SAT 30 Years – History

SAT’s first AGM, coinciding with CAPSA 94, took place on 13 October and 18 councillors were elected - Jan Beukes (RIP); Mick Collins (RIP); Trevor Distin; Steve Emery (RIP): Mike Hughes: Bob Kingdon (RIP); Tony Lewis; Tony Mathews; Rama Naidoo; John Onraët; Derick Pinder (RIP); Chris Rust; Duncan Smith; Arthur Taute; Benoit Verhaeghe; Alex Visser; Rob Vos; and Mike Zacharias.

By mid-1995, SAT already had some 395 members.

One of the first things SAT did was to establish a quarterly newsletter to share developments in asphalt technology and industry news, distributed to more than 500 recipients across southern Africa. The first, very enthusiastic, editor was Rob Vos. The publication did not last many years, mainly due to the time-consuming nature of the project.

The 8^th meeting of the Society took place in Harare, hosted by the then active Northern Region chaired by Duncan Smith, and was described as a highlight of the 95/96 year.

Sabita was acknowledged as a major contributor to the Society’s administrative success from its first recorded minutes.

In his report at the AGM on 15 Aug 1996, President Bob Kingdon said membership was in excess of 500 and acknowledged Vice-President John Onraët for his excellent work in recruiting and supervising members.

Emile Horak succeeded Bob Kingdon as President and said at the 5th AGM on 12 August 1998:

“This year was characterised by major changes in the road industry. The most significant change was that of the National Department of Transport which made groundbreaking moves towards the establishment of the South African National Roads Agency."

“Another change is the broadening of the membership of Sabita, our main sponsor, which also took place to keep track with the changing environment.”

SAT’s Northern Region played a significant role in CAPSA 99, held in Victoria Falls. The Northern Region membership was declining, however. Without the passion and motivation of the Zimbabwean founder members, it was ultimately to die off as a SAT region and its remaining members were absorbed by the Central Region.

The late 1990s heralded the start of a bumpy ride for SAT, with questions around its relevance in the industry and the synergy between Sabita and SAT.

Education and training were pressing concerns and in March 2000 the following was officially noted:

“The Asphalt Academy was proposed to industry as a vehicle to address the education, training and technology transfer needs of the asphalt and black-top sector of the construction industry. The intention was to have an overarching Education Foundation representing funding and sponsoring organisations with an Asphalt Academy administered by Sabita, SAT, Road Agencies and Academia.

“Formal support was given by CAPSA and SAT for the establishment of the Academy, whose vision was to provide well-trained and educated participants in the asphalt and bituminous product sector in southern Africa.

“The Asphalt Academy would integrate many of the duplicated activities of Sabita, SAT, and CAPSA.”

Speaking at SAT’s 7th AGM on 23 March 2000, President Emile Horak stated that “1999 for SAT can be described as a year of latent energy. Sometimes it felt like it was ‘all dressed up and nowhere to go!’ The synergy discussions and moves kept SAT literally in limbo in anticipation of the imminent amalgamation of a number of professional bodies and players in the asphalt road industry.

“We have reached the proverbial Rubicon, which must be crossed,” he said.

A report by SAT in 2001 on the future for co-operation between SAT, Sabita, and the Asphalt Academy suggested that clarity was still some way off. “Sabita’s members – all companies – decided to restructure the association and its regions, a move which brought the annual donation to SAT into sharp focus. Sabita, meanwhile, has created an educational body, the Asphalt Academy, to cater for its members’ interests.

“In the past educational management of SAT has been directed and funded through the Sabita grant and the Chair in Asphalt Pavement Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch. The chair will be discontinued from 2001, and the management will not be funded unless Sabita members’ goals are directly achieved. This brings SAT’s ongoing formal educational role into question.

“The financial implications to SAT of this lost sponsorship are significant. The members’ subscriptions barely cover the cost of their collection and monthly cost of outsourced bookkeeping. The office accommodation and support by Sabita staff for any national and regional functions have been donated in the past. From January 2000 this is unfunded or is being supplied on an ex-gratia basis or is coming off SAT reserves.”

In response to this situation, the document recommended downsizing the SAT Council and giving greater authority to the regions, including generating more of their own funding.

The SAT Council was reduced to four councillors (the chairs of the four regions), one of whom would be elected as president. The honorary secretary and treasurer would be co-opted by the Council. Sabita would no longer provide a secretarial service to the Society.

All the existing councillors, having served a three-year period, retired. Rob Brown, the Central Region Chair, was elected President and Council Chairperson. A year later, John Onraët (Southern Region Chair) succeeded Rob Brown on his resignation from the role.

It should be noted that Duncan Mason also stepped in as Honorary Secretary in 2002 and remained in that position until his retirement from the SAT Council in 2024!

“There is a pressing need for SAT to regain its past vibrancy and to recover the widespread support it once enjoyed throughout the blacktop industry,” said new President John Onraët. “During the restructuring of Sabita over the past two years – which included the formation of the Asphalt Academy (AsAc) – SAT lost some of its focus and a good deal of momentum. I see it as my role to demonstrate the distinct and significant benefits associated with membership of SAT, and thereby to reinvigorate the society and restore member enthusiasm.”

Membership of SAT, he said, should be seen by blacktop practitioners as “an investment in oneself”, which pays off handsomely by ensuring the efficient transfer of cutting-edge technology to all members.

“SAT and AsAc will be working very closely together. AsAc will focus on the development, production and presentation of training courses, and SAT will support these initiatives by, amongst other things, supplying AsAc’s customers. This arrangement relieves the ‘sweat equity’ requirement which SAT members had to invest voluntarily to organise courses and seminars in the past. This newfound freedom will allow us to introduce much more flexibility and innovation into SAT activities.”

In 2002 membership fees were forced upwards by SAT’s difficult financial position, and a recruitment drive for new members was launched. The marketing drive continued into 2003, with discussions around the website and newsletter, among others.

It was resolved that the SAT President position would no longer be filled by a regional chair. It was just too much commitment for one person! At a Special General Meeting on 19 May 2003, a SAT Exco was formed to enable Council to focus on general operations matters. The members of the first SAT Exco were John Onraët (President), Duncan Mason (Honorary Secretary), and Elzbieta Sadzic (Honorary Treasurer).

Fast forward to an Extraordinary General Meeting convened in Gordon’s Bay on 11 May 2005 to formulate a strategy to overcome the financial crisis. Operating losses had increased each year from 2002 to 2005 due to low member increases, poor subscription recovery, inadequate income producing activities, and high administration costs.

Action plans included enlisting the regions to help collect member fees, increasing regional events, forming a new Eastern Cape Region, and hosting fundraising social activities such as golf days.

Did SAT still have a place in the industry and was it delivering benefits to members? Two important decisions came out of this discussion - to give paid-up members greater discounts for attending SAT technical seminars, and to align SAT with ECSA’s CPD requirements.

The unhappy truth revealed at the 12th AGM on 22 November 2005 was an operating loss of R121 099 in 2004. Under-recovery of subscription fees had escalated to an all-time high. However, the good performance of the regional seminars and workshops had limited the losses.

The members attending the AGM refused to give up. A solid action plan was agreed to secure SAT’s sustainability. Sabita offered to undertake the SAT accounting function at no cost, and decisions were taken to appoint new auditors and reduce operating costs. The member database would be updated and rationalised, with memberships unpaid for more than a year revoked.

Fees for seminars and regional activities would be increased, with good discounts for paid-up members. Membership fees were raised by 15%. Lucas-Jan Ebels took over what was sure to be a difficult role as Honorary Treasurer.

The following year saw a concerted effort at consolidation and John Onraët withdrew his planned resignation to stay on as president until the end of 2007, an important nod to constancy and stability in steering the ship into calmer waters. SAT also reported excellent relations with Sabita, another factor that was certain to help regain momentum.

The operating loss of R121 099 in 2004 was turned into an operating profit of R36 610 in 2005. This was thanks to a 10% decrease in operating expenses, a 13% decrease in bad debts, increased activity in the regions resulting in more income from seminars, plus a 5% increase in recovery of membership subs.

Future strategies in John Onraët’s President’s Report included continuing the membership drive, focus on service to current members, positioning SAT on the international map, and realignment of SAT’s objectives as a “learned society”.

Activities flagged for the future were alignment with Africa, Europe and the USA, technology exchanges, using CAPSA to enhance the SAT profile, a more interactive website, newsletter, round-robin workshops, re-attracting client bodies, and CPD registration.

Reserves of R476 000 were declared at the 15^th AGM on 11 November 2008, more than enough to support a year’s operations. This would enable SAT to enhance service delivery to members via more workshops, streamline invoicing and membership allocation, more interaction with industry bodies such as SARF and Sabita, and awarding CPD points for events, which was close to fruition. A SAT scholarship for postgraduate studies was also mooted.

SAT and its regions hosted a noteworthy 22 workshops in 2008.

In 2009 the Society voted to sponsor the Road Pavement Forum (RPF). This provided a significant benefit for SAT members, who could now attend all RPF events free of charge.

It was decided to add vice-president and past president roles to Council to ensure continuity and more regular rotation of office bearers.

SAT’s positive role within CAPSA was boosted by the election of John Onraët to represent the Society on the CAPSA 2011 Steering Committee. SAT also undertook to sponsor a “best young author” prize at CAPSA 11 to the value of R10 000. This marked the start of a major effort by SAT to recognise and mentor bright young entrants in the industry. Sustainability of skills in the asphalt sector was key.

A SAT Journal was proposed for the publication of papers from SAT members and including an award and potentially a cash incentive for the best paper. This idea did not gain traction.

The SAT Council decided at the 17^th AGM on 4 May 2010 to give the regions more breathing space due to the enormous pressures of workplace deadlines around the Football World Cup.

Meanwhile membership was back up to 485 and bad debts were at an all-time low.  SAT was eventually registered as a voluntary association with ECSA, enabling members to earn CPD points for membership and for attendance at SAT workshops and seminars. Duncan Mason was nominated to serve as SAT’s representative on the ECSA Council.

In the interests of professionalism John Onraët undertook to develop a SAT Code of Conduct, together with Sabita CEO Saied Solomons.

Lucas Ebels stepped in as President at the end of 2011. Craig Bradley took over as Honorary Treasurer, vacating his position as Eastern Region Chair, and continued to hold the SAT purse strings, very successfully, until 2024.

The administrative and secretarial services provided by Sabita fell into the capable hands of Hazel Brown, who took over in 2011 on Jeanette Nichol’s retirement.

Hazel remains in this essential role today, assisted by Lorraine Wagner and Natalie Covelé-Bam in a close-knit team that has worked together for well over 10 years to communicate with SAT members, maintain records and databases, and ensure that SAT’s finances remain in good standing. Lorraine is responsible for communication with members, including issuing personal invitations to the SAT database for all SAT events. Natalie undertakes the significant task of raising annual membership fees and following up on debt, as well as raising invoices for seminars and webinars.

In addition to heading up Sabita’s administrative role in SAT, Hazel publishes Asphalt News which includes news from both Sabita and SAT, as well as other industry players.  

As part of SAT’s drive to be more inclusive, existing regions undertook to “adopt” outlying regions to facilitate workshops and events in these areas. The Eastern Region was to “adopt” the Eastern Cape, Central Region Mpumalanga, and Southern Region the Southern Cape and perhaps Namibia.

In his first presidential address at the AGM in 2012, Lucas Ebels reiterated SAT’s stable finances, increasing membership, and plans to expand successful round-robin workshops, extend seminars into outlying areas, and kick-start the proposed bursary/scholarship scheme.

The multiple pressures on Council members were addressed in 2013 with the appointment of John Onraët as a part-time Operations Manager from 1 March the following year. This was later expanded to a full-time role. An article in Sabita’s Asphalt News in 2014 read:

“Being a Society for individuals, all the work done for the members by the leadership and regional committees, is done on a voluntary basis, meaning that a high degree of ‘sweat equity’ is invested in SAT.

“It must be acknowledged that members’ companies allow time and resources for these activities, for which all members are eternally grateful. In the modern bituminous industry, time is money, work is in short supply, and skills and expertise are expensive. The leadership of SAT thus thought it practical in these circumstances, to source an individual who could devote time to some of the more important activities in SAT.”

The Asphalt News article also referred to a highly successful seminar on Winter Seals held in Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, and as a launch event in Port Elizabeth.

The seminar commanded an audience of 345 delegates across the country, 60 of these in the new Port Elizabeth region. At the same time a new working group was formed under the leadership of Gary Hughes to arrange future workshops and seminars in this area. By 2015 the Eastern Cape region was up and running, chaired by Tronel Candiotes-Strydom.

In 2015 SAT’s Bursary/Scholarship co-funded the purchase of a Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) for undergraduate and postgraduate research in Stellenbosch University’s Pavement Engineering section.

The Society hosted the International Symposium on Asphalt Pavements and Environment at CAPSA in Sun City, which was attended by 127 delegates from South Africa, the USA, Australia, and eight EU countries.

2017 saw the election of Herman Marais, then Chair of the Central Region, as SAT’s new President. At the AGM Krishna Naidoo, who was the Eastern Region Chair and National Vice- President at the time, suggested that SAT have its own conference that could act as a springboard for entrants to CAPSA.

“There are lots of people who need a platform/push/or just do not make the peer review standards for CAPSA but still have useful stuff to talk about – it spreads the gospel of bitumen and asphalt,” he said, setting out with great enthusiasm to make this a reality.

SAT saw tremendous growth in 2017, with 127 new members gained between January and October. This brought the total membership to an unprecedented 638 individuals.

Out of some 450 delegates at CAPSA at Sun City, 145 members – a healthy 32% - were SAT members. In addition, 20 out of the 23 Steering Committee members were prominent SAT members. All the Speciality Sessions were chaired by SAT members, and many members of SAT were active participants in the Speciality and Parallel Workshops, and the Interactive Audio-Visual sessions. SAT members contributed to more than 50% of papers accepted.

In keeping with its focus on nurturing young talent, SAT also sponsored a prize for the “Best Young Presenter”.

A month later the Society held its first major strategic planning session, an important exercise that would pave the way to improve value-add for SAT’s 684-strong membership. Issues debated included rebranding the Society, how to engage with young, new members, a digital strategy to include a new website, livestreaming of online events, geographic footprint, embracing new technologies, engaging with learning organisations, the new SAT national conference, and a potential best performance awards programme.

While 65 new members had signed up during the year, the Covid 19 pandemic soon started to take its toll. There was R40 000 outstanding in membership fees, and R92 000 in seminar fees. Hazel Brown and her team at Sabita were hard at work trying to resolve this.

Fees remained unchanged throughout the Covid period. A Council Resolution to add a membership category for Students to the Constitution was passed in 2020.

An historic overview of the membership tabled at the 27^th AGM via Zoom on 30 July 2020 revealed that 1 286 members had joined since SAT’s inception. A total of 658 members had cancelled due to emigration (15), death (14), cancellations requested (92), and 537 had been lost due to being untraceable or non-payment of subscriptions.

Of the total membership 628 at the time, 220 had moved to different companies but remained members.

In August 2020, Asphalt News revealed the new SAT brand to the industry after many months of behind-the-scenes work headed by Imraan Amien, Chair of the Southern Region and the Digital Media and Branding Committee.

“The Society for Asphalt Technology (SAT) strives to be recognised as the “go to” for members, the asphalt industry and government. This means attracting new members and a more diverse membership. It means cross pollination that adds more value to all members. It means being relevant and current,” read the article.

“It was this thinking that brought about a decision in 2019 to rebrand the Society for the first time since its inauguration more than 25 years ago in October 1994.

“A SAT strategy workshop in November 2019 concluded that the organisation had to adapt to a changing environment or risk becoming irrelevant. (However, nobody knew just how dramatically things would change!) Decisions included the need for a fresh new brand identity and a dynamic and effective communication and marketing strategy including a new website.

“Thus our new, modern logo and our interactive website that facilitates membership applications and gives SAT members access to significant resources for learning, professional advice and connecting with their peers, was developed.”

The contract to design the new brand and create the website was awarded in early April 2020, barely a week into South Africa’s Covid-19 lockdown, and rolled out remotely.

A social media campaign was launched on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The website received over 12 000 visitors between early August and November 2020. A plug-in was added to allow delegates to register and pay for events.

A poll among the 130 delegates attending a webinar in 2020 showed that about half were SAT members, a third were in the 18 to 35 age group, and 60% were under 45. This was encouraging given the focus on encouraging more young entrants to join SAT. However, only 17% were female.

More than 250 delegates attended the Society’s inaugural SATBinderrr national conference held virtually on 9 September 2021. The talents of younger up-and-coming professionals and women in particular were successfully showcased, with the organising team and all four focus areas led by women in technical roles in the industry. All but two of the 19 speakers were industry professionals younger than 40.

A balance between established wisdom and new ideas was achieved through the involvement of top industry experts who stepped forward to mentor the presenters.

A large number of sponsorships representing the Who’s Who of the industry demonstrated approval for the event across the South African roads sector.

SATBinderrr was successfully repeated as an in-person/online hybrid event in 2022, and the 2024 edition in early September once again highlighted SAT’s status as the most innovative content provider in the South African asphalt industry.

The Council Meeting In October 2022 was chaired by the new President, Krishna Naidoo, and Joanne Muller, Central Region Chair, moved into the role of Vice-President. It was noted that the second SATBinderrr conference in 2022 had generated more than double the target and had redefined conferencing with the hybrid model, masterclasses, and “walking the talk” in terms of changing the demographics of our industry to include more young, talented people.

SAT’s 30th AGM on 25 May 2023 highlighted strategic initiatives that had been put in place including the new SAT Quality Management System, driven by VP Joanne Muller, a new Annual Events Calendar to facilitate planning for members, and an Annual Communications Plan to direct communications to align with short- and long-term strategic initiatives and to measure outcomes.

The four regions had worked well to up their game, running various hybrid events following the Covid hiatus. John Onraët had spearheaded an international asphalt industry joint venture session covering global challenges. Plant and site visits were becoming sought after, as shown in a successful visit to a National Asphalt plant in Pretoria hosted by SAT Central Region.

In 2024 SAT’s 30^th anniversary, was upon us. SAT began its 30^th year as a very different organisation from that of 1994. The Society’s aim to provide learning, networking, mentoring and leadership opportunities for individuals within the industry has not changed. How SAT facilitates those opportunities has grown enormously. There have always been challenges, some traditional and others new.

In 2024 some challenges that require introspection include work pressures making the voluntary activities of the regional and national committees more difficult, bad debts with around 90 non-paying members, and keeping up with fast-changing technologies to remain relevant.

Good financial management has meant that SAT has cash reserves to accommodate growth and meet the needs of a membership that demands more information than ever before. In line with this, additional fee generating activities are being considered, including the proposed Online Academy to contain the vast body of SAT event and conference material, the long-discussed SAT app, and others.

The April 2024 edition of Asphalt News reads as follows: “The Society for Asphalt Technology turns 30 in 2024. While this anniversary might give us pause to reflect, there’s been little time for that in the first half of the year with accelerated change in our industry and a sudden, welcome, surge in workload.

“SAT’s key objectives remain to support its members by sharing best practice and providing learning opportunities, and to facilitate networking across the asphalt sector. Some 13 events were held in 2023 highlighting critical issues around asphalt quality and technology. Even more are planned for 2024, with the focus firmly on ensuring that SAT continues to deliver at the highest level in every aspect of the industry.”

The 2024 AGM saw the tenure of two of SAT’s longest serving Councillors coming to an end. The Society bid a sad farewell to Duncan Mason, a founder member of SAT who held the post of Honorary Secretary for 19 years, and Craig Bradley, SAT’s Honorary Treasurer for 12 years. While both resigned as directors of SAT, they committed to being on call as mentors in future, so their expertise and knowledge is by no means lost to the Society.

Nik Berning (Eastern Cape) and Francois le Roux (Central Region) succeeded Duncan and Craig as Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer respectively

The average age of the new members joining SAT in 2023/2024 is 38. Joanne Muller, SAT VP, commented: “We are happy that new members are joining us at a younger age, and we see a consistent increase in women becoming members and playing leading roles within the Society and the industry.”

In July 2024 SAT’s leadership once again sat down to map out the Society’s strategy for the five years to 2029. The Society exists to keep asphalt at the cutting edge and help practitioners to grow their careers. Its strategic future is based on a strong brand and a good track record built over the past 30 years. The organisation has a passionate and committed leadership team, all the necessary tools to attract members, and the fundamentals in place to grow and prosper.

Areas that need focus in the short-term future include volunteering and distribution of duties, activation of members and geographic spread, participation of African members, and organisational partnerships outside South Africa. AI will be embraced, and new ideas formulated through collaboration. Ways to create new revenue streams to monetise the value of the Society, improve sustainability, and produce more value for members and the industry are on the table. All these efforts will be guided by the recently completed QMS.