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CESA Plans Strategically

CESA held a Strategic planning session on the 20th constructive engagement and providing solutions,
of January at the Premier Hotel in Kempton Park. not complaints, to service delivery challenges
The session was opened by Abe Thela, CESA needed to be the order of the day. This also needs
President who acted as the Chair for the session. to be balanced with the understanding that the
The Chair welcomed all present and commented challenges, objectives and needs of individual
on the following key issues:- CESA members are often unique.
That the strategic planning session provides an CESA CEO Lefadi Makibinyane emphasised the
important opportunity to reflect on the progress need to strengthen and build the brand of CESA
made by CESA on the strategic business plan was a critical requirement in order to concretise the
objectives that were previously set by the Board with credibility of the institution, expand the foot print
specific emphasis on what has worked effectively and further build the ethical reputation of CESA and
and what has not worked. our members. A Global thrust was also necessary
as various international/multinational organisations
The good work and strategic leadership demonstrated were playing or poised to play in the CESA space.
by the past leadership of CESA (President and the In this regard he made specific reference to the
previous CEO), was acknowledged as well as the recent signing of an MOU with the Chinese.
efforts of, and the stability brought to the organisation
by the management team. He specifically The need to radically address the issue of
mentioned the inclusion of the management team procurement of consulting engineering services
in the Boards strategic session in order to facilitate was passionately expressed. Makibinyane outlined
input and understanding, acceptance and buy-in of a range of reasons including the lack of capacity
the processes and outcomes. He commented on in Government (all levels) and the need for CESA
the fact that the leadership (President and CEO) to assist with this as well as the problems/negative
of CESA were reasonably new and were excited impacts associated with corruption and the need for
by the challenges facing the organisation and the anti-corruption initiatives and mitigation strategies.
consulting engineering sector. He indicated that
the level of constructive cooperation and synergy Consulting Engineering was the starting point for
between the board and management was working the successful implementation of the NDP and
well and requested that they keep up the good work. NIP. It ‘kick starts’ the process and this needs to
be acknowledged. Procurement processes need to
The Chair emphasised that in considering the be refined to recognise this together with the need
strategy of CESA it was important to recognise, and for the “engineering excellence” capacity that is
where necessary, to be bold enough to challenge available through CESA member organisations.
and change the status quo in order to ensure that
CESA was positioned to respond to current and It is critically important that CESA is able to influence
future challenges. Ongoing strategic review was an political positions on the need to refine procurement
important part of this process. processes and unlock the consulting engineering
capability and capacity that CESA and its members
The need for CESA to ensure that its strategy can provide to underpin improved service delivery.
was informed by, aligned with and supported the
National Development Plan (NDP) and National He concluded by stating that the sustainability of
Infrastructure Plan (NIP) priorities and outcomes CESA (as a non for profit organisation) was also a
was strongly emphasised by the Chair. key issue. The organisation is currently reliant on
membership fee income for its survival and growth
Significant emphasis was placed on making which is a limiting factor when it comes to availability
CESA relevant by enhancing Advocacy through of resources in order to fund industry events. The
constructive engagement, and the need to need to develop and expose CESA management
ensure the interests of the 510 members of CESA and staff to appropriate regional and international
and the clients were met and remained at the conferences etc., is a critical issue that also needs
forefront of everything that CESA does. Promoting to be addressed.
Consulting Engineering Excellence through

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