Page 5 - Landscape SA 102

FEATURE

SALI NATIONAL CHAIRMAN

Dez Pimenta (formerly Whitehead) is the incoming national chairman for the South
African Landscapers Institute (SALI). Based in Johannesburg, he has been involved in the
landscaping industry since 2002.

he industry made its mark on Dez’s life at birth, as he was raised therefore inevitable that this would become a passion of his and
on a lawn farm on Gauteng’s east rand and most of his family he chose to pursue a career in the dynamic world of landscaping.
Twas involved in the industry in some way or another. It was
His career kicked off in 2004 when he was appointed to install
the landscape on a golf course in Mauritius for Bidvest Top Turf.
Upon his return to South Africa in 2005, he resumed work at the
company’s head office in Johannesburg as a landscape contractor
and later as a cost estimator.
During the FIFA 2010 World Cup, Top Turf based him at Cape Town’s
Greenpoint Stadium as a project manager, in charge of the co-
ordination and successful execution of the floral decoration for all
internal and external hospitality areas within the stadium grounds.
This covered an area in excess of 25 000m2. He had to liaise closely
with an international client and the local organising committee. This
was the single biggest project of its kind in South African history.
His career evolved from there and he became the company’s
administration manager, before taking up the position with SALI in
2016 as its operations director. He later returned to Top Turf as the
national key accounts manager.

Dez has served on the SALI Gauteng Executive Committee since
2008, holding various portfolios over the years. This has given him
great insight into the workings of SALI and the opportunity to
interact with other industry associations. His involvement on the
SALI Exco has allowed him to participate in the vision for SALI’s
future. The strategic planning of growing SALI into a noteworthy
and influential association has been a matter very close to his heart.

He has also represented SALI as a task team member on a panel
to develop and implement the registration process of the newly
formulated Professional Landscape Manager (PrLM) with the
South African Council for the Landscape Architectural Profession
(SACLAP). Dez has been registered as a professional landscape
manager for construction and maintenance since August 2020.

His vision is to engage with various role players in the industry, as
well as academia, government ministries and other sector suppliers
to promote SALI as an active and credible Voluntary Association.
With a keen interest in topics that form and shape the future of
the South African green industry, he can find no greater joy than
serving SALI members and other role players. LSA

Dez Pimenta (formerly Whitehead) www.sali.co.za

Landscape SA • Issue 102 2021 3