Company Announcement - We take a look at the keynote speakers, conference chair, session chairs and topic speakers for the South African Emergency Services Institute (SAESI)’s annual conference, to be held in November at NASREC, Johannesburg.

Conference chair – Elias Sithole
Bongani Elias Sithole entered government in 1990. He was trained and worked in various capacities in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF)’s fire services and operations. In 2002, he worked with the presidency on special projects and the National Youth Commission, focusing on issues of youth development. Sithole joined the private sector in 2005, consulting on issues of disaster management. Through disaster management work, he travelled extensively abroad to countries like Jordan, Netherlands, Ghana, and also worked in countries affected by disasters. Sithole re-joined government in December 2011, and is currently the head of Gauteng’s provincial disaster management centre.

Keynote speaker – Dr Imtiaz Sooliman
Dr Imtiaz Sooliman was born in Potchefstroom and matriculated at Sastri College in Durban. He qualified as a medical doctor at the University of Natal Medical School in 1984. In1994, he left private medical practise to fully concentrate on the Gift of the Givers (GOTG) foundation, which he founded in 1992. Sooliman developed GOTG into one of the world's most respectable humanitarian organisations. Sooliman’s major achievements include designing and developing the world's first and only containerised mobile hospital of its kind in 1993, deployed in Bosnia and compared by CNN to any of the best hospitals in Europe, and leading GOTG to become the first organisation in the history of South Africa to be given R60 million by government to design and roll out 204 000 food parcels.

His keynote address will focus on the multiple facets of disaster response. Logistics, including diplomacy, access and deployment are key, without which, the most skilled team in the world will be rendered useless. GOTG will take you on a journey with Africa's largest disaster response agency from infancy to the present time detailing the challenges, adaptation, innovation and management in changing circumstances in some of the world's most complicated and horrendous disasters. Primary health care, trauma medicine, secondary traumatisation, trauma counselling, rehabilitation, setting up hospitals, search and rescue teams, sniffer dogs, housing developments, tents, food, water provision are but some of the diverse aspects that will be detailed. Skills transfer, patient education, reconstruction of essential facilities and self-sufficiency are all aspects of what its missions entail. Hands on management and twenty three years of experience will be shared with the participants.

Keynote speaker – Stuart Ellis
Stuart Ellis was an army officer for over 22 years, serving with the Special Air Service regiment. In 1996, he was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of the South Australian Country Fire Service. In 2002, he established a consultancy company and has been involved in over 20 operational reviews, including the Canberra Bushfires, the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission and the operational response to the Christchurch earthquake. In 2012, he was appointed CEO of the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council, the national council for fire and emergency services in Australasia. Ellis is passionate about improving the incident management skills of emergency services and company operations and has a focus on progressing an industry wide, integrated approach to emergency management.

His keynote address will synthesise Australian learnings across resilience, incident management and relief/recovery. It will also focus on how effective incident management is a critical element of minimising the impact of all incidents. This is a shared responsibility between emergency services and private companies/infrastructure maintainers.

Session chair (education) – Marius Atterbury
Marius Atterbury has worked in the fire industry for many years. From 1986 until 2011, he served as Ekurhuleni’s district manager of fire safety, before moving on to serve as Eskom’s senior fire and emergency risk management advisor in 2011. He is a fellow member of SAESI, serves on the SAESI technical committee, and has been an associate member of the Institution of Fire Engineers since 2013.

His experiences include being a member of a relief team that attended to an earthquake in India, and he has assisted with planning and logistics during several other international aid sorties. He established the Public Information, Education and Relations unit for Ekurhuleni Metro emergency services. Atterbury was chairperson of the 2010 Soccer World Cup Emergency Services Planning Committee and served as a member of the Ekurhuleni Metro 2010 Soccer World Cup Steering Committee. He has provided leadership in the standardisation of matter related to fire and its associated industries.

Topic speaker (education) – Paul Motsepe
Modumo Paul Motsepe works for the West Rand District Municipality, where he currently serves as that municipality’s PIER officer. Major career highlights for Motsepe include serving as the chairperson of Gauteng’s provincial PIER working group, as the chairperson of West Rand Public Safety Awareness Committee, and as the chairperson of West Rand CDWs Committee.

His topic address will focus on PIER, its principles and values. PIER recognises the importance of people’s ability to act together to influence the social and environmental issues that affect them. It also aims to encourage sharing, and creating structures which give genuine participation and involvement. It also must take a lead in countering the destruction of the natural environment on which we all depend.

Session chair (risk management) – Tshepo Makola
Becoming a part of the emergency management services was never part of Tshepo Makola’s career plan. After matric, he planned to study dental technology at the University of Pretoria. However, when an opportunity presented itself, he went through the assessment with his friend to become a firefighter. The EMS chief has expressed great respect and honour for his career in the EMS.

As Johannesburg’s EMS chief, Makola has worked on community initiatives to empower and educate communities about safety resilience and safer communities in the city of Johannesburg. Those initiatives became what we know as the School Emergency Response Teams and Community Emergency Response Teams programmes, which is quite successful in the greater Johannesburg area.

Topic speaker (risk management) – Schalk Willem Lubbe
Schalk Willem Lubbe is a fire engineering specialist with diverse experience spanning over 27 years. This includes 22 years in fire engineering associated with numerous types of industries including mining, heavy engineering, smelting, chemical, petrochemical, Pebble-bed nuclear reactors and other industrial processes. Schalk has substantial experience in the application of fire standards associated with fire system design. Lubbe’s qualifications include an associate diploma from the South African Fire services Institute (SAFSI), a higher diploma in fire technology from Pretoria Technikon, an executive development diploma from the University of Stellenbosch, and a business continuity management diploma (US).

Lubbe’s talk will focus on the empowerment of vulnerable communities by identifying the hazards that affect them in their communities and understanding how to assist them in identifying and minimising or eliminating those risks.

Topic speaker (security and resilience) – Moshema Mosia
Moshema Mosia began his career as a firefighter in 1987 in the Free State province. He progressed to station manager there and, by the time he left, he was the assistant chief fire officer. He then moved onto the Greater Germiston City Council as assistant chief fire officer. He held that position until the establishment of the current Ekurhuleni Metropolitan municipality.

Mosia is currently employed by the City of Ekurhuleni as head of Disaster and Emergency Management Services. Previously, he was director of Emergency Services and executive director of Community Safety, and was employed as deputy city manager of Operations for two years.

Mosia holds a B.Admin degree, an associate diploma in fire technology and an advanced university diploma in disaster management. He joined the Southern African Emergency Services Institute (SAESI) in 1988, where he has held the post of president twice, the only person to have that honour since SAESI’s inception. He represents South Africa on the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)’s TC 292- Security and Resilience committee, where he is the chairperson of developing countries. He had gathered a tremendous amount of experience after serving in various structures within SAESI, SAQA, Fire Brigade Board, and the South African Local Government Association.

Mosia’s talk will focus on international standardisation in security and resilience. The world has evolved into a global community of interdependent societies. Changes in technical and economic relationships have resulted in cross-jurisdictional and trans-boundary interdependencies for vital societal functions and assets. The security and well-being of people increasingly depends on the continuity of vital functions of individual organisations, local communities, nations and the global community regardless of political boundaries. The number and magnitude impact of disasters in the last few years has increased awareness of the need for international standardisation in the fields of disaster risks reduction, emergency management and business continuity management. Emergencies and disasters do not know boundaries. The international community finds itself having to respond to these emergencies and disasters to assist other countries. Thus, interoperability during emergencies and disasters becomes a challenge. ISO established a technical committee called: ISO/TC 292- ‘Security and Resilience’ to create standards in the fields mentioned above. At the recent World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, the world agreed and committed to fast- tracking standardisation. Developing countries are most vulnerable to major incidents and disasters. Participation of men and women from across the globe is required in undertaking this work.

*Please note that abstracts are subject to change.
**Please note that some speakers’ information was unavailable at the time of going to print.