President: Seetella Makhetha

Seetella Ntsibo Makhetha was born in Qacha’s Nek in Lesotho where his father was a school teacher. He completed his schooling at Peka High School, also in Lesotho, in the mid-seventies. Seetella received a scholarship from the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation to study civil engineering in India, where he graduated from the University of Roorkee in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, in the early eighties. He then read for his MSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Technology in Loughborough, in the UK, in 1985/6. He subsequently worked for a number of institutions, including a World Bank sponsored urban development project where he was involved with the design and testing of the ventilated improved pit latrine. In his work, he was also in involved in a number of water and waste water projects in Botswana, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya and Lesotho. After working as the Senior Engineer at Maseru Water Supply, he joined the then Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in Mafikeng, and later worked for Stewart Scott as a water engineer. In 1992, Seetella and his wife Martha, who is also a civil engineer, started their own company in Johannesburg . They have since moved their Head Office to Port Elizabeth. Seetella joined SAICE in 1989 and has served as Council member since 2000. He also served as chairman of the Membership Committee, and continues to play a vital role in membership affairs. He has written a number of articles on water supply and sanitation for developing communities, and presented papers on national and international conferences such as the World Water Conference, Water Engineering and Development Centre Conferences, and Africa San Conferences. Seetella and Martha, together with their two daughters, live in Port Elizabeth.

Download Seetella’s Presidential Address

Contact Seetella on 27 (0)41 365 3833 or e-mail: [email protected]

President Elect & Vice President: Martin Van Veelen

Contact Martin on 27 (0)412 665 3602 or e-mail: [email protected]

Vice President - Organizational Transformation:Chris Campbell

Christopher Campbell was born in Newclare, Johannesburg and educated in both Johannesburg and Tallahassee, USA. He obtained a National Higher Diploma (Civil) as well as a BSc (Civil), which was later followed by a host of management qualifications. Chris started his career as a draughtsman and over the past 26 years has been involved in infrastructure development projects. His initial involvement was on “traditional” residential and commercial developments, but later extended to labour intensive road construction in urban environments and informal housing developments. To add to his diverse infrastructure portfolio of experiences, Chris spent 9 years with Spoornet as a railway infrastructure engineer and subsequently as an Infrastructure Manager for both its flagship Heavy Haul Lines. After a spell on the Gautrain Project, he was appointed to Transnet Projects as part of the team responsible for the implementation of Transnet’s multi-billion rand infrastructure investment programme. He is Chairman of the SAICE Railway & Harbour Division 2006 & 2007 and is active in ECSA as both a member of the board as well as on various ECSA Sub-Committees.

Contact Chris on 27 (0)11 231 6173 or e-mail: [email protected]

Vice President: Tom McKune

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Contact Tom on 27 (0)33 845 8916 or e-mail: [email protected]

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Vice President: Werner Jerling

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Contact Werner on 27 (0)11 571 4431 or e-mail: [email protected]

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Vice President: Hannes Gräbe

Hannes Gräbe is a civil engineer with 16 years’ experience in track technology, geotechnology, advanced laboratory testing, field investigations, maintenance models and numerical analysis of track structures.

After completing his under-graduate studies at the University of Pretoria in 1994, he joined Transnet Freight Rail’s Tack Technology Centre, Johannesburg. From 1999 – 2002 he studied abroad and obtained a PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Southampton (UK). This research was focussed on the design life prediction of railway foundations under heavy axle loading.

He is currently employed by the University of Pretoria as Associate professor: Chair in Railway Engineering where he lectures under- and post-graduate courses in Railway Engineering. He is also responsible for railway research as well as continued professional education in the form of short courses presented to industry.

Contact Hannes on 27 (0)12 420 4723 or e-mail: [email protected]

 Immediate Past President: Mr Ali Naidu, is presently the CEO of PD Naidoo and Associates based in the Johannesburg office. He graduated from the University of Natal with a BSc Eng degree. In 1993 he graduated with a post-graduate degree in Project Management specialising in project management.

As a graduate engineer he gained knowledge of the water supply field whilst spending time in the Department of Water Affairs planning department. He then moved on to gain valuable knowledge of Lesotho whilst designing access roads to the Katse dam under the guidance of experienced engineers of Van Wyk & Louw (Africon). The next several years were spent in the structural engineering environment where he specialized in industrial and commercial structures, predominantly in structural steelwork. He spent several years with South African Breweries in the Engineering and Projects Division, where he was responsible for project management of several large multi-disciplinary projects.

Upon joining PD Naidoo & Associates, he assumed the role of Managing Director where the technical focus of the business was his primary responsibility. He has involved in projects involving provision of basic infrastructure, design and management of various structural projects, design and management of infrastructure works including rural water schemes.

He currently serves on the Board of Consult Consortium, a private company appointed by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, for the provision of basic water and sanitation in Mpumalanga (South Africa). Consult Consortium have been responsible for approximately R 150 million of rural water infrastructure. They have had the added responsibility of ensuring that the ISD (Institutional and Social Development) and O&M (Operations and Maintenance) were addressed. Mr. Naidu was involved in the business plan formulation for these aspects.

Download Ali’s Presidential Address

Contact Ali on 27 (0)11 566 8300 or e-mail: [email protected]