Johannesburg, 03 Oct 2014
The Institute for Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) is the SA country member of IFIP, the International Federation for Information Processing. IFIP is an international body in the field of IT, and was established in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO. Presently, IFIP has 56 countries as members, and through its member countries and working groups, it brings together more than a million experts in the field of IT.
The IITPSA represents South Africa in IFIP. Every country member of IFIP appoints one national representative to the General Assembly of IFIP.
For the last 20 years, the national representative has been Prof Basie von Solms from the University of Johannesburg. He decided to step down this year, and the IITPSA has appointed Prof Rossouw von Solms of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, in Port Elizabeth, as his successor. Prof Rossouw von Solms has been involved in IFIP activities for the last 25 years, mostly as a member, and later as the Vice-Chair of Technical Committee 11, IFIP's Technical Committee in the field of information security.
Both Prof Basie and Prof Rossouw von Solms attended the recent General Assembly meeting of IFIP, which took place in Vienna, Austria in September, where Prof Rossouw von Solms was officially welcomed as the new SA representative. In this position, Prof Rossouw von Solms will co-ordinate all IFIP activities in SA, including those activities of the South African representatives on the 14 technical committees of IFIP as well as organising IFIP-related activities and events in SA.
For the last 15 years, an annual grant for IFIP activities was received from the Department of Science and Technology. This grant has now run out, and the DST will be approached again to renew the grant.
Prof Basie von Solms, the outgoing SA representative, was admitted into IFIP as an Honorary Member at the same meeting in Vienna - only the 10th such Honorary Member allowed into IFIP in its 55 years of existence, which is an extremely well deserved accolade for him. The consequence of being admitted as an Honorary Member is that Prof von Solms will now join the rest of the Honorary Members in an exclusive group of lifelong advisors to IFIP.
The institute congratulates Prof Basie von Solms on his Honorary Membership of IFIP and welcomes Prof Rossouw von Solms into the role of IFIP GA Representative for South Africa and the IITPSA.
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