The People, Workshop and Twelve-Year Story Behind Gauteng's Most Trusted TV Repair Team
From a single soldering bench in 2013 to a province-wide repair service that has restored more than eleven thousand televisions for Gauteng families. This is who we are, what we believe and how we work.
Twelve Years of Saying "We Can Fix That"
Nathtec TV Repairs started in 2013 in a converted garage in Edenvale, with one soldering iron, one oscilloscope and one stubborn belief: that the vast majority of broken televisions in South African homes are genuinely fixable, and that fixing them is almost always cheaper, better for the planet, and better for the customer than throwing them away.
At that point most household electronics repair in Gauteng was disappearing. Big-box retailers were pushing customers towards "swap-out" warranty programmes. Independent shops were closing because component-level repair was harder, slower work that needed proper training. The general direction of the industry was towards replacement, not repair. We stubbornly went the other way.
Twelve years later, that small Edenvale bench has grown into a properly equipped Gauteng workshop with ESD-safe repair stations, hot-air rework, an EEPROM bay, panel-handling jigs, a parts inventory worth several hundred thousand Rand, and a mobile in-home service unit that covers the entire province from Centurion to Soweto. The principle, though, has stayed exactly the same.
If you have a television that has stopped doing what televisions are supposed to do, we want to be the team that gets it working again — properly, transparently and with a warranty that means something.
Component-level repair since 2013
Twelve Years, Counted Honestly
We have always preferred numbers we can stand behind to marketing claims we can't. Here is the real picture.
How Nathtec Actually Started
"I trained as an electronics technician in the late 2000s, and worked for two of the bigger service centres in Johannesburg before going independent. The thing that pushed me out on my own was watching customer after customer being told that perfectly fixable televisions were 'beyond economic repair' — usually because the technician had not been trained, or paid, to do component-level work. A board swap is easy. A capacitor replacement is harder, but it costs the customer a quarter of the price.
When I started Nathtec in 2013 I had two rules. Diagnose properly before quoting. Repair the actual component if it is sensible to do so. Everything we have built since then — the workshop, the team, the parts inventory, the in-home service unit — sits on top of those two rules. We've grown because people in Gauteng kept telling their neighbours, their cousins and their WhatsApp groups that there was a place that would actually fix the thing instead of telling them to throw it out.
If you are reading this with a broken TV at home — Hisense, Samsung, LG, Sony, TCL, whatever it is — please give us a call. We probably know exactly what is wrong with it, and we'll tell you straight whether it is worth fixing. That is genuinely all we do all day."
Five Values That Run the Workshop
These are not corporate-poster values. They are the actual rules we apply to every TV that comes through the door.
Integrity
If a repair is not worth doing, we say so. If a replacement TV would serve you better than another fix on a tired old set, we say so. No upselling, no fake faults, ever.
Transparency
A free written quote with the actual fault, the actual part and the actual labour before any work starts. The price on the quote is the price on the invoice. Always.
Expertise
Every technician on our bench has been trained in component-level diagnostics. We don't board-swap because we don't know any better — we choose the right repair for the fault.
Accessibility
WhatsApp us a photo at 8pm and you'll usually get a reply that evening. We make it as easy to reach a real technician as it is to order a pizza, because that is what Gauteng deserves.
Warranty-Backed
Every single repair leaves the workshop with a 90-day workmanship and parts warranty. If the fault returns, we re-repair at no cost. That is how confident we are in our own work.
A Twelve-Year Workshop Timeline
The honest, year-by-year story of how Nathtec became the team it is today.
Founded in Edenvale
Nathtec opens as a single-technician operation in a converted garage. First-month workload: 4 televisions, all repaired and returned within a week. The Edenvale bench is still in the workshop, kept for sentimental reasons.
First Apprentice Technician Joins
By mid-2015 the bench is overloaded. Lerato joins as the first apprentice technician — she's now our senior board-repair lead. The team grows to two, and we start formally tracking model-specific failure patterns across Samsung and LG.
Workshop Move & ESD Upgrade
We move out of the garage into a dedicated commercial workshop with proper ESD flooring, three repair benches, hot-air rework stations and our first proper panel-handling jig for 75-inch sets. Hisense ULED and Sony Bravia work increases dramatically that year.
Mobile In-Home Service Launches
The pandemic, plus the rise of 75 and 85-inch televisions that are awkward to transport, pushes us to launch a properly equipped mobile in-home service unit. We can now diagnose and complete most common repairs on the customer's wall, on the same visit.
Full Gauteng Coverage
Service now extends to the full province — Johannesburg, Pretoria, Centurion, Midrand, Randburg, Sandton, Soweto, the East Rand and the West Rand. Same-day in-home repair becomes the standard offer rather than the exception. Hisense Laser TV service is formally added.
Eight Technicians, Eleven Thousand Repairs and Counting
A full team of eight technicians and support staff, a comprehensive parts inventory, full service for fifteen TV brands and the same 2013 philosophy: diagnose properly, repair the actual component, stand behind the work.
The Technicians Behind Every Repair
The team that will most likely be fixing your TV. Every bench technician is internally certified in component-level board repair before they're given their own bench.
Twelve years on the bench. Specialises in Samsung QLED main-boards, EEPROM transfers and complex multi-fault diagnosis.
Ten years with Nathtec. Hot-air rework specialist — runs the BGA reflow station and handles every T-Con and power-board capacitor job.
Runs the mobile service van. Lives in Midrand, knows every back-street between Soweto and Centurion, and handles same-day on-site repairs.
Joined in 2020. Backlight strip replacement specialist — has rebuilt more 55 to 75-inch LED arrays than anyone else on the team.
Where the Repairs Actually Happen
A properly equipped workshop is the single biggest reason we can repair things that other shops board-swap. Here is what is on our benches.
Four Promises That Apply to Every Single Job
Our Commitment to the Gauteng Community
Nathtec is a Gauteng business by birth and by choice. We live here, we shop here, our families are here, and almost every customer we have ever served lives within an hour's drive of our workshop. That local rootedness shapes how we operate in ways that often surprise customers who have dealt with national-chain repair services.
When you book a Nathtec repair, the person who answers the phone is in the workshop. The person who arrives at your home knows the suburb you live in by name and reputation, not by GPS. The parts on our shelves were chosen because they fit the TVs that Gauteng households actually own — Hisense, Samsung, LG and Sony first, with proper inventory for TCL, Skyworth, Panasonic, Sinotec, JVC, Toshiba, Philips, Telefunken, Devanti, Blaupunkt and Sharp. That brand spread reflects what Gauteng actually buys at Game, Makro, Hirsch's, HiFi Corp and Takealot, not what an international parts catalogue happens to list.
We also try to be honest about the realities of the South African market. Load-shedding genuinely damages televisions — not as often as some shops will tell you, but more often than you would think. Surge protectors help, but the cheap ones sold at most petrol stations don't do nearly enough. We will happily tell you which surge protector is actually worth buying for the size of your set, even if you didn't ask. We will also tell you when a TV has reached the end of its economic life and the repair cost is approaching half of a replacement, because that is not a useful repair for anyone.
The Brands We Specialise In
Across more than 11,000 completed repairs, our workshop has built brand-specific expertise on every major television manufacturer sold in South Africa. We hold genuine OEM parts inventory for the most common failure patterns on each brand, and we maintain technician training time on each manufacturer's service-mode interfaces, firmware tools and proprietary diagnostic codes.
Our deepest depth of experience sits with Samsung TV repair, LG TV repair, Hisense TV repair and Sony TV repair — the four brands that dominate Gauteng households. Hisense in particular has grown enormously in the last five years, and is now one of the most commonly repaired brands in our workshop. We also offer full service for TCL TV repair, Skyworth TV repair, Panasonic TV repair, Sinotec TV repair, JVC TV repair, Toshiba TV repair, Philips TV repair, Telefunken TV repair, Devanti TV repair, Blaupunkt TV repair and Sharp TV repair.
Whatever brand you own, the diagnostic and repair approach is the same: identify the actual fault at component level, repair the smallest unit that will fix it, test thoroughly, warrant the work for 90 days. We don't have favourites. The TV that comes through the door next is the one we focus on.
What Happens When You Book With Us
For most Gauteng customers, the first contact is either a phone call to 078 721 3551 or a WhatsApp message with a quick description of the fault. We respond within minutes during business hours (and usually within an hour outside them) with an informed guess at the cause and an indicative price range. That first response is free, fully no-obligation and based on actual experience with the model — not a chatbot script.
If you decide to proceed, we book a collection from your address (workshop repair) or arrange a same-day in-home visit (in-home repair) across Johannesburg, Sandton, Pretoria, Midrand, Randburg, Soweto and the rest of the province. A formal written quotation is provided after physical inspection, and no work begins without your explicit approval. The price on the quote is the price on the invoice — if we discover a complication after starting, we phone you before doing anything that affects the total.
Once the repair is complete, the TV is bench-tested for a minimum of two hours of live operation, signed off by the technician who completed the work, and either returned to you or set up in your home. You receive a written report covering what was diagnosed, what was repaired, which parts were used, and the warranty terms. If anything goes wrong within the 90-day warranty period, one call brings the technician back at no charge.
Repair, Don't Replace — The Environmental Case
Beyond the financial argument for repair, there is a quieter environmental case that matters to us as a workshop. The carbon footprint of manufacturing and shipping a new 55-inch television is roughly equivalent to driving an average car 1,400 kilometres. Most televisions can be brought back to full health for a fraction of their replacement cost, with a tiny fraction of the environmental impact. Multiply that across the 1,000-plus repairs we complete every year, and the workshop is keeping a meaningful amount of e-waste out of South African landfills.
We're not romantic about this. Sometimes a TV genuinely is finished, and replacement is the right answer. But the default position in modern electronics retail has drifted heavily towards "replace at the first sign of trouble", and we think that drift is wrong both for customers' wallets and for the planet. Repair where repair is sensible. That is what we are here for.
What Customers Tell Us They Value Most
When we ask customers (and we do ask, every single completed job) what made the difference in choosing Nathtec, the answers are remarkably consistent. They mention honest pricing with no surprises. They mention actually being able to reach a technician on WhatsApp. They mention same-day or next-day turnaround when most other repairers quote five-to-ten working days. They mention warranty work that is honoured without argument when the rare repeat fault occurs. And, most often, they mention being told the truth about whether their TV is worth fixing, even when the answer occasionally costs us a job.
If those values match what you are looking for in a Gauteng TV repair partner, please get in touch. The contact details are below. The team is ready.
Let's Fix the TV — Same Day If We Can.
Twelve years, eleven thousand repairs and one consistent promise: diagnose properly, repair the actual fault, stand behind the work. Phone or WhatsApp the workshop now.