2017 Annual WESSA Awards winners announced

All the award winners. Back row L – R: Neale Hill (Ford Wildlife Foundation), Conor Estment (Friends of the Liesbeek), Warren Funston (Eskom), Kelly Fester (Bridgestone South Africa), Prof Michael Kidd (WESSA chairman)

Presented since 1974, the awards enables WESSA to recognise and honour those who have made a significant contribution to the environmental conservation or environmental education sector in South Africa, in a sustainable manner.

New Youth category

In keeping with the organisation’s ongoing investment in developing an empowered and enthused youth sector, a new Youth category was included in the 2017 WESSA Awards and the initial recipient was Ayanda Lipheyane from Pietermaritzburg. The WESSA Gold Medal was awarded to Dr Graham Avery from Cape Town, while the 2017 Group Award was presented to Friends of the Liesbeek in Cape Town. Individual Awards for 2017 were awarded to Jacques Tredoux from Kimberley and Sandy Camminga (in absentia) from Richards Bay. The three winners of the 2017 WESSA Corporate Award were Ford Wildlife Foundation, Eskom and Bridgestone South Africa.

The WESSA AGM was held in parallel with Sharing and Caring for Water 2017, which is an important international water conference that was co-hosted this year by WESSA, the Global Participatory Water Management Network (GPWMN – an international water management network supported by the United Nations and UNESCO) and eThekwini Municipality. The programme for the WESSA AGM was structured around the conference theme and guest speakers included Emeritus Professor Rob O’Donoghue, former CEO of iSimagaliso Andrew Zaloumis, Jean Senogles from WESSA Highway Branch and Westville Conservancy, Crispin Hemson from Friends of Pigeon Valley and Ayanda Lipheyane from water engineering company GroundTruth.