Page 38 - index

The Graduation Ceremony for the School was also discussions were very informative and the issues
held on the same evening. quite different at each of these meetings.

Client Liaison CESA members assisted the Border-Kei Chamber of
The Branch is in the process of establishing a Business with the writing of formal letters of complaint
formal Client Liaison Committee with the City of to the local authorities in instances where the interests
Johannesburg. of the community were being compromised.

A meeting was held with the Johannesburg Roads Concerns
Agency (JRA). The JRA has requested that a There was limited success in arranging Client Liaison
Memorandum of Understanding be signed between meetings. It was resolved to involve the YPF in
CESA and the JRA. This will be finalised, with these as they have, in many cases, been in the same
the further aim of establishing a formal Liaison classes in College with our Clients and are, thus, on
Committee. first name terms with many of them.

Several issues were tabled at Council Meetings.
Border Kei Region Branch These were as follows:
Numerous contracts where the Contractor has
The Branch has had a successful year, holding 5
failed due to lack of skills, resources or finances.
monthly meetings with attendance of between 8 and
14 members. Two more meetings are scheduled
Tender awards by Clients where the tendered
for October and November 2014. There has been
price is hopelessly inadequate.
generally lively debate and good participation in
discussions. The YPF played an increasingly active The cidb has not been effective in developing
role in the Branch meetings as the year progressed. Contractors. By granting Contractors cidb ratings
well above their capability they are, in many
The main achievements included:- cases, doomed to fail. 60% of the Contractors on
the first phase of the DBSA ASIDI schools in the
The Presidential Visit took place on 12/5/2014.
Eastern Cape were liquidated.
The visit took the form of a Breakfast Meeting
and was well attended by 36 engineers, clients
Contractors have been known to adopt “Mafia”
and interested parties. The guest speaker, Mr
type practices to apply pressure on Consultants
John Ross-Smith, the former CEO of Johnson
and Clients to try to force them to pay for work that
& Johnson, gave an enlightening and thought
has not been done or is sub-standard.
provoking view of the challenges facing our
industry from the perspective of a “non-engineer”. Tendering for work in this very competitive market
is leading to Consultants tendering unsustainably
After the meeting Abe Thela, Lefadi Makibinyane and low prices.
Dave Clark met with MZ Msiwa of Amatola Water and
Simphwe Kondlo of ELIDZ. We were also hosted by There is no sign that any of the above concerns will
Peter Henderson of Hatch Goba at their offices. The be addressed in the near future.

CESA Annual Review 2013 / 2014

CESA Aon Engineering Excellence Awards
38 Projects Less than R50 million: Commendation
GIBB for the Factreton Informal Sector Electrification Project for the City of Cape Town