Meet Claire Crone
Claire Crone is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor, business owner, aspiring painter, wife and mother from Port Elizabeth. Claire competed in The Apprentice in 2011 while living in Ireland.
Read about why Claire is proud to be Chinese and proud to be South African.
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Name: Claire Crone
Occupation: Chartered Quantity Surveyor, business owner, aspiring painter, wife and mother.
1. Where were you born?
Port Elizabeth
2. What schools/colleges/universities did you go to?
Chinese High School Port Elizabeth
University of Port Elizabeth (now called Nelson Mandela University)
3. What is your fondest childhood memory, growing up as a Chinese child?
Growing up in the safe environment of Kabega Park, having the freedom to visit my friends, and play basketball every day. I feel that having a secure base, gave me a strong sense of identity and the community protected us from the political troubles at the time. And the Annual Easter Tournaments of course!!
4. What is your favourite Chinese food?
My mom’s Hong Kong Chicken and my Por-Por’s Red Pork with black Chinese mushrooms.
5. Where do you live?
We came back from Ireland in 2012 and now live in Walmer, Port Elizabeth.
6. What work do you do?
Quantity Surveying, Cost Control on building projects; and I’m an etiquette/civility trainer.
7. What do you love about your job?
Detailed work, and being involved in construction which creates tangible legacies. Regarding the etiquette/civility training, I loved running the courses back in Ireland because it was rewarding to get feedback from the participants that their confidence had increased. This is something I plan to offer here in South Africa in the future – it’s in the development stage.
8. What is your proudest achievement?
I had to mull over this for a while, and forgive me but there are two:
Going through a 4-stage interview process and getting selected from 4800 other
applicants to compete for an investment of €100,000 in a business idea. With
the shenanigans and deceit that happened on the show, I was 5th out. Weeks later at my fnishing school’s graduation ceremony, during her speech the guest of honour Ms. Orlaith Carmody relayed her conversation from a few nights before with an astrophysicist, who didn’t know that Orlaith and I were acquainted, who mentioned her opinion that I had displayed strength and integrity during the show. That was the best compliment I have ever received -
(and I was relieved that viewers could see past the editing)!
Since the Grenfell tragedy, the details of the battle I had are back fresh in my
mind. After we moved into our new apartment in Dublin, I found our building
was not meeting the fire and building regulations. Over months and years, I
contacted and emailed the management agent, builder/developer, fire
department, building inspector, everyone who had a part in it to get the
builder/developer to correct the fire snags. All parties denied there was
anything wrong. Fast forward 3 years (after builder/developer went insolvent)
Fire Department declared that the owners were responsible to rectify the fire
hazards to the value of circa. €3.5m or face eviction!! In 2015 our legal team
used my correspondence to make our case and won. Lesson 1 – stand up for what is right. Lesson 2 – get everything in writing (except if you are the ZUPTAs).
9. Why are you proud to be South African?
South Africa is a beautiful place, and has so much potential; potential to have an educated population, potential to create businesses and jobs, potential to be a safe society, and potential to be an economic success… under the right leadership, who make education – academic, trades, civic values – priority number one.
10. Why are you proud to be Chinese?
The recorded history of Chinese culture is rich with inventions and progress, and the Chinese were the first to sail around the globe according to Gavin Menzies research. I know it’s stereotypical about Chinese people, but it makes me proud to be Chinese that we are known to: be hard workers, productive, value education.
11. Name one Chinese tradition that you’d like future generations to continue with?
Red packets for gifts – which makes the concept of gifting money acceptable, and it’s better than a gift that gathers dust.
12. What advice would you give to the Chinese youth today in South Africa?
In this country where race is an issue, treat every South African with the same dignity and respect. Living in Ireland demonstrated to me that it is possible to have a multi-racial, multi-cultural society without discrimination, because it is considered ignorant behaviour and unacceptable in that society (for the most part) to discriminate or cause offence, making the world a little better and more pleasant. Also, see point 8.2 for Lesson 1 & 2.
Watch Claire on The Apprentice:
