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Accolades for industry stars

By Kaunda Chama, ITWeb features editor
Johannesburg, 28 Oct 2004

IT Personality 2004

[SidebarPicture]Mthunzi Mdwaba, Torque-IT Executive Chairman, is the CSSA IT Personality of the Year 2004.

Mthunzi Mdwaba has been named IT Personality of the Year 2004 and Ken Jarvis has received the ICT Leadership award.

The awards were presented last night in Sandton, during the CSSA President`s Banquet.

Runners-up included Nkosinathi and Lucky Khumalo, CEO and COO of Mthombo IT Services respectively, Stafford Masie, MD of Novell South Africa, and Nirvesh Sooful, CIO of the City of Cape Town.

ICT Leadership winner

[SidebarPicture]Ken Jarvis, SARS CIO, winner of the ICT Leader Award.

The CSSA IT Personality of the Year awards, presented in conjunction with ITWeb and Meta Group, is now in its 26th year and recognises a person who has successfully built a respected IT business; contributed to the IT profession over a number of years; made a significant technical or academic contribution to the IT industry; and aided the development needs of the community.

Mdwaba, who is Torque-IT executive chairman, received the award in recognition of his passion and leadership in growing the South African IT industry, turning around Torque-IT and for driving ICT skills development. His belief in black empowerment and social responsibility and his role in the ICT empowerment charter working group also contributed to his win.

[VIDEO]"It`s not about what you may have done yourself or what you continue to do yourself, but it`s what you continue to do with other people and via other people in a team effort kind of environment," he noted.

"The charter is not going to be able to deliver if we can`t have a co-ordinated effort towards skilling the nation from the bottom right to the top."

Jarvis, CIO of SARS, received the special lifetime award for his achievements, in particular for transforming SARS`s IT organisation.

The award recognises exceptional leadership qualities over a number of years; sustainable contribution to the development and growth of the South African IT industry; and innovative use of IT to transform businesses, public services, communities and people`s lives.

[VIDEO]Jarvis`s deployment of the SARS single view of the taxpayer project has been recognised worldwide as an example of excellence in transforming public services. He was also honoured for being a mentor to CIOs and CEOs, a business advisor, a government advisor, and yet a modest man who believes he couldn`t have done it without the people around him.

[VIDEO]"It`s been a fascinating two years. I don`t think I`ve ever been so challenged, so excited, so happy in what I`ve done. Of course, it`s not all glory; we know we`ve got a long way to go," he said.

"Last year there was R54 billion worth of debt money owed to SARS and you could break that up into what`s in dispute, what`s older than 30 or 60 days. We implemented a brand new system to try and tackle that and collected an extra R4.3 billion in the last tax year. We were very pleased we had collected that much but there is another R49 billion to go."

[VIDEO]ITWeb and Meta Group introduced the IT Leadership award in 2002, when it was presented to Andile Ngcaba, then director-general of the Department of Communications. In 2003, the winner was Alewyn Burger, director of Direct Banking at Standard Bank.

Special awards

[VIDEO]Last night, the CIO of the decade award went to Philip Tromp, previously MD of Perago, an award he received for re-engineering SA`s banking system and commitment to world-class standards.

Joan Joffe, formerly of Vodacom, received the CSSA and Johnnic lifetime achievement award and was bestowed the status of fellowship to the CSSA.

<B>Past winners</B>

IT Personality
2000: Mark Shuttleworth
2001: Zeth Malele and Gerrie de Klerk
2002: Benjamin Mophatlane
2003: Dali Mpofu
ICT Leadership
2002: Andile Ngcaba, then director-general of the Department of Communications
2003: Alewyn Burger, director of Direct Banking at Standard Bank

Nedbank received an award for its intranet design from the Computer Human Interface in SA special interest group.

Related story:
Award-winner slams 'non-patriots`

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