The year ended with a bang for the Durban branch. With a new format and a change of venue for the annual function, the committee were a bit anxious but as it turned out – for no reason at all. The venue did us proud with a buffet spread fit for a king, the room was nicely appointed and even the extra two tables we squeezed in because we were oversubscribed didn’t affect the ambiance and conviviality and there was an overall buzz of excitement and anticipation.
Vinesh Maharaj presenting Kallie with the SAIMC certificate.
MC Dean Trattles kept things slick and running smoothly, introducing Howard Lister as the Durban branch chairman. Howard thanked the committee for their work in making the year a success but also acknowledged the industry as a whole for the increased interest in the technology evenings and the great turnout at the dinner. He commended Hennie Prinsloo and John Owen-Ellis for having gone beyond the call of duty and called them up to receive a gift in appreciation of their hard work. Kallie Bodenstein from Yokogawa received the ‘Best Speaker Award’ for Durban branch technology evenings during the period 2013/2014 with his presentation entitled: ‘DCSs versus PLCs’. Each speaker is evaluated by the audience at each technology evening and the scores tallied at the end of the year. As we saw by the audience reaction and participation, Kallie’s talk was really well received and he was an engaging and enthusiastic presenter.
Conrad Koch (right) with Chester Missing.
Dean then introduced Vinesh Maharaj, President of the SAIMC who inspired and delighted the audience with his enthusiasm and a report of what had been achieved by the SAIMC as a whole during the past year and the plans for the future. Next up was the entertainment for the evening and Conrad Koch and Chester Missing certainly didn’t disappoint us with their unique combination of razor sharp comedy and satire.
Everybody loved the way Conrad focused on a few people in the audience and the fact that he took the time to understand what the audience did, along with the many references to engineers and automation which made it that much more personal. Of course the piece de resistance was the ‘Boy Band’ featuring Howard Lister and Vinesh Maharaj – Conrad providing the voices and the stars providing the moves.
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The Durban branch of the SAIMC was pleased to welcome Vusi Sithole, managing member of Hybrid Control Corporation in Richards Bay, who presented\on the very pertinent topic of ‘Infrastructure monitoring and control for water loss management’.
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We say it every year, and we’ll say it again: May in Durban is hard to beat; but 9 May, when the Durban Golf Day teed off at Kloof Country Club, was something else. With sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 20s, it was a fantastic day, full of fun and great energy.
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Horst Weinert, head of Didactic at Festo Southern/Eastern Africa, will be sharing some of Festo’s Didactic experiences of working across industry and education. He will cover training for productivity and employability in the public and private sectors, discussing especially the potential for inter-company training centres.
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The local Johannesburg Branch of the SAIMC recently hosted a Technology Evening at Bryanston Sports Club on 9 April 2025.
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The April technology meeting for the Durban branch of the SAIMC was kindly sponsored by ProRisk, a subsidiary company of the Proconics Group of Companies. Process safety engineer, Guillaume de Swardt gave a fascinating presentation on the power of operational risk control by utilising CFD software.
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The SAIMC User Advisory Council started 2025 with its first event in the ‘Knowlege Sharing 4 Industry’ event series on the 19th of March.
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In proud partnership with Innomotics, SAIMC will be hosting the first Knowledge Sharing 4 Industry event for 2025.
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As users recognise the benefits of a digital transformation strategy for their industrial plants and systems and start to adopt it, they soon face the challenge of getting operational technology data securely and reliably to a cloud service provider of their choice.
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