Wessa honours city principal
A CITY principal, Jacques Tredoux, headmaster of St Patrick’s CBC, was recently honoured at the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa)’s 2017 annual awards, receiving an individual award in recognition of his progressive and sustained environmental action through his career in teaching and as headmaster of the school.
The award was presented at the organisation’s 91st AGM, hosted by Wessa’s KwaZulu-Natal Regional Membership at the Protea Hotel Durban Edward.
In the citation, Wessa saluted Tredoux’s “dedicated support for environmental education and the Eco-Schools programme”.
“We commend him for creating awareness and action around environmental sustainability in schools and their surrounding communities. We acknowledge his Water Saving Project and his perseverance in ‘Caring for the Earth’.”
Presented since 1974, the awards enable 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.
According to a statement issued by the organisation, this year also saw the inclusion of a new Youth category, in keeping with the ongoing investment in developing an empowering and enthused youth sector. The initial recipient of the Youth award 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 Tredoux as well as Sandy Camminga 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.