Presenting his 2019 presidential address on
Wednesday, Consulting Engineers South Africa (Cesa)
president Neresh Pather called
for increased transparency for the betterment of the sector and its future.
With the intention of establishing trust, Pather stated
that 2019 would see Cesa increase its focus on engaging and supporting
government, increasing collaboration with National Treasury on
procurement, as well as the Auditor-General’s office on compliance support.
Partnering agreements with client bodies such as
the South African National Roads Agency,
State-owned Transnet and the
Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs would further
allow Cesa to contribute positively to benefit the country.
This support, Pather added, would include
capacity building, skills
development, compliance and good governance.
Additionally, he highlighted the need to provide
“value for money” infrastructure. Pather said
more focus needed to be placed on calculating the best possible infrastructure solution based on
the total life-cycle costing of the project.
“The industry needs to address the issue of the
importance of engineers, as well as focus on creating the right narrative to be
able to attract young engineers into the built environment,” he told
attendees.
Pather believed the lack of engineers entering the
industry would not change overnight due to
the decreasing workload in engineering, driven
directly through the economic decline.
However, with the use of technology to speed
up delivery and satisfy demand, Pather remained cautiously optimistic that the
industry would be able to “future-proof” its teams and reinvent its services.
He also welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s renewed
focus on the basic education sector,
saying that this would better prepare South Africa for the
Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Cesa CEO Chris Campbell, meanwhile,
stated that Ramaphosa’s call for further investment into Africa would not
be successful if “Africa does not
first invest into itself”.
To attract foreign investment into the continent, and subsequently into South Africa, Campbell said the continent would need to lead by example and work on making itself more investment-friendly. http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/cesa-president-calls-for-increased-transparency-2019-01-30/rep_id:4136
