Dr Abimbola Olowa
Dr Abimbola Olowa is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and Interim Director of the Centre for Environmental Justice in Africa, a transdisciplinary research centre housed at the University. She coordinates and teaches Environmental Law at LLB and LLM levels. Her research focuses on environmental justice, governance and adjudication, and on Indigenous environmental rights. Before joining academia, Dr Olowa spent more than two decades in South Africa's public sector, most recently as Chief Director for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement in the Gauteng Department of Environment. She holds a Master of Laws (LLM) with distinction from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a Doctor of Laws (LLD) from the University of Pretoria.
Kamo Mothibedi
Kamo Mothibedi is the Principal Investment Officer in the DBSA's Municipal and Waterboards Finance unit. Amongst other broader municipal financing responsibilities, Kamo is responsible for driving municipal Independent Power Producer Programmes and Metro Trading Services Reforms. Kamo is a Chartered Accountant and a seasoned finance professional with more than 15 years' experience in corporate finance, private equity and infrastructure finance.
Kgatedi Kobe
Kgatedi Kobe is the Chief Director for Infrastructure Performance Management Oversight at the Gauteng Provincial Treasury, where his work spans public-private partnerships, provincial and municipal infrastructure, and provincial borrowing. During his time at National Treasury, he provided financial appraisals and regulatory oversight on several major PPPs, including Tshwane House, the Department of Basic Education head office accommodation project and the initial Independent Power Producer programme. He currently provides appraisal and regulatory support for the Gautrain post-2026 arrangements and the City of Johannesburg's Alternative Waste Technology PPP project. He has also led roadshows helping provincial departments explore alternative service delivery and alternative funding options to supplement their infrastructure budgets. In addition, he assesses provincial infrastructure planning cycles to ensure projects are ready for inclusion in the Estimates of Capital Expenditure, in line with the Infrastructure Instruction Notes that took effect on 1 August 2025. At municipal level, he supports municipalities and their entities in strengthening business cases to access alternative funding. He also advises the province on borrowing matters in line with the Provincial Borrowing Powers Act.
Leon Grobbelaar
Leon Grobbelaar is the Managing Director of Raalebborg Environmental (Pty) Ltd and a Past President of the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa. With more than 30 years of experience in the waste industry, he has managed waste facilities across Southern Africa and served as a Main Board Director of a leading multinational waste management company. Leon has helped develop new waste management infrastructure, including public-private partnerships for municipal landfill facilities, and led the licensing of South Africa's first direct combustion municipal solid waste plant. His practical experience and background in soil conservation shape his approach to responsible landfill operations, rehabilitation and long-term sustainability.
Lerato Makube
Lerato Makube is the Managing Director of Eco Care, a waste management and resource recovery company that has grown from its early involvement in community based recycling and buy-back centre activities into a business operating across municipal waste collection, materials recovery, recycling and circular economy initiatives. She has led Eco Care's development of its materials recovery operations in Ga-Rankuwa and its work with municipalities, communities, waste pickers, manufacturers and industry partners. Her work has also included exploring international waste management technologies and partnerships, including waste to resource and organic waste solutions, with a particular interest in how the South African industry can move further along the value chain. Lerato's experience spans more than a decade in the waste sector and is grounded in the practical realities of building and scaling an emerging waste enterprise.
Loyiso Mkwana
Loyiso Mkwana is a senior South African government official currently serving as the Chief Director for Sustainable Use of Environment at the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD). Loyiso has a long tenure within the Gauteng Provincial Government and has held various prominent administrative leadership roles, including Chief Director and Acting Deputy Director-General (DDG), in which capacity Loyiso has represented GDARD at numerous environmental symposiums, public cleanup projects and media interviews across Gauteng. Loyiso also previously served as Chairperson of the Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC) for provincial government tenders.
Makgabo van Niekerk
Makgabo van Niekerk is the Executive Director of PRO Alliance, representing paper and packaging Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) in South Africa. She is a Corporate and Public Affairs Executive with more than 20 years' experience across strategic communications, public affairs, government and policy engagement, stakeholder relations and reputation management. With more than 17 years in the waste management sector, Makgabo has led high-impact regulatory, stakeholder and reputation strategies, including a mobilisation campaign involving more than 33,000 stakeholders. Her expertise spans Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), ESG, government relations, corporate reputation and socio-economic development. A strategic and collaborative leader, she works across business, government and society to build partnerships, navigate complex environments and advance sustainable outcomes. Makgabo holds Honours and Master's degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health from the University of Pretoria, and has completed executive education programmes at GIBS.
Marushka Charnley
Marushka Charnley is the Managing Director of Phambili Services, an integrated waste management company operating across South Africa. With over a decade of experience at Phambili, she has spearheaded the development of its Material Recovery Facility and Separation at Source programme, helping to expand the company's recycling footprint. Marushka is a hands-on, people-centred leader committed to building a responsible business that creates opportunities for its employees and the communities it serves.
Mzamo Mjoli
Mzamo Mjoli is a waste-to-energy professional based in Gauteng. He represents Kanadevia Inova AG in Africa, a leading Swiss-Japanese clean technology company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, with more than 92 years of experience and more than 1,600 successful references around the world.
Dr Pali Lehohla
Dr Pali Lehohla is the former Statistician-General of South Africa, a position he held from 2000 to 2017. He is the founder of the Pan African Institute of Evidence and of the Lehohla Ledger, which the Institute hosts. The Lehohla Ledger is a foundational diagnostic framework of 2,752 instruments designed to evaluate multi-decadal census mesh data, spatial autocorrelation and policy execution, and serves as a benchmark for spatial economics and official statistics. He is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Professor Extraordinaire at UNISA, and a Research Associate at the University of Oxford, where he is also a Consultant at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). Internationally, he is a former Chair of the United Nations Statistical Commission, was the founding Chair of the Statistical Commission for Africa (StatCom-Africa), and chaired the Africa Symposium on Statistical Development (ASSD). He served as Vice President of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) and was one of the 25 members of the panel on the Data Revolution appointed by the UN Secretary-General.
Patrick Khomotso Ngoepe
Patrick Khomotso Ngoepe is the Chief Director for Municipal Infrastructure Support and Energy at Gauteng CoGTA. Qualified in Civil Engineering with a National Diploma, he spent several years in the private sector and local government before joining the Gauteng Government in 2012. He leads a multi-disciplinary team implementing the Gauteng Energy Response Plan since 2023, giving effect to the 2016 Gauteng Energy Security Strategy and the GCR Water Security Response Plan. His current projects include the Provincial Waste to Energy initiatives for municipalities, water-energy nexus challenges, and advocacy for the equitable allocation of Municipal Infrastructure Grants to the respective infrastructure categories.
Rosina Lesoetsa
Rosina Lesoetsa has more than 23 years of experience in local government, including 18 years in waste management, where she has held leadership roles and fulfilled the responsibilities of a Waste Management Officer. She served as Head: Policy and Strategy at the City of Cape Town for nine years and is currently Branch Manager: Waste Minimisation and Circular Resource Economy. Her experience spans policy, strategy and waste operations, and she is committed to advancing sustainable waste practices and improving municipal service delivery.
Ruan Barnard
Ruan Barnard is a qualified Chemical Engineer holding a BEng degree in Chemical Engineering, with more than 10 years of experience in water treatment processes, engineering design and project implementation. Throughout his career, he has been involved in a wide range of water and wastewater treatment projects, delivering innovative and practical process solutions across industrial and environmental applications. He currently serves as a Senior Process Engineer at Interwaste's Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) division, where he has spent the past two years leading process optimisation initiatives, supporting project development and providing technical expertise in advanced water and wastewater treatment systems. His experience combines strong engineering fundamentals with extensive practical knowledge in treatment plant operations, process design and sustainable resource management.
Sipho Dube
Sipho Dube grew up in one of the enterprising families of the township of Mabopane. In 1985 he left South Africa to study in the United States, completing a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, majoring in Marketing and Logistics, as an honours student at Stillman College in Alabama. After returning to South Africa in 1990, he worked in the family business, and in 1995 he won a waste collection contract for retail centres in Mabopane. That same year he enrolled at Damelin Business College for a diploma in Project Management. In 1997 he co-founded Enviro-Fill with Leon Grobbelaar, and it grew into one of South Africa's leading waste management companies. In 2007 Enviro-Fill was acquired by Interwaste, which was then listing on the AltX. Sipho left the group in 2009 to run Landfill Consult, a waste consulting company he founded. Sipho is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa. As a consultant, he contributed to the National Waste Management Strategy Implementation Plan (2004) and to a range of Integrated Waste Management Plans (IWMPs) for local and district municipalities and provinces, including the Gauteng Waste Minimisation Plan. For decades he has followed global trends in resolving waste challenges.
Prof Suzan Oelofse
Prof Suzan Oelofse obtained her PhD in 1994 and worked in government for 10 years before joining the CSIR in 2006 as a waste management expert. She is a Principal Researcher in the CSIR's Sustainability, Circular Economy and Waste Research Group and an Extraordinary Professor in the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management at North-West University. She is also a registered Professional Natural Scientist in Environmental Science with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (Reg. no. 400227/06), and served as elected President of the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa from 2013 to 2016. Her expertise includes the institutional and legal framework for waste management in South Africa, waste information and data, reducing the environmental impacts of waste, the circular economy, and sustainable consumption and production. Her research has been published in scientific journals, and she is a regular invited speaker at scientific meetings and conferences.
Thabang Mokoena
Thabang Mokoena is an environmental management professional with extensive experience in environmental compliance, governance and enforcement within local and provincial government. He currently serves as Unit Head: Impact Management and Compliance Monitoring at the City of Johannesburg, where he leads compliance, enforcement and ESG-related initiatives, including the implementation of the City's Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS). He is the designated Grade 1 Environmental Management Inspector for the city. He holds a master's degree in Environmental Management (Waste Management), a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Risk Management, and is a registered Professional Natural Scientist with SACNASP. Thabang has also held roles at the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE), the Gauteng Department of Environment (GDEnv), formerly known as GDARDE, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and the national Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), with a strong focus on environmental legislation, risk management and sustainable urban governance.
Dr Thea Schoeman
Thea Schoeman holds a PhD in Environmental Management from the University of Johannesburg (UJ), with a specialisation in waste minimisation. Her research primarily examines the role of the informal sector in waste management and the determinants of recycling behaviour. Over time, her work has expanded to include electronic waste (e-waste), with studies addressing household e-waste generation, recycling practices, the contributions of waste pickers to e-waste management, and the training of waste pickers in repair skills. More recently, her research has focused on the recycling of lithium-ion batteries, reflecting the growing significance of sustainable solutions for emerging waste streams. She has supervised numerous postgraduate students in the field of waste management and has published extensively on these topics.
Thys Tekela
Thys Tekela is Manager: Enterprise Development at Absa Business Banking. He is an experienced banker and Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) practitioner with extensive experience in the financial services sector, and holds a Postgraduate qualification in banking. The numerous roles he has held in the bank have contributed to his strong business, leadership and strategic abilities. Thys has successfully designed, implemented and managed supplier development programmes with blue-chip corporates in the financial services, public, mining and agricultural sectors, among others. These programmes allow corporates to transform their supply chains, creating opportunities for SMEs. He is passionate about creating opportunities for SMEs and about their role as agents of transformation in society and the economy.
Tadiwanashe (Tiwa) Dune
Tiwa Dune (M.Sc., PhD Candidate, Pr.Sci.Nat) is a Senior Environmental Scientist and Project Manager at the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA), with a demonstrated history of leading environmental and waste projects. Her experience includes the development of integrated waste management plans, landfill site auditing, regional landfill feasibility and drop-off centre studies, industrial symbiosis and waste management compliance. At NCPC-SA she focuses on waste assessments, feasibility studies, company and sector-level interventions, informing waste policy, and waste-to-product, circular economy and landfill diversion projects for the industrial symbiosis programme. Her environmental experience also spans environmental impact assessments, water and air quality management and licensing, health and safety reporting, environmental training and sustainable resource management. She is a registered Professional Environmental Scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (Pr.Sci.Nat, SACNASP) and holds a Master of Environmental Science from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). She is currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental Health, focusing on Industrial Symbiosis and Integrated Waste Management Plans in South Africa.
Tlou Sebola
Tlou Sebola is a Collections & Training Manager for recycling projects at Petco, a Producer Responsibility Organisation facilitating the collection and recycling of PET plastic and liquid board packaging on behalf of its members. Tlou is an accomplished environmental professional with more than nine years of experience at Petco, where she has played a pivotal role in advancing sustainable waste management practices. She leads key strategic areas including enterprise and supplier development, skills development, waste picker integration and municipal collaboration. Tlou carries out these responsibilities by supporting waste collectors and entrepreneurs through recycling workshops, accredited business training, and equipment and infrastructure support. Her work empowers individuals and SMMEs and strengthens the broader recycling value chain.
Waldo Jansen van Rensburg
Waldo Jansen van Rensburg is an environmental consultant with ten years of experience in the South African waste management industry. He began his career at Compass Medical Waste Services, where he went on to serve as Innovations Manager, and later worked as Business Unit Manager at Averda South Africa. He is currently a shareholder in Tech4Green, a medical waste treatment operation in Pretoria. Over the years his work has spanned healthcare risk, hazardous and general waste, including collection and transport, treatment and incineration, large landfill and contaminated soil projects, and recycling and landfill diversion initiatives. His focus is on practical, compliant solutions that protect people and the environment and strengthen service delivery. Waldo also serves as a Committee Member and Treasurer of the Central Branch of the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa (IWMSA).
Municipal Delegates
Johann Mettler
City Manager, City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality
Johann Mettler has served as City Manager of the City of Tshwane since 1 September 2022. He holds an LLM from Lund University in Sweden, as well as an LLB and BProc from the University of the Western Cape. His local-government career dates back to 1995 and includes work as a practising attorney, researcher and senior manager at SALGA, consultant, municipal administrator and city manager. His experience spans municipal governance, intergovernmental relations, legislative drafting, turnaround programmes, strategic policy implementation, integrated development planning and performance management.
Phumudzo Magodi
Municipal Manager, Midvaal Local Municipality
Phumudzo Magodi was appointed Municipal Manager of Midvaal Local Municipality with effect from 1 April 2025. He has experience across both the public and private sectors and previously held senior leadership roles in several municipalities, including serving as Midvaal's Head of Engineering and Technical Services. His work has included strategic development and implementation of municipal policies, the Integrated Development Plan and performance-management frameworks. He holds a Master of Engineering, an MBA and a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering, and has completed the Municipal Finance Management Programme at NQF Level 6.
Dumisani Donald Mabuza
Municipal Manager, Merafong City Local Municipality
Dumisani Donald Mabuza is the Municipal Manager of Merafong City Local Municipality and head of the municipal administration. In this role, the Municipal Manager serves as the municipality's senior administrative and accounting authority, responsible for supporting implementation of council-approved strategies, governance requirements and service-delivery priorities.
April Ntuli
Municipal Manager, Emfuleni Local Municipality
April Ntuli is the Municipal Manager of Emfuleni Local Municipality. As Municipal Manager, he leads the municipality's administration and its executive management structures, with oversight of governance, organisational performance and implementation of municipal service-delivery priorities.
Thabo Collin Ndlovu
Municipal Manager, Rand West City Local Municipality
Thabo Collin Ndlovu is the Municipal Manager of Rand West City Local Municipality and the municipality's accounting and administrative head. He holds a Master of Development and Management, a Management Development Programme, a Certificate Programme in Municipal Development, a Bachelor of Technology in Analytical Chemistry and a National Diploma in Analytical Chemistry. His municipal responsibilities include strategic management, implementation of the IDP, sustainable service delivery, municipal finance accountability and implementation of approved policies.
S'busiso Goodhope Dhlamini
Municipal Manager, Lesedi Local Municipality
S'busiso Goodhope Dhlamini is the Municipal Manager and Information Officer of Lesedi Local Municipality. In his role, he is responsible for leading Lesedi's administration and supporting implementation of municipal priorities and service-delivery programmes.
