What enables a safe, sustainable, reliable and affordable transport system? A road designed for the traffic it carries, or a bridge maintained before it fails? Perhaps it is the public transport system, which relies on the condition of this infrastructure.

Maybe we need to stop planning and implement the long-spoken vision of integrated public transport systems that connect people seamlessly to opportunity; as well as design our infrastructure planned not only for today, but for the demands of tomorrow. We have various modes of transport available for public transport purposes, in the form of trains, taxis and buses, but our ability to integrate and coordinate these systems to ensure that we can optimise the usage of our transport systems eludes us.

We need to rethink the notion that adding more lanes to roads will solve our traffic and transport challenges, as these eventually become saturated. Should we not consider how we might reduce urban motor vehicle traffic through coordinated, reliable, affordable, safe and integrated mass passenger transport? We likely have some of these plans, but for years implementation has been the hurdle.   

We know these systems can work and rightly so, as is the case in many developed countries. But it will take strong political will to make this work, and at the same time, we know that sustainable service delivery does not happen by itself. It is the result of political and policy certainty, which encourages the investment decisions to be made and acted on, so that the remaining processes related to planning, design, construction, maintenance and operations materialise in good time and at a reasonable cost.

The engineering and other technical experts within our member firms have the skills, knowledge and expertise to shape solutions alongside the public sector asset owners, to turn infrastructure plans into real outcomes. 

So, when we ask, “If Not Engineers, Then Who?”, perhaps the bigger question is: how can we, as a collective society, ensure that every part of the ecosystem has the expertise, accountability and collaboration needed to deliver affordable infrastructure that works sustainably?

As we conclude Transport Month, it so happens at a particularly important moment for South Africa.

The upcoming local government elections will arguably be a turning point for the country. It will test whether political parties that claim to have the public interest at heart can translate their promises into delivery.

More importantly, it will test whether they understand that local government is not  about national policymaking. It is about affordable, functional service delivery of basic infrastructure to ensure that neither lives nor livelihoods are compromised. It is about the people of our country, and we call on all parties and elected representatives to put service delivery and the needs of communities ahead of political interests by demonstrating, through delivery, that they are committed to serving them.

Infrastructure must remain a local and a national priority, independent of political party changes. Specific to the upcoming local government elections taking place in the next week, the parties in coalition, or as a majority, have this opportunity to demonstrate that they have made a difference as we head towards our next national elections in just three years from now, or find themselves being judged for failing to do so.

Whoever is elected must be measured not by the promises made in manifestos, but by their ability to deliver. The proof of the pudding, as the saying goes, remains in the eating.

As an industry association, we look forward to being called upon to support those who have the political will to deliver on infrastructure promises and to represent our member firms in the decisions that will be made. But we must also be clear about the role of engineers in functional service delivery: we are citizens before we are engineers. Our work exists to improve the lives of the communities we serve. 

The expectation of the public is simple. Deliver. Do not offer excuses for why it cannot be done.