The South African Council for Automation and Control (SACAC) held its AGM on 17 February 2017 at the Forum Homini Hotel in the Cradle of Humankind. Office bearers are president Kobus Oosthuizen from Mintek and vice-president Alfred Schroder, Aurecon.
Schroder is an electrical engineer specialising in industrial automation and has more than 25 years of working experience in Europe, Africa and southern Africa. Schroder has held various positions, from systems engineer to project engineer and consultant. He was responsible for turnkey projects in the mining and materials handling industries as well as functional management in control and instrumentation (C&I) and information technology systems (MIS) projects. He was also employed as a quality manager on various software projects, which included an electrical motor condition monitoring system and other retail software systems. He is a registered professional engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) as well as a mentor for registered electrical and electronic engineers-in-training. He is also a member of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE). He has authored several papers, one of which was for the Institute of Water Engineers on “Advanced Control in Water and Waste Water Treatment”. He has also prepared, and presents a SACAC workshop on the ISA 5.06.1 standard “Functional Requirements Documentation for Control Software applications”.
Institution EXCO members are Dr. Lidia Auret (US), Dr. Kenny Uren (NWU), Robyn Verrinder (UCT) and Dr. Deon Sabatta (UJ). Business EXCO members are Michael Halhead (Anglo Platinum), Charles Blackbeard (ABB), Rodney Grobler (Beckhoff) and John Burchell (Lonmin). Derik le Roux (UP) has been appointed as honourary treasurer and secretary for the second year running.
The new EXCO will have a busy year with the Control Conference Africa in December, and organising an international MMM conference in 2019. Members are encouraged to bring up topics that they would like to be presented at brief talks, seminars or workshops.
Contact Keri Garland, Tel 011 021 8196, secretariat@sacac.org.za
