At the prestigious Shell Batho Pele Awards function (which took place on Monday, 11 October), Casey Wolters, Nico vd Westhuizen and Ridwaan Hoosen from Pragma Africa, received awards acknowledging their Outstanding Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) Performance in Shell South Africa. These individuals all work for the Pragma Facilities Management Centre which is responsible for Shell’s Southern African Retailers’ facilities and contractor management.
Batho Pele means putting “People First”, and through this award Shell strives to acknowledge, reward and offer incentives to improve HSSE in their operations. The award visibly demonstrates SA leadership’s commitment to HSSE, by recognising outstanding contributions made by staff and contractors to HSSE, as well as significant achievements in the cultivation of a safe, healthy and clean environment.
The Shell Batho Pele Awards is a tough competition and the standards are extremely high. The competition is open to all the divisions of Shell SA, namely Supply and Distribution, Aviation, Business to Business, and Lubricants and Retail. From the 35 nominations, 14 finalists were identified of which the three Pragma engineers made it into the top 10.
Says Wolters: “The Pragma FMC effort has been well recognised and appreciated, which will encourage our guys to do even better in the time ahead, forever striving towards the objective of GOAL ZERO- no harm to people, assets, environment and reputation.”
Wolters and Van der Westhuizen were awarded for their contribution towards growing the Permit to Work (PTW) training for all Shell retail managers, contractors and staff. The training focuses on Shell’s HSSE policy and commitment to Goal Zero as well as the re-affirmation of the 3 Golden Rules and the 12 Life Saving Rules. By retaining and growing the PTW training skills within the FMC, as well as taking on further HSSE training opportunities like Authorised Gas Tester (AGT), Hazard and Effect Management Program (HEMP), Incident Investigation and more, the overall HSSE awareness of contractors working for Shell has significantly improved. These two men have shown excellent commitment as the training is done over and above their normal responsibilities.
Hoosen was acknowledged for demonstrating a keen and positive interest in ensuring his own competency in HSSE, as well as the overseeing and execution of his HSSE responsibilities. He has been forthright in his supervision of contractors and initiated the necessary intervening actions and applied consequence management principles at two significant Potential Incident (PI) cases in his region. Furthermore, he has significantly developed his PTW auditing abilities and has been instrumental in reviewing incorrect Level 3 (L3) contractor PTW documentation and helped them onto the correct path.
“This achievement exhibits the high standard of engagement that Pragma employees commit to when dealing with their clients. Gents, thank you for displaying true Pragma character and congratulations on this deserving achievement.” – Adriaan Scheeres, CEO Pragma Holdings
