Manglin Pillay has resigned as CEO of SAICE following the fall-out from his recent article titled Out on a rib.

Pillay came under fire after he published the article which many considered sexist and discouraging to women in the engineering field. The article resulted in wide-spread criticism and calls for Pillay to step down as SAICE’s CEO.

At the beginning of August SAICE announced that it had held an emergency meeting of the Executive Board following the public outcry, stating that it had accepted an apology from Pillay and that processes were being implemented to deal with this matter internally.

Manglin later issued a public apology, stating: “I, Manglin Pillay, unreservedly apologise for antagonising and offending so many people with my article published in the July 2018 edition of Civil Engineering. I humbly commit myself to taking counsel from fellow women engineers, other colleagues in the STEM fields and professionals in diversity training.”

Pillay and the SAICE board have since agreed to part ways following several responses from concerned members. He resigned on Thursday 6 September with immediate effect.

“In the interest of SAICE and the long-term relationship with members, stakeholders and the public in general, Manglin Pillay and the executive board of SAICE have agreed to part ways. Manglin’s tenure as CEO has thus been terminated with immediate effect,” said SAICE president Errol Kerst.