In an opinion article, Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) Acting President Refilwe Buthelezi Pr Eng makes the case that involving engineers in decision-making bodies is key to infrastructure development and maintenance in South Africa. Her reflection was prompted by a piece from University of Johannesburg Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Tshilidzi Marwala titled “For want of an engineer, the water was lost; for want of the water… a country was lost — all for the want of an engineer”.
Why engineers in decision-making bodies matter
Buthelezi notes that Marwala warns, “If you don’t have an engineer in your leadership cohort, you must expect engineering related issues to remain unsolved”. She argues that, in addition to the brain drain caused by engineers leaving South Africa to pursue employment overseas, the limited representation of professionally registered engineers in advisory or decision-making roles compromises the provision of basic services to South Africans.
The response, she writes, lies in fulfilling ECSA’s core mandate under the Engineering Professions Act (Act 46 of 2000): to accredit engineering programmes, register engineering professionals, regulate the profession, and ensure registered professionals adhere to the Code of Conduct. At the core of this mandate is the protection of citizens by ensuring that infrastructure is safe for use and dwelling and is sufficiently maintained to sustain the provision of basic services.
Partnerships and the identification of engineering work
Buthelezi stresses that this mandate is achieved not in isolation but through key partnerships with what President Cyril Ramaphosa termed “social partners” in his 2022 State of the Nation Address, including institutions of higher learning, voluntary associations, government departments at various levels and state-owned entities. She calls for the active involvement of these partners in decision-making bodies such as Infrastructure South Africa (ISA).
She highlights two initiatives. The first is a partnership with development initiative Bosch Ulwazi to establish ECSA’s first Certified Engineering Training Academy, which addresses the engineering skills pipeline by fast-tracking candidate technicians, technologists and engineers to professional registration within a minimum of three to four years. The second is the Identification of Engineering Work (IDoEW), gazetted by ECSA, which demarcates the engineering activities to be performed by each category of registration and, once further consultations with government departments, state-owned entities and municipalities are complete, will enable ECSA to protect the public, the profession and registered persons.
Are these partnerships sufficient to guarantee basic services? “No”, she concludes, but continued relationship-building could change the narrative to “for the involvement of an engineer, the water was provided…. for the provision of water…. A country was saved – all for the involvement of an engineer”.
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.
