CESA Young Professionals Sustainability Imbizo
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13th YP Imbizo Speakers
| Marizel Pienaar | Marizel is a dynamic and dedicated Civil Engineer in the Water sector at Bigen’s Bloemfontein Office. In addition to her role at Bigen, Marizel serves as the National Vice Chairperson and Treasurer of the CESA YPF National Committee. She graduated from the University of Pretoria with a BEng (Civil) degree (2020) and a BEng (Hons) Degree in Water Resources Engineering (2021). She is dedicated to staying at the forefront of industry knowledge and has a passion for advancing water-related initiatives. |
| Vishal Haripersad | Vishal is currently the Regional Manager of Knight Piésold Africa as well as the Managing Director and Chairman of Knight Piésold (Pty) Ltd, a global engineering and project management consultancy based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Vishal serves as Deputy President of Consulting Engineers South Africa – CESA. Vishal also serves as the Chairman and Director of CIVILAB (Pty) Ltd, a leading civil engineering materials testing laboratory headquartered in South Africa as well as a board member of CESA (Consulting Engineers of South Africa). Vishal actively engages as Project Director on multiple projects across multiple areas of speciality within Africa. He leads and guides teams which unlock major infrastructure and mining projects within Africa through development of technical and financial feasibility studies, and the development of innovative solutions to closing the gap between financing and funding. |
| Siva Naidoo | Siva is a Senior Legal Advisor at Aon South Africa; He has special knowledge within the insurance and financial services industry. His area of expertise includes providing legal services and advice. He specialises in contractual advise within the built environment and Professional Indemnity Insurance. Siva has been in the insurance industry for 18 years in both long term and short term insurance at various insures as a legal advisor including the property sector. |
| Pearl Masia | Pearl Masia is a driven Civil Technologist currently pursuing her master’s degree at the Tshwane University of Technology. with a research focus on promoting non-motorised transport as a sustainable solution to urban traffic congestion in the City of Tshwane. With extensive experience in project management, Pearl has contributed to major infrastructure projects across South Africa. She has held roles at Delta BEC, Department of Environmental Affairs and FUBU Africa currently serves at SMEC South Africa within the Urban Development Department, where she is actively involved in technical urban designs and technical report writing. Pearl is passionate about sustainable engineering solutions and committed to continuous professional growth in the global civil engineering landscape. |
| Elandri Boshoff | Elandri is senior legal counsel at SMEC South Africa, providing legal support to SMEC and its affiliated companies across Africa, the Middle East, and Pakistan. She has a strong passion for law, particularly construction law. Originally a civil engineer, Elandri gained experience in various engineering sub-disciplines while searching for job fulfilment. She registered as a Professional Engineer with ECSA in 2016 but transitioned to law in January 2019 when she joined SMEC’s in-house legal department. During the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown in Australia, she completed a master’s degree in construction law at the University of Melbourne, deepening her expertise in the field. |
| Theasha Naidoo | Theasha is a Process Engineer at Talbot with experience in the water and wastewater industry. Passionate about sustainability, she is committed to driving innovative, resource-efficient solutions that support a just transition. Her work focuses on optimising water use in industrial processes with an emphasis on environmental stewardship. She is currently pursuing a PhD at Stellenbosch University, researching integrated water resource management for green hydrogen production in South Africa. Theasha’s academic and professional journey reflects her dedication to aligning technical expertise with sustainable development goals. |
| Sekadi Phayane-Shakhane | Chief Executive Officer, SAICE |
| Tshilidzi Mukwevho | Candidate Natural Scientist, Department of Public Works and Infrastructure |
| Chuene Seduma | Structural Engineer, Engineering Services, Department of Public Works and Infrastructure |
11th YP Imbizo Speakers
| Uzair Osman | CESA YPF: National Chairperson and Engineer: Roads and Developments, Bosch Projects |
| Olu Soluade | CESA President and MD, AOS Engineers |
| Ntombi Nyaga | Chief Operations Officer at CIDB |
| Dlozi Mnisi | SAICE FLP Chairperson and Construction Project Manager, Gauteng Department of Human Settlements |
| Gao Kenalemang | Candidate Civil Engineer, V3 Consulting Engineers |
| Keith Katyora | Energy Advisor and Former CESA YPF Chairperson (Gauteng North) |
Dr James Cullis |
Dr James Cullis is a water resources engineer and environmental scientist with nearly 20 years of experience working on water resource and climate change related studies across Africa and internationally. He is a Technical Director at Zutari in the Water Resource group based in Cape Town and the Expertise Leader for Sustainability. For two years he served as the global service group leader for water for Aurecon before the demerger of Zutari from the global Aurecon group in 2019. James has a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Cape Town, an MA (oxon) in Politics Philosophy and Economics and an MSc in Environmental Change and Management both from Oxford University in the UK. He obtained his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder in the USA in 2011.
James is technical advisor to the Greater Cape Town Wate Fund and assisting Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning with a review of the Western Cape Sustainable Master Plan. He is an Honorary Research Associated with the African Climate and Development Initiative at UCT and has published several papers on a range of hydrological, climate change and water resources related topics. He was also a contributing author to the water section of the Africa Chapter of the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report. |
10th YP Imbizo Speakers
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Renee Petersen is employed by SMEC South Africa (Pty) Ltd in the Roads and Highway division as a Civil Engineering Technologist. She holds Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech Transportation), as well as a Master’s in engineering from Stellenbosch University. Over the past 9 years, she has gained on-site, design and project management experience of various infrastructure projects.
Through her active involvement in the industry, Renee has volunteered at Consulting Engineer of South Africa (CESA) Young professional Forum (YPF) since 2016. She served in various roles on a provisional and national level. Since 2016, Renee represented YP’s on various CESA committees and currently serves as the YPF National Chairperson. |
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Tahseen Raiman is a civil engineer employed by the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) and is currently supporting Laingsburg Municipality with bulk engineering services. She completed her BSc at UKZN and gained experience in the fields of roads and water and sanitation. She is currently completing her MSc in Project Management with the University of Pretoria. She is passionate about outreach initiatives and is a member of the CESA Western Cape YPF and is the University of Pretoria Student Representative for the Project Management Institute. |
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Cheree Janse van Rensburg works at Zutari, within one of the largest groups of professional water engineers in South Africa.
At Zutari she has learnt first-hand about the importance of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She has also gained experience in working with large groups of people from various walks of life. Here the projects are large scale and as diverse as the team she works with. Cheree’s work ranges from hydropower plants to water reticulation through water master plans and wetland rehabilitation work. Being a member of Zest, the Young professionals’ group, she has been involved in numerous community out reaches as well as recently joining the CESA Transformation & Development Committee. Cheree has additionally taken part in the First Study Programme 2021/22 on Nuclear Safety and Arms Control. This also showcases Cheree’s passion for diversity in all aspects of her life and connects her passion for varying interests. |
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Tshepo Moabelo is an Engineering Technician for the Department of Police, Roads and Transport, in Free State.
His career started at SMEC prior to his training at KBK Engineers. During his career he worked for Housing development Agency and Zencon Engineers. He holds a Civil Engineering National Diploma and Bachelor of Technology from the Central University of Technology. He is currently pursuing a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration at the University of the Free State. He is passionate about youth development and in he volunteers his time for various organizations in order to promote Engineering profession and to give back to the community. Tshepo consider himself as future leader in a making. |
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Swesha Machere, BVi Consulting Engineers & Vice Chairman of the CESA YPF Gauteng South Branch
He obtained degrees in B.Eng. Mechanical Engineering and a B.Eng. Honours in Engineering and Technology Management from the University of Pretoria. Swesha was awarded the 2022 BVi Young Engineer Award, an award that recognises young engineers who have excelled and shown immense potential as future leaders in the industry. |
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Kgopotso Makondo, Worley RSA
Kgopotso is a Civil/Structural engineer with design and construction experience mainly in the mining sector on various EPCM projects. She joined her current company, Worley, as a graduate in 2019 and has since completed the graduate program and registered as a candidate engineer with ECSA as she intends to pursue her PrEng registration in the coming years. He main passions outside of engineering design have included creating awareness around diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She is the Co Ordinator of Kuumba MEA, a global network within Worley that enables and supports the experiences of people or color. |
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Professor WD Francois Venter, MD, FCP, PhD is the Division Head of Ezintsha at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He leads multiple antiretroviral treatment studies, and has an active interest in public sector access to HIV services. He is currently working on new antiretroviral options, patient linkage-to-care interventions, infectious diseases self-testing projects, and improving screening and treatment of non-communicable diseases within HIV clinics. He has led large HIV programmes in South Africa, including one that focuses on truckers and sex workers. He has been represented on South African and regional HIV guidelines for almost 20 years having done almost all his training within South Africa. He is an advisor to the South African government, Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, UNAIDS and WHO. He has been involved in several human rights cases involving HIV within the Southern African region, and has an active interest in medical ethics. Most recently, he is involved in public health responses to COVID-19, as well as multiple studies focused on using repurposed drugs for SARS-CoV-2 prevention and treatment, and the consequences of Long-COVID in African patients. |
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Ms Yankho T. Banda, Professional Engineer, Traffic Engineering and Transportation Planning Engineer
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Laurence Sloan is a social safeguards advisor at MPAMOT and draws from a sociological academic background with specialisation in social impact assessment, due diligence assessments and undertaking social and labour monitoring and action planning to assess compliance with international social safeguard standards. |
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Tsholofelo Letlape is a civil engineer at MPAMOT with design experience in civil infrastructure such as geometrics, bulk earthworks, water, sewer, and stormwater. She has site experience in pavement rehabilitation, infrastructure and structural assessments and inspection. |
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Tshwari Ramagofu, is young professional with 15 years’ experience in the Electrical field. She is a passionate, performance driven individual who continuously strives to develop her leadership skills and learn how to improve and develop others.
She started her career in Eskom Distribution as a design engineer, responsible for designs of HV substations, HV lines and reticulation networks. She later joined Transmission as HV Plant Manager ensuring that High Voltage Plant is operated and maintained in a safe and effective manner. Currently, Tshwari has been appointed in Asset Management Business Unit within Transmission and responsible for Operating Strategies. Tshwari currently serves as ECSA Council member for the second term since 2016 to date. For the first term council, she was the chairperson of Investigating Committee and currently a member of Training & Academics Development and Research, Policy & Standards Committees. In addition, Tshwari is also a council member for South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE) which is a voluntary association. The vast business and Council experience has equipped her with an understanding of good corporate governance, strategy, annual performance, compliance and risk mitigations. |
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Sizakele Mofokeng Bio
I am a civil engineering technologist at GIBB (Pty) Ltd in the Transportation Department. My experience is the design and supervision of roads and stormwater. I am passionate about motivating others and making a difference. I lead the GIBB Transportation Knowledge Sharing programme that, besides improving efficiencies, upskills the younger professionals. Education & Registration/Membership
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