Greetings from me, Louwressè Specht.
I’m sure some of you would have had the opportunity to see and listen to some of my musings on our Free Webinar Wednesday sessions. If so, I hope you found some of the information useful, and even entertaining. For those that don’t yet know me, well, ek is ‘n meisie van die Vaal (I’m that girl from the Vaal) – straight up, no-nonsense, to the point – and always enthusiastic to help.
It’s coming up to my first anniversary at SEIFSA, and the one thing I can say categorically is that every morning I am inspired by the culture of “wanting to help our members, and the industry overall”, which is on display at SEIFSA every day. The number of times I’ve heard “get them on the phone” or “go and visit them” are just too numerous – and that is the way we do things in my Division, Industrial Relations, and Legal Services, or simply IR&LS.
To have the honour of leading this Division is simply extraordinary as we are at the forefront of change, not only for our members, but for the industry as a whole. This year’s highlight was, of course, the historic wage standstill agreement. However, this SEIFSA Division has had an important legacy, long before I joined, having benefited from people such as Lucio Trentini and Michael Lavender, who are still with SEIFSA to this day.
Today I am pleased that this legacy is carried forward by a team of two admitted attorneys, myself and Ms. Vuyiswa Miya, whom you will hear from in “The Miya Minute”, and then, of course, our stalwart, Michael Lavender. From time to time, I will pull in SEIFSA’s “Jedi Master”, otherwise known as Lucio Trentini, SEIFSA’s Operations Director, and ask him some pointed Industrial Relations questions – to keep him on his toes, of course.
So, welcome to the first edition of The Watch. I do hope you enjoy the content and that it is helpful to you and for the success of your business. My section will be dedicated to keeping you informed of legal happenings.
Over to you, Ms Vuyiswa Miya…