Civil Engineering December 2021 | Vol 29 No 11

From the Pres ident ’ s desk Civil Engineering December 2021 1 B eing the President of SAICE is not only a proud and momentous time in any individual’s life, but more so for myself, knowing that I had never had the aspiration of one day reaching this point in my professional career, as it once seemed impossible. Coming from townships where we were segregated based on our race, many of us never had the oppor- tunity to even conceive of achieving such accolades, as we were very constrained in our development. So being nominated for president was indeed very special for me. As a student my focus was simply on graduating and finding a suitable job to take care of my family. As a result, the frills in terms of voluntary activities were put on hold, as is the case for many of our young graduates who are still experiencing this today. My initial impression of SAICE was that it was not for me, as the face of SAICE was very different back then. With time this has changed, and I eventually found that it was time for me to give back to the profession and to make my contribu- tion to ensure that SAICE would be able to grow in a sustainable manner and that there was adequate representation within the structures to reflect the demographics of this beautiful country. I can happily say that SAICE is heading in this direction. We are forging ahead with many initiatives that represent the ideology of a diverse and inclusive environment, not only within SAICE as an organisation, but also within our profession. It must be noted that our Diversity and Inclusivity Panel, as part of the Growing Forward strategy, is making great strides in promoting an inclusive environment that encourages equality and fairness and where every individual is acknowledged as a valued contributor to our profession and society as a whole. We continu- ously strive to encourage members to have a sense of belonging to SAICE and the profession, which provides equal opportunities to succeed. SAICE continuously tries to improve in this light, and this is evident in our structures as well as the make-up of our council and executive board for 2022. There is an increase in diverse representation in these structures and, most importantly, an increase in the number of women who form part of these decision-making bodies. There is always room for improvement, and we are currently on a membership marketing drive to at- tract more diverse and inclusive individuals to join the various structures within SAICE and we are hopeful that this drive will be successful. Furthermore, SAICE is pursuing a transformation agenda within the organisation in terms of age. There is a concern that the older members are doing the majority of the activities within SAICE and that there is a lack of succession planning. Leadership in the committees and panels is now transforming to encourage younger members to be more involved. However, we are at the same time ensuring that there is adequate institu- tional memory and mentoring to guide our younger members and safeguard the integrity of the institution for the future. The contributions our older members make to SAICE is highly acknowl- edged and as an institution we are very fortunate to have them in our fold, as they sacrifice so much of their time and effort to ensure that SAICE is always at the forefront in our profession. VIRTUAL PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES Unfortunately, most of my activities this year were held virtually. However, I was fortunate enough to interact with most of the branches and some of the divi- sions as well as My year as President of SAICE As I sat down to write my final article for 2021, I took the time to reflect on the year that was, and the experience of being the President of SAICE and representing our 15 000 members. Our Diversity and Inclusivity Panel, as part of the Growing Forward strategy, is making great strides in promoting an inclusive environment that encourages equality and fairness and where every individual is acknowledged as a valued contributor to our profession and society as a whole