groundWork's director is Bobby Peek, who has received international recognition for his campaigning work in the South Durban basin around toxic industry and waste issues.

He has also been active in campaigning locally and internationally around the Thor Chemicals debacle. He is a recipient of the prestigious Goldman Foundation award and has been invited to present papers in local, government and international fora.

Gill Addison is our deputy director: finance and administration.  She has previously worked for the Group for Environmental Monitoring, the IDRC and EJNF, amongst others.

Siziwe Khanyile is the Air Quality Campaigns Manager for groundwork. She has worked for the KZN Christian Council and Lawyers for Human Rights coordinating training around HIV-AIDs and the law. Siziwe has a Bachelor of Social Science and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Marketing and Supply Chain Management and is currently studying for a Bachelor of Law degree (LLB) part-time.

Rico Euripidou is a qualified environmental epidemiologist and health scientist who has been doing contractual work for groundWork before joining groundWork full-time in January 2006 as our Research Manager.

Rico obtained a BTech Honours Degree in Waste Management and Epidemiology before moving to the UK where he read for an MSc at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and an MSc in Contaminated Land Management at Nottingham University. He has worked for the Chemical Incident Response Service, Medical Toxicology Unit in London, where he was responsible for giving real time appropriate toxicological information, sampling advice, interpretation of results and detailed local investigations during or following chemical incidents.

Rico hopes to assist groundWork’s community campaigns by providing an evidence base for environmental health inequalities which can be used by community campaigns to push for environmental improvements.

Musa Chamane hails from Edendale (Ashdown). He started out as a teacher in one of the secondary schools in Imbali. He then resigned and established a small consulting company with a close associate, doing EIA related work, until he joined groundWork as Waste Campaign Coordinator. He holds a B.A majoring in Geography and Sociology, a BSoc Sci Honours (Policy and Development Studies) and a Project Management diploma. He has been involved in many Environmental Impact Assessment studies, mostly for Umgeni Water pipelines. He has also been involved in projects to do with sustainable coastal livelihoods for DEAT and community development workers’ training for Traditional and Local Government.

Nomcebo Mvelase is employed by groundwork as the Environmental Health Campaign Manager. Previously, she had a long service with the Department of Health as a professional nurse, but also worked as a head nurse for Elizabeth Glazer Paediatric AIDS Foundations, an NGO that deals with the rollout of anti retroviral drugs to both children and adults. Prior to that she worked for Human Sciences Research Council as a research nurse. Having worked in the HIV/AIDS field for more than three years, Nomcebo successfully obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in HIV/AIDS Clinical management course.
Nomcebo’s work focuses mainly on mercury elimination, proper management of health care waste and the general improvement of environmental health in order to ensure that the general health of people is enhanced.

Bathoko Sibisi is the assistant administrator.  She has over ten years' experience working with local and international NGOs  in the environmental justice field. In addition to keeping the office running from day to day, Bathoko is also responsible for conference coordination.

Contact Details for groundwork:
Tel: +27 (0)33 342 5662
Fax: +27 (0)33 342 5665
Email: team@groundwork.org.za

Map to get to groundWork Office in Pietermaritzburg