The Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) has officially entered into a strategic collaboration with the City of Tshwane, formalised through the commencement of a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) at the Tshwane Leadership and Management Academy. The ECSA City of Tshwane partnership, announced on 27 June 2025, aims to enhance municipal engineering services and build a resilient, future-ready engineering workforce.
A Shared Vision for Municipal Engineering
The agreement reflects a shared vision to strengthen capacity-building efforts, promote professional development, and ensure ethical, competent engineering practices across the municipality, aligned with ECSA’s mandate under the Engineering Profession Act (Act No. 46 of 2000).
“The issue of engineering skills capacity continues to challenge the sector. Even where skills exist, we see a loss in the pipeline, with practitioners seeking better opportunities abroad.”
Dr Bridget Ssamula, CEO of ECSA
She added: Through this partnership, we envision Tshwane becoming the first city certified as a municipal engineering training academy recognised by the Council. This could serve as a national benchmark for engineering excellence and sustainable urban development, engineering better cities for the future.
What the Partnership Involves
Under the agreement, ECSA will support the City of Tshwane through:
- Providing guidance for the professional registration of engineering practitioners employed by the City;
- Providing advisory support on engineering compliance and capacity planning;
- Enhancing institutional knowledge of ECSA’s Codes of Conduct and regulatory requirements; and
- Supporting the development and implementation of internal engineering policies aligned with national standards.
The partnership also strengthens ECSA’s stakeholder education drive on the Identification of Engineering Work (IDoEW), gazetted in 2021, which says that engineering work should be designated for registered professionals. The IDoEW is not about ranking registration categories, but about safeguarding the integrity of engineering work across disciplines and categories.
Addressing the Skills Pipeline
“This collaboration also supports government’s broader objective to professionalise the public sector and secure a sustainable pipeline of skilled engineers,” Ssamula noted. “Our focus must now shift to identifying who needs to register and when in their professional journey. Registration must be seen as a critical step for those conducting engineering work,” she concluded.
Despite ongoing advocacy, ECSA has noted that only 26% of potential engineering candidates pursue registration, posing a challenge to quality assurance in the profession. The agreement reinforces both institutions’ commitment to improved service delivery, infrastructure development, and the professionalisation of engineering in the public sector.
Original Press Release
About ECSA
The Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) is the statutory body established under the Engineering Profession Act, 46 of 2000, mandated to regulate the engineering profession in South Africa. ECSA is responsible for the accreditation of engineering programmes, the registration of engineering practitioners, and upholding professional and ethical standards across the profession.
Issued by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA).
ECSA Media Contact
Sybil Dlamini, Manager: Marketing and Communication
Email: sybil@ecsa.co.za | Tel: 073 623 8275
Website: www.ecsa.co.za
This article is based on an official ECSA press release. Read the original statement.
