It is indeed an honour and a privilege for me to take up the reigns of the Institute of Waste Management Southern Africa (IWMSA) presidency. I would like to thank all the past presidents, the council, head office and members of the IWMSA for their vote of confidence in electing me as the new IWMSA president. My congratulations, in turn, go to Dr Suzan Oelofse for her appointment as vice-president. The synergy and rapport that we have built up over the past few years will definitely be beneficial to the crucial role we have to play in setting the strategic direction for the IWMSA for my two-year term of office.

My vision is to see the IWMSA becoming increasingly instrumental in facilitating dialogue as well as action amongst key stakeholders in the industry; to encourage others with the same vision and concerns to work together for the greater good of effective and sustainable waste management. I feel that as an organisation, we all need to be proactive in ensuring that empowerment seminars, workshops and training interventions are brought right down to grass roots level in order for individuals to better understand where they fit into the value chain– to really grasp the fact that waste is a resource and that a sustainable living can be made by nurturing these resources appropriately.

Great strides have been made in the past few years in ensuring that we offer quality waste management education and training to our members and the waste industry. Our education prospectus currently comprises both accredited as well as non-accredited training to cater for the diverse needs of our waste industry. Our collaborative efforts with regulatory authorities have borne much fruit, and this has culminated in the first ever combined DEA Waste Khoro and Wastecon 2012.

My thanks to the outgoing president Stan Jewaskiewitz and the IWMSA council for the excellent strides made in this regard. During my term, continued focus will be placed on further strengthening the alliances that have been forged with all waste regulatory authorities, whether national, provincial or local. These alliances with our regulatory authorities will ensure that the norms and standards established in the waste management industry will be of the highest standard.

As an organisation we are on the brink of exciting changes. The IWMSA appointed the Centre for Environmental Management of the North-West University to conduct research on the feasibility and possible modalities available to the IWMSA to establish quality assurance arrangements for our organisation members. The benefits of implementing a quality assurance system for our members will include:

• ensuring the reputability of our IWMSA organisation membership
• establishing appropriate linkages between and within the waste sector and government
• ensuring self-regulation within an appropriate legal framework.

Member input into this crucial process will be sought during our various branch workshops as well as during the workshops to be held during Wastecon 2012.Continued focus will be placed on ensuring that as an organisation we remain relevant and service the needs of our members. The excellent work that has been achieved by the public relations and marketing portfolio of the IWMSA will be used as the building blocks to further ensure that the IWMSA is the organisation of choice of all stakeholders in the waste management industry. Your continued support and inputs in ensuring that the vision of the IWMSA becomes a reality is therefore earnestly requested.

Yours in waste management
Deidre Nxumalo-Freeman