The Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) is a statutory body established under the Engineering Profession Act (EPA) 46 of 2000. Its primary mandate is to regulate the engineering profession in terms of this Act. ECSA’s core functions include the accreditation of engineering programmes, the registration of individuals as candidates and professionals in specified categories and the regulation of the practice of registered persons. As such, ECSA is the only body in South Africa that is authorised to register engineering professionals and to confer recognised engineering titles, such as Pr Eng, Pr Tech Eng, Pr Techni Eng and Pr Cert Eng, to individuals who meet the required professional registration criteria.

Unisa’s Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering proudly congratulates Dr Mandla Mahlobo, Dr Nothando Shiba and Dr Sarah Motshekga on achieving registration with ECSA as professional engineering technologists (Pr Tech Eng). All three colleagues are senior lecturers who are dedicated to serving the department in respect of teaching, learning and research. The department is incredibly proud of their achievements.

Dr Mahlobo specialises in materials science and electrochemistry, with a focus on the corrosion of metals in soil environments, cathodic protection and electrochemical studies in biomedical implants. His primary research encompasses extensive corrosion studies of materials exposed to diverse environments for a range of applications. This includes the cathodic protection of steel pipelines buried in unsaturated soils, CO2 transportation pipelines used in carbon capture and storage, and composite alloys for biomedical implants.

Dr Shiba specialises in Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, CO2 hydrogenation, the photocatalytic conversion of CO2 and wastewater treatment. She is an experienced researcher providing project and production management support in leading research areas like Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. She has a proven track record and demonstrates an intuitive understanding of laboratory information management systems (LIMS), plant operations, research and development in water treatment, biogas processing, renewable fuel production and the operation and maintenance of related equipment.

Dr Motshekga specialises in water and wastewater treatment, nanotechnology (synthesis, characterisation and application), biogas production, acid mine drainage and polymer composites. Her experience spans diverse areas such as municipal water reclamation, biogas production, material science research and development, nanocomposites and wastewater treatment. She is passionate about sharing best practices in research and supervises postgraduate students in the area of wastewater treatment.