrastructure. In time this will become a top priority for all nations.

Optitrac® was developed and patented by Mertrac Infraco in 19 countries to date. Mertrac Infraco is a wholly owned private company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa. The company is lead by Stephen van der Merwe and Johan Nel as South African entrepreneurs with significant experience in telecoms, technology and several other industries.


Company Leadership


Stephen has served in executive positions in South Africa for more than seventeen years. His career spans a combined nineteen years in the Telecommunications and IT industry and eighteen years in financial positions. He has extensive senior leadership experience in telecommunications, metal manufacturing and smeltery, automotive manufacturing and distribution, telecoms, technology and commercial deal structuring, retail, and auditing.


Stephen was also the Non-executive Chairman of Telemasters Holdings (Pty) Ltd, a leading IT services and telecommunications company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).


Johan is a Mechanical Engineer who also completed his MBA degree in the United States and worked in the UK for four years. He is an entrepreneur and strategic advisor with significant experience in commercial strategy for technology centered businesses and the development of new technologies and next generation business and operating models. He has also has significant international experience and has developed a keen interest in the role of clean technologies and circular economics.


His background includes steel manufacturing, fleet management, maintenance, logistics, fibre networks, mobile telecoms, financial services, remote monitoring systems, mobile payments, intelligent transport, smart infrastructure, and energy storage for renewable energy applications. He also lead the initiation, design, build, and commissioning of the Gautrain underground cellular network.


The complete transformation of automotive industry and power sector to clean and renewable power have massive implications for how infrastructure needs to be transformed. Optitrac® was created out of the vision of using discontinued, outdated, or new rail servitudes for the acceleration of infrastructure development across traditional industry silos.