ABOUT US
Meet our Council
2025 – 2026
Frank Webb – Chair of Council
Frank has served as Treasurer & then Chair of the Bot Soc Lowveld Branch, since 2010. He served on Bot Soc Council in 2013-14 and again 2021-22 . He graduated with a BComm degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and attended a Programme for Management Development course at Harvard Business School in Boston, USA.
Frank’s love of nature is clear through his involvement and support of nature-based organisations. Aside from his involvement in Bot Soc he has also served as Treasurer and Chair of BirdLife Lowveld from 2003 until February 2022.
More about Frank
Frank worked for two manufacturing factories involved in Manganese beneficiation into pure Manganese-based products. While he started as accountant, he quickly progressed through the ranks to Commercial Director responsible for Accounting; Sales and Marketing in Asia; Supply Chain Management, and Human Resources. He ended his service as the Managing Director of their International Marketing company based in the UK before retiring in 2003.
Frank has always been a committee person serving primarily as either Chair or Treasurer of organisations that allowed him to enjoy his hobbies. Throughout his adult life, he has been very involved in sports clubs, including tennis and yachting, as well as service organisations such as LIONS and JAYCEES. He has also served on parent teacher associations and governing bodies of the schools his children attended, as well as on church organisations within the Methodist Church. He is a widely experienced committee person.
Treasurer: Grant Morrison
Grant is a qualified Chartered Accountant, having registered in January 2013 following the conclusion of his articles at Deloitte KZN. He completed both his Bachelor of Commerce and his Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg Campus. He has over 10 years’ experience in construction related industries.
Grant’s interest in local flora started at a young age with indigenous gardening to attract birds. He is a keen birder, passionate indigenous gardener, adventurous hiker and curious traveller.
More about Grant
Grant grew up in Pietermaritzburg, attending Maritzburg College, completing his studies at UKZN followed by articles at Deloitte PMB. During his articles he worked on the audits of BSi Steel Ltd, Illovo Sugar Ltd and Bell Equipment Ltd among others. Highlights at Deloitte include counting 5,000 head of cattle on a farm in Dundee and a 4 week of secondment to the Sustainability and Climate Change division.
At the end of 2012 he moved up to Johannesburg, to be closer to his girlfriend, now wife. He joined the family business, H- Systems and gained extensive experience in importing, launching new products, business analysis and general management. Highlights include selling the business to Corialis, a vertically integrated window and door system manufacturer based in Europe and business trips to China, Belgium and the UK.
Grant then took a sabbatical and traveled to some bucket list destinations including Thailand, Dubai, Chobe National Park, Makgadikgadi Pans, Lake Malawi and Victoria Falls.
Grant joined Ironmongery Warehouse Africa in 2018 where he is currently employed. His experience here has centered on managing the finances, cash flow, stock, marketing and IT.
He is also a member of Birdlife SA, Johannesburg Hiking Club and Mountain Club of South Africa. In 2013 he completed his FGASA level 1 to increase his knowledge and awareness of the natural environment. One of this favourite plants is Buddleja auriculata because of its wonderfully fragrant flowers that attract many birds and butterflies.
Hedwig Slabig
Hedwig is no stranger to Bot Soc’s Council. She served on Council from 2019-2021. She has also served on the West Coast Branch of Bot Soc for many years, including as Vice-Chairperson and Chairperson (a position she has held since 2018). She also serves on the West Coast Biosphere Reserve Board, and is closely involved with tourism on the West Coast.
Hedwig has always had a love of plants, studying Botany and Zoology as part of her BA degree (BA Fine Art) at the University of Cape Town. Here she majored in printmaking and book design.
More about Hedwig
She moved to a 20-hectare stretch of untouched Strandveld in 1993, where she started and managed Die Winkel op Paternoster, and later the Voorstrandt Restaurant in Paternoster.
During the course of her career, she was involved with the veld food and medicinal plant garden at the Hout Bay Museum. She also worked with Dr Renata Coetzee in her work with Veld Food research and recipe development into the food culture of the KhoinKhoin, and her books, ‘Koekamakranka’ and ‘A Feast from Nature’.
She also remains passionately involved with the food garden at the ‘Kinder Foerdern Zukunft Stiften’, a German non-profit organisation working with local children after school hours.
Rob Soutter
Although he worked as an environmental journalist for many years, Rob Soutter is best known from his incredible work and legacy at WWF South Africa. He joined the conservation NGO in 1983 as Conservation Director. And in 1991 Rob moved to Switzerland, to the headquarters of WWF, where he led a major revision of WWF’s global governance.
Rob also became more involved with the fundraising side: He ran a successful two-year CHF 25 million major donor initiative. And in 1998 through his funding drive using high-level events, protected area gains in over 70 countries were secured.
More about Rob
Rob’s other interests lie in the education sector. Working with his team, he produced the We Care set of lessons, introducing environmental issues into South African middle schools’ syllabuses. He also launched EnviroFacts, a series of factsheets on conservation and environmental issues produced with a consortium of South African NGOs and government agencies.
And he has even gone back to his journalism roots, editing the quarterly newspaper Our Living World published in South African weekend newspapers for several years. While Rob retired from WWF in 2016, he now continues to work as a consultant, contributing to NGO development.
Hours
Open Monday to Friday 10h00 to 14h00. Closed on weekends and public holidays.
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