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The History of the Ergonomics Society of South Africa (ESSA)
March 1983
Preliminary meetings held at Human
Resources Research Laboratory Chamber of Mines, Johannesburg
14th March, 1983 to discuss the path forward for Ergonomics in
South Africa.
Attendees included: Tony
Golding, Brian Hill, A J Kielblock, Retief Kok and Glyn
Pickering. Very little happened during the ensuing year and this
and other interested groups appeared to do their own
thing.
February 1984
First principal meeting setting up
a study group to address the feasibility of an Ergonomics
Society in South Africa was held at the Design Institute,
SABS, Pretoria 24th February, 1984.
More than 30 participants gathered
to nominate a Study Group (volunteers and press ganged
members) comprising a broad spectrum of expertise from
educational institutions, government bodies and
industry.
The Study Group: Bob Bridger,
Phil Fraser, Tony Golding, Brian Hill, George Jaros, Johnny
Johnston, Ennio Macagnano, Geoff Meese, Pieter Nel, Jan van
Tonder and Don Wright. Mike Cooke joined later to prepare a
viable Constitution. Jack Charteris and Pat Scott
joined.
Brian Hill of the Design Institute
volunteered to act as Secretariat.
February 1985
The Ergonomics Society of Southern
Africa was formally inaugurated 5th and 6th February, 1985 at
the First Conference "Ergonomics '85", was held in the CSIR
Conference Centre, Pretoria. The keynote speaker was Stuart
Kirk, and Mike Cooke presented the inaugural speech. More than
40 papers were presented to over 100 delegates. An encouraging
official start.
During the conference a General
Meeting was held and a First Council was ratified. Office
Bearers and Committee Members were elected.
Chairman: Tony
Golding
Vice Chairman: Jan van
Tonder
Secretary: Brian Hill
Treasurer:
Geoff Meese
Committee: Bob Bridger/George Jaros
(alternate)
Jack Charteris
James
Fisher
Graham Kinsey
Ennio
Macagnano
Pieter Nel
Reinette Nel/Mike de
Ruig (alternate)
O A Tenikalp
Secretariat: Design Institute,
SABS
APRIL
1986
A second conference "esa '86" was
held 14 and 15 April 1986 at Postgraduate Medical Centre,
University of Cape Town.
Delegates numbered about 30 and
just under 40 papers were presented.
The AGM saw very little change in
the Council although OA Tenikalp departed and more importantly
Daan Page, Pat Scott and Don Wright were elected as Committee
Members.
MAY 1987
A third conference "ergonomics SA
'87" was held 12th and 13th May 1987, once again back at the
CSIR Conference Centre, Pretoria. The theme unlike the
previous very broad spectrum of events focused more specially
on Consumer Ergonomics with the presentation by Paul Moss,
Hoover plc, as Keynote Speaker. Over 30 papers were presented
to about 40 delegates.
The Council remained the same,
however with severe "winds of change" occurring at the Design
Institute, the Secretariat changed to James Fisher's Division
of Industrial Psychology, University of the
Witwatersrand.
DECEMBER 1988
Disappointingly no conference this
time, although a symposium "Aspects of Work Stress" was held
2nd December 1988 under the auspices of James Fisher's
Secretariat. 10 papers were presented to about 30
delegates.
MAY 1989
A fourth conference "ergos '98" was
held 2nd and 3rd May 1989 at Senate House, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where 23 papers were presented.
The number of delegates attending was low. Keynote Speaker: W
B Rouse, Search Technology, Georgia, USA.
1988 - 1989
The Secretary/Treasurer during this
period became an interspersed responsibility between James
Fisher and Brian Hill.
1990 - 1994
Impact of the Society diminished
over this period with many of the original Council Members
having moved away or on for various reasons.
Tony Golding, Brian Hill, Geoff
Parr and Glyn Pickering jointly shared the Secretary and
Treasurer functions and the Secretariat moved to National
Institute for Personnel Research, HSRC,
Johannesburg. Membership reduced dramatically to about
20.
Regular submissions were made to
this body over the period of 10 years, the last in 1994 was
eventually successful with the onset of our new South Africa
and the continuous issue of 'Southern' Africa was changed and
the Ergonomics Society of South Africa (ESSA) was formed and
duly accepted as a Federated Society.
1994 - 1996
The Fifth Conference "esa '94" was
held in Grahamstown where Hal Hendrick then President of the
IEA was the Key Speaker. Attendance was poor and membership
low. Jack Charteris took over as Chairperson, Pat Scott as
secretary and Theo de Koker as the Treasurer. Johan Hendrikse
and Coen Calitz were Council Members.
Pat Scott was the first official SA
representative at the joint IEA/South American Conference in
Rio de Janeiro.
1996 - 1998
Membership was growing, Houshang
Shahnavaz and Pat Scott ran five successful Roving Seminars on
the 'Ergonomic Checkpoints' and the sixth conference "esa '96"
was run in conjunction with Noshcon '96 at the World Trade
Centre in Johannesburg. J Nkurlu the ILO representative in
Zimbabwe was the Keynote Speaker.
The Council Members remained the
same.
1999 - 2001
Membership continued to grow during
this period. Pat Scott (ESSA Chairperson) was elected to
the IEA Executive Council and as IDCC Chairperson. Pat
worked hard on the promotion of Ergonomics in IDCs. She
ably represented ESSA at various events, including the IEA
2000 Congress in San Diego, California.
The 8th ESSA Biennial Meeting held
at Wits in Johannesburg marked a change in Committee members
as Schu Schutte (CSIR Miningtek) took over as Chair.
Scott MacKinnon, the Secretary Treasurer during the 1999-2001
period returned to Canada and was replaced by Jon James
(Rhodes University). The regional structure saw Karen
Jacka and Simeon Davies elected as Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu
Natal representatives. | 
