At a high profile event on 19 October 2018, the Heritage Association of South Africa (HASA) honoured individuals from across the country who have made outstanding contributions to heritage. Below is a list of all the winners:

Tony Ferrar - Gold Medal

Tony Ferrar is an ecologist and wildlife management specialist who has spent his working life in Southern Africa. He has degrees in Agriculture and Tropical Resource Ecology. He has broad experience in, planning and managing protected areas, eco-tourism development, natural resource management, policy development and visitor interpretative services. He also managed ecological research programmes for CSIR.

In the last 20 years, Mr. Ferrar has led, as CEO, a major conservation NGO (Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa) and consulted throughout the SADC region in park planning and tourism advisory roles. He has extensive field experience in facilitating resource management within and outside protected areas involving representatives of government, commercial and community institutions in several Southern African countries.

In recent years, from 2006, he has been centrally involved in efforts to have the natural features of the Barberton Mountain Land fully documented for UNESCO inscription as a geological World Heritage Site. Tentative site listing was achieved in 2008 and earlier this year full world heritage site status was awarded by UNESCO. He has also been involved in several tourism development projects in the region, including the Barberton Makhonjwa Geotrail, completed in 2013. Having co-authored the Geotrail's guidebook, Tony now conducts groups up the 40km roadside Geotrail, elaborating on its informative and dramatically graphic colour panels located at 12 landscaped stops along the 40km route through the mountains to Swaziland.

For his prominent role in establishing the Makhonjwa Geotrail, in achieving the recognition of Barberton Makhonjwa Mountain as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and for his ongoing outstanding efforts to conserve the area, Tony Ferrar is awarded the Simon van der Stel Gold Medal.

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Tony Ferrar (Beautiful News)

Rudie Rousseau - Certificate of Merit

Since 2010, Rudie Rousseau has been tirelessly traveling across South Africa with his wife documenting and maintaining Anglo-Boer South African War Refugee Camp sites. He makes reference DVDs available for purchase with photos and information about these camps to a national and international audience, the proceeds of which he uses to finance further maintenance efforts.

His work is a great accompaniment to Dr Elizabeth van Heyningen's British Concentration Camp Database and helps South Africans reconnect with, and reflect on their past. Rudie has encountered some setbacks and frustrations due to his fervent patriotism, and is infinitely and personally acquainted with the grim realities faced by people in these camps.
For his contributions to the cause of heritage conservation on a national level, he is awarded the Simon van der Stel Certificate of Merit.

Kathy Munro - Certificate of Merit

Kathy Munro is Honorary Associate Professor at the Wits School of Architecture and Planning. Since retiring from full time employment at Wits, Kathy has dedicated a significant portion of her life to the heritage sector. She has established a name as one of the most powerful and prolific writers in the heritage field. She is a regular contributor to The Heritage Portal, ArchSA, WitsReview and other publications. Her articles and book reviews are widely read and highly respected. She is also a much sought after speaker and travels around the country inspiring heritage audiences.

Kathy has used her exceptional organizational skills to raise tens of thousands of rand for the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation through the sale of limited edition prints, book sales and other exciting ventures. In a resource scarce sector these funds make a massive impact. Amongst all this she finds time to serve on several heritage committees and to reply in great depth to dozens of requests for advice and assistance. Kathy has recently embarked on a project researching historic maps of Johannesburg. She is also working on a project to document the histories of some of the city’s suburbs.

The Certificate of Merit is awarded to Kathy in recognition of exceptional services to the cause of heritage conservation in South Africa.

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Kathy Munro with her books (Lucille Davie)

Marjorie Nuns - Certificate of Merit

Rimer’s Creek is the site of the 1884 discovery of reef gold by the Barber brothers. The area was kept as public open space by successive municipalities and was earmarked for tourism use in the Municipality’s Integrated Development Plan and Spatial Development Framework, which are supposed to be binding on the Municipality. However, since 2007 Rimer’s Creek has been threatened by insensitive development after the local municipality decided to alienate and rezone the lower part of Rimer’s Creek.

In 2007 Marjorie Nuns initiated a petition protesting this action which was signed by close on 500 local people, an unusual amount of public participation for Barberton. Due to Marjorie’s efforts developers of the site were forced to carry out Environmental- and Heritage impact assessments.

Over the past 11 years, Marjorie with the support from her husband Andy Nuns and Tony Ferrar, has spent a significant amount of time and money fighting for the protection of Rimer's Creek. She has not only shown incredible determination, but her outstanding knowledge of environmental legislation, efficient organisation of the documentation and an iron will to leave no stone unturned in an effort to get justice for this cause, is an inspiration to all facing similar challenges.

As a result of her efforts, Rimer’s Creek was identified in 2016 by the Heritage Monitoring Project as one of South Africa’s most endangered heritage sites.

Marjorie is a Friend of the Barberton Museum and is also the inspiration and organising force behind showcasing Barberton’s heritage at the 2018 HASA symposium.

Marjorie is an inspiration to those fighting battles for the cause of conservation and is recognised by the award of The Simon van der Stel Certificate of Merit.