About SARF

Objectives of the SARF

The Federation provides contact between South Africa's road industry sectors and facilitates the distribution of expertise throughout the diverse disciplines, which have impact and application on the industry.

The Federation has close links with the International Road Federation. By liaison with this organisation's Programme Centres in Geneva and Washington the latest developments in road technology, policy and management worldwide are made available to local industry.

In this way sound policies are promoted by SARF in every aspect of road transport infrastructure and management from geometric design to roadside advertising. SARF has established an Environmental Committee that will:

Promote the economic, social and environmental benefits which are derived from developing and maintaining road networks, road transport systems and road traffic control. Support and encourage the design and construction of environmentally sound road networks and allied systems.

Air, noise and visual pollution are of great concern to all engaged in road transportation and the Federation prides itself on practicing an open and honest awareness of such matters.

Promotion of Roads, Road Transportation & Road Safety

The Federation is committed to the aims and objectives and the scope of activities laid down in its constitution, namely:

DISSEMINATION of information

• To act in the interests of members
• To provide contact between members
• To assess members' needs

PROMOTION of roads and road transportation

• To promote an effective road transport policy at all levels of government
• To originate and promote improvements in road transport policy
• To gain support by cooperation with the IRF
• To advance the Southern African economy by means of a sound road transport industry
• To promote Road Safety in South Africa

EDUCATION AND TRAINING of all those engaged in the road transportation industry

• To hold Road related seminars and conferences
• To provide SARF bursaries and administer IRF Fellowships
• To present courses that offer CPD points and are SAICE accredited

Benefits of Joining the SARF

INFORMATION

Regional and national newsletters keep members up to-date with the latest national and international developments in the fields of :

• highway design
• traffic control
• road transport legislation, etc.

Members have access to the latest traffic surveys and statistics as well as road reports and road maps. Networking opportunities with other members for useful advice, information and services.

REPRESENTATION

The South African Road Federation provides means of representation to

• Legislative bodies
• Road authorities

for all its members. By means of press releases, articles, radio and television interviews the cause of roads and road transportation is promoted.

EDUCATION

• The opportunity to attend courses and seminars on various aspects of road construction and road use, such as fuel economy, road planning and design, driver education and law enforcement
• The opportunity to attend regional and international seminars where you can meet and share ideas with your counterparts from all over the world

BURSARY SCHEME

Details of the Federation's bursary scheme and application form will be found under Education and Training.

Profiles

Mr. Mutshutshu Nxumalo  -  President

Mutshutshu Nxumalo Pr Tech Eng MSAICE, has a Master’s Degree in Technology: Mechanical Engineering graduate from the Durban University of Technology. He has an NQF level 7 Qualification on the construction of Roads using Labour Intensive Construction. He is a Member of the Institute of Directors, Member of the Institute of Professional Technologists, Member of the SA Institute of Mechanical Engineers. Mr Nxumalo has vast experience in fleet management and has developed an interest on roads at an early stage of his career when he managed the maintenance of plant and vehicles in Limpopo Department of Transport and Works some 23 years ago.

Mutshutshu ran training programmes for operators of earthmoving equipment and built a number of roads and has been seconded to Dresser and Komatsu in Johannesburg to enhance his knowledge on plant and equipment. His career span allowed him to be in academia for a short while and came out as Head of Department in 1996. Mr Nxumalo is a partner at Henwood & Nxumalo Consulting Engineers and a Director of AkhaTech and IH Systems. Mr Nxumalo has been a Vice and Deputy President of SARF for a combined 4 years period. He is currently President of the South African Roads Federation having been elected on the 5th November 2009

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Mrs. Logashri Sewnarain  -  Deputy President

Logashri Sewnarain was raised in the town of Pietermaritzburg in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands. She matriculated at Silver Heights Secondary School and holds a Bachelor of Science in the field of Civil Engineering from the University of Natal She is currently completing postgraduate studies in engineering. Logashri joined the National Department of Transport in 1997.  My experience in the field of Civil engineering over the period from 1997 up to July 2007 involved various different aspects of design, site supervision and project management.

She is currently employed at the South African National Roads Agency Eastern Region as a project manager mainly dealing with periodic maintenance and rehabilitation of road Pavements.

Logashri is a member of the S.A. Institute of Civil Engineers and the Engineering Council of South Africa.  She is currently Deputy President of the SA Road Federation and chairperson of the KwaZulu Natal Branch.

Logashri finds her job very interesting because of the varying nature of the projects encountered and challenges that one faces. The most rewarding part of being an engineer is seeing the impact one can make on the quality of people’s lives.

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Mr. Garth Strong             -   Vice President

Garth Strong is the Managing Director of Highway Safety Products (Pty) Ltd, a company he founded in 2000 and which specialises in the supply of Road Safety Barrier systems. All HSP products are manufactured under licence in South Africa to European principals and all are tested and proven systems complying with EN1317, now adopted in SA as SANS51317. Garth has been active in the SA Road Federation since 2005, and chaired the Northern Region committee during 2006 and 2007.

Garth has been a member of the Executive Committee of the SARF since 2006 and has served as a Vice President during 2008, 2009 and now 2010.

In 2007 he initiated the formation of the Road Safety Committee, but stepped down when a more suitable candidate for the position was found (one not involved in the sale of products!).

Garth is passionate about Road Safety. He initiated and was involved in the organisation in the series of Work Zone safety seminars held in 2008 and 2009. The Road Safety Equipment exhibition held in Tshwane in 2009 was conceived and organised by Garth.

Garth has been a member of the Education Committee since 2007, chairing it from 2008.

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Mr. Chris Atkins              -   Vice President

After graduating from UCT in 1971, I joined the Engineering Department of the then Divisional Council of the Cape and have remained in the employment of the same local government structure, having endured five restructuring / transformation processes, for the past 38 years.

My primary area of expertise has been in the road field. A major portion of this earlier work involved me, as Chief Engineer Roads overseeing the planning, design, project management and implementation of a number of major road and bridge projects through-out the area surrounding Cape Town. I was also responsible for the motivation, budgetary provision, expenditure control and associated financial management not only for these projects but also for the on-going maintenance of the main road network.

During the transformation process, I fulfilled the position of Route Manager in the Infrastructure Management Branch of the Directorate of Transport and Traffic of the Cape Metropolitan Council where my duties included the review, co-ordination and management of road based infrastructural matters which occurred within or impacted on the existing metropolitan network.

Latterly, on the establishment of the City of Cape Town, I have held the position of Head : Policy and Statutory Compliance in the Operations & Assets Branch of the Department of Roads & Stormwater. My specialist interest here is to provide guidance to the Department on road related legislation, amongst others, and to ensure that the various Branches of the Department comply with the procedures and processes as required by the law.

I have been closely involved with the SARF since 1977 when I was nominated by my Management to represent the Divisional Council on the SARF Western Cape Regional Committee where I have been an active and passionate member over the past 30 years. I held the position of Chair of the Civil Engineering Sub-Committee for a number of years during the early 1990’s. When the City of Cape Town became a sponsor member in 2001, I became the City’s representative on the SARF Council. I am also a Corporate Member of the Institute of Municipal Engineering and Fellow of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering. I am registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa as a professional engineer.

Chris Atkins, Pr. Eng.

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Mr. Paul Nordengen         -   Immediate Past President

Paul Nordengen grew up in Durban, South Africa, and joined the CSIR in 1986 as a researcher in the bridges section. In 1988 he completed an MSc in structural engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. He has been involved in the development of bridge, overload control and abnormal load management systems for various road and railway authorities in South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Senegal, Swaziland and Taiwan. He was involved in the development of a national overload control strategy for the South African Department of Transport.

He is a member of the heavy vehicle self-regulation national steering committee and is chairman of the performance-based standards steering committee for heavy vehicles in South Africa. He has presented papers on heavy vehicle overloading, abnormal loads and bridge management systems at conferences both locally and overseas.

Mr Nordengen is a member of the S.A. Institute of Civil Engineers and is registered as a professional engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa. He is currently the Immediate Past President of the SA Road Federation. He is on the Board of the International Forum for Roads and Transport Technology as Vice-President: Developing Countries.

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Dr M F MITCHELL Pr. Eng.        -   Executive Director

Malcolm Mitchell, who was born in Durban, has had more than 50 years engineering experience, primarily in Civil and Transportation Engineering since he graduated from Natal University in Civil Engineering in 1956. His highest educational qualifications are two Doctorates - in Transportation Engineering from the University of Pretoria and Transport Economics from the University of Johannesburg, as well as a Masters degree in Administration from UNISA. He retired from the Department of Transport in 1998 after nine years as Deputy Director-General, with the responsibility for all aspects of Land Transport at national level in South Africa, and prior to that he was the Head of National Roads in South Africa.

Currently he is Executive Director of the South African Road Federation, and also provides specialist advice in transportation engineering and institutional and policy matters in the roads sector and the mediation of contractual disputes in Civil Engineering. He is also a member of the Engineering Council’s professional advisory committee for Civil Engineering.

He is a registered professional engineer and his professional experience has been mainly in the fields of:

• Construction, especially tunnelling,
• Geotechnical engineering,
• Road geometric and pavement design,
• Institutional arrangements for road provision, including the “setting up” of the South African National Roads Agency,
• Contract dispute adjudication,
• Road authority management and governance, including policy making, and financial planning,
• Urban transport planning and management.

He has been a member of many professional bodies, both locally and internationally. Some of them are:

• President, Chartered Institute of Transport in South Africa
• Member (and often acting Chairman) South African Roads Board
• South African representative on World Road Association (PIARC) Permanent International Commission
• Member of the Executive Committee of the  World Road Association
• Chairman South African Civil Engineering Advisory Council
• Member of Council, and Executive Committee member of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers
• Member of the Civil Engineering Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) comprising SAICE, SAFCEC and SAACE representatives
• South African representative on SATCC Committees
• Chairman South African National Committee on Tunnelling
• Member of Board of Directors of the South African Rail Commuter Corporation
• Chairman: Committee of Land Transport Officials and Committee of State Road Authorities
• Deputy Chairman, National Road Safety Council
• Chairman; Annual Transportation Convention Organising Committee
• Chairman: Transportation Division, South African Institution of Civil Engineers
• Member: CSIR Transportation Division, Research Steering Committees
• Member: Various Metropolitan Transport Advisory Boards in South Africa
• Member: Professional Advisory Committee for Civil Engineering of the Engineering Council of South Africa

He has published more than 80 refereed papers and has been external examiner and lecturer in transportation engineering post graduate courses and has also received the SAICE Transportation Award for “Services to the Transportation Engineering profession”.

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Dr. John Sampson          -   Honorary Treasurer

John Sampson is a professional engineer and has been practising as a qualified civil and transportation / traffic engineer for 36 years. John currently holds three positions, namely:

• Managing Director of Transportation and Traffic Technology Africa (Pty) Ltd, or TTT Africa for short.
• Partner of Jeffares & Green, Consulting Engineers and a Director of Jeffares and Green (Pty) Ltd.
• Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Road Traffic Management Corporation (appointed by the Minister of Transport).

John is a Fellow of the SA Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the SA Institution of Civil Engineering, and a Member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (USA). He is also vice Chairman of the Automobile Association Traffic Committee and Honorary Treasurer of the SARF.

Other positions he has held include Deputy City Engineer of Johannesburg, Professor at the University of Pretoria, President of the South African Road Federation and Chairman of the SAICE Transportation Division.

He has contributed to and co-authored publications such as the South African Road Traffic Signs Manual, National Guidelines for Road Access Management in South Africa, Route Marking in South Africa, the Gauteng Roundabouts Design Manual, the Gauteng Transport Study GTS 2000, Municipal Engineering Services Contributions Policy, and a provincial Traffic Impact Assessment Manual. His PhD thesis on Warrants for Traffic Signals is now an industry standard.

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Basil Ivan Jonsson

Basil Ivan Jonsson. Born 21 April 1956 in Ermelo ,South Africa.  Obtained a National Diploma in Civil Engineering at Natal Technicon. Resident Engineer on Contract CY93 Module 2- building the biggest shunting yard in the Southern Hemisphere.

Basil joined Tosas (owned 30% by Total South Africa and 70% Sasol Limited) as part of their marketing division  which marketed all the Bitumen produced by the Natref refinery.

Technical Product Advisor.
Obtained Certificate in Marketing and Market research from University of South Africa.

Emulsion Factory Manager
Responsible for managing Tosas Bitumen emulsion factory, producing +/- 20 Million litres of Bitumen emulsion annually. Part of my responsibility was to manage the Bitumen laboratory which tested all bitumen emulsions manufactured as well as all Bitumen, Modified bitumen (Bitumen Rubber, SBS and SBR) sprayed on site by Tosas Bitumen distributors. I managed three Slurry seal teams, responsible for slurry sealing for contractors and local authorities.

Supply and Export manager:
Responsible to market Tosas Bitumen, Bitumen emulsions and Road tars to the following neighbouring countries: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.

In 2003 was elected as chairman of the Society for Asphalt Technology Position held up to 2010. Served as editor for the Tosas company magazine.

Total South Africa Bitumen manager.
Marketed +/- 52 000 Tons p/a of Bitumen from the Natref refinery

Roadspan Group Sales and Marketing manager.
Managed the sales and marketing function for both Roadspan Asphalt and Roadspan Surfaces in Southern Africa. Was responsible to get Roadspan Asphalt a level 4 BBBEE certificate and Roadspan Surfaces a Level 5 BBBEE certificate. Produced a business plan for the Cold Mix Asphalt business. Editor of the Roadspan Newsletter called:Re Ko Tseleng.

Have been married to Marieli for 30 years, Children:Dylan 25 Chef and Chocolatier , Tarryn 22 married to Rick, living in London.

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