32 PERSONALITY PROFILE
to push forward in the general direction set out years ago, and
considering that most of those diligent people are still involved
that will be the easy part. There are one or two areas in which
I would like to make a personal impact – but that we will only
come later, after first learning the ropes of this new challenge. I
am confident that I will be able to contribute to this organisation
and its members.”
He says he is immensely attuned to the enormous evolution that
IOPSA has been involved in over the years: “IOPSA, as a whole,
has taken huge steps to ‘owning’ our industry. There is not a
single part of IOPSA that has been affected by the organisation’s
evolution from being a totally voluntary body to the professional
institution it has become. You can look around you, on a daily
basis: people are talking about plumbing! We have our own social
media platforms, for searches, comments, finding members – the
mind boggles. Our apprentices are being trained by IOPSAaccredited
facilities, using training material put together by
competent people from within our industry.
“IOPSA is the current service provider for audits of PIRB COCs,
including the training of the Compliance Auditors to equip them
with the soft skills to upskill the plumber being audited in the
field. We have well-established regions with individual Excos
tending to members’ interests; we host Plumbers Evenings that
now include invaluable technical content from which they can
acquire CPD (Continuing Professional Development) credits. Our
national office (Edenvale) can deal with any query at any time,
whether it be the Executive Director himself or any other staff
member, on issues as diverse as membership, marketing or
training – you name it, the list goes on.”
Big boots to fill
“Our outgoing President, Lea Smith, had a legacy of big boots to
try and fill. Lea has devoted a large part of the past number of
years setting our industry on a path to improve not only the trade,
but the people involved in it. He has the knack of approaching
things differently and to ‘box them away’ in his own way. By doing
this he and the IOPSA team have been set up to be successful.
It is now up to me, backed by the team (fortunately still including
him) to take up this challenge and continue the path set out for
our industry. Thanks to the hard work of people like him, I do not
need to reinvent the wheel, just to put my shoulder to the wheel
and push forward,” says Myburgh.
On a personal note, he says he tries to squeeze in as much
as possible in his spare time “but in reality that spare time
is limited”.
“When I do get the opportunity, I love golf (not that good at it yet,
but still love it) and enjoy fishing. Otherwise I enjoy quiet time (when
it is available), watching the occasional movie, but ultimately I end
up in my office again – working on a webinar or something with a
deadline,” he says. PA