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Leadership CESA 2013 Conference and Exhibition stating that the City has plans for strong investment
Leadership - The Key to Sustainability

Westin Cape Town
in infrastructure. He stated, The focus and drive
on infrastructure provision has resulted in capital
Consulting Engineers South Africa recently hosted
In that provision we have kept a strong balance
a very successful conference at the Westin in Cape
between the provision of new infrastructure and the
Town attended by over 200 delegates featuring 20 expenditure of R23 billion over the past five years.
industry speakers. Lefadi Makibinyane, CESA CEO refurbishment of existing infrastructure. Further,
the city has expanded its spend on repairs and
opened the conference by welcoming delegates
maintenance, growing it from R0.8 billion in 2006 to
and special guests that included keynote speaker,
sustainability expert and author, Jason Drew and R2.9 billion this financial year”.
the Deputy Mayor of Cape Town, Alderman Ian In his address he maintains that, The change
Neilson. Makibinyane stated in his welcoming towards tendered appointments has affected how
remarks that there were many challenges to relationships are managed. It has created new
Sustainability and that the National Development opportunities for some and challenges for others.
Plan was key to addressing these challenges that The challenge to achieve a competitive approach
included the alleviation of poverty and inequality. to professional services is not yet satisfactorily
He maintains that although the Public Infrastructure resolved. It is even becoming more difficult in that
Coordinating Committee (PICC) is to be applauded doing preliminary work on a project now precludes
much work still needs to be done to resolve the a firm from bidding on the detailed project”. He went
lack of capacity in the public sector. Procurement on to say that the key urban challenge for South
is another burning industry issue and he contends African cities over the next decade is the need to
that quality should be the basis underpinning shift the transport modal split considerably towards
sustainable development. He believes that what is public transport. It must work not only for the captive
called for is visionary selfless leadership and hence poor, but must work also for the rising numbers in
the theme of the conference – ‘Leadership the key the middle classes. It has to be comprehensive,
to Sustainability’. reliable, safe and affordable and only concerted
government commitment can make it happen.
In his welcome address outgoing President of
CESA, Naren Bhojaram stated that there are 5
key sustainability indicators education; economic
and political certainty; job creation; eradication of
corruption; and responsible development. In his
presidential theme for the past year ‘Sustainability
is Everyone’s Business’ Bhojaram stated that
leaders should be appointed based on their
ethical balance. In the Consulting Engineering
environment sustainability is about building things
in a responsible way without doing irreparable
damage to the environment.

Alderman Ian Neilson
Executive Deputy Mayor of Cape Town Session 1 Day 1 L-R: Ian Neilson; Lefadi Makibinyane;
Jason Drew; and Naren Bhojaram
In his keynote address Alderman Ian Neilson
provided a comprehensive overview of the
infrastructure plans for the City of Cape Town

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