Late CIDB CEO Cyril Vuyani Gamede
Photo by: Creamer Media
The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) has announced that its CEO Cyril Vuyani Gamede has died at the age of 58.
Chairperson Dr Natalie Skeepers says he made a great difference at the CIDB since his appointment in January 2020, all the while believing that construction projects can turn around the country’s economy.
Gamede had extensive experience at board level in the public and private sectors.
In his lifetime, he served as president of the Engineering Council of South Africa, president of the South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering and founding president of the National Society of Black Engineers.
COO Bongani Dladla has been appointed acting CEO.
The National Society of Black Engineers South Africa (NSBE SA) also mourned the untimely passing of Gamede, who was its founding president.
"He made an indelible contribution to help us get where we are today. He has shown us the courage that is required to shape the direction of our profession in South Africa and now it is up to the rest of us to carry on his work and legacy.
"A well trained and highly competent engineer with a passion for transformation, Cyril touched many people who crossed his path. He would often remind us that, 'not everything we do should be motivated by money. We have a bigger responsibility to grow the engineering profession in our communities'. Cyril talked the talk and walked the walk. That’s what earned him the respect of many black engineers that it came as no surprise that he was unanimously elected the first president of the NSBE SA.
"Today we have lost a brother, a father, a friend, a mentor and a pioneer of black excellence in the engineering profession. We are grieving but highly inspired by his example, and hopeful for a better tomorrow, that his good work gets carried forward into the next generations of black engineers," the NSBE SA comments.