Highlights from the CEO

CEO Forum for 2019 - The first meeting for the year was held on 15 March 2019 at our offices in Paulshof, Johannesburg. Despite an invitation being extended to all member companies, only 15 CEO's or Senior Representatives from member companies attended. The commitment of those who attended is greatly appreciated as CESA as an Organisation cannot exist without the support of its members. Discussion based on agenda items derived from attendees included amongst others:

• SANRAL outstanding payments to members where incomplete contracts have been terminated at the 3 year threshold in line with Supply Chain Regulations but contrary to valid contracts between SANRAL and the appointed Consultants and Contractors. It would appear that these matters are mostly going to be settled through Court action against SANRAL by the Contractors. In the case of member companies who have the resources to do so, the same process may be followed;

• Concerns regarding the apparent limited knowledge regarding best value procurement of Consulting Engineering Services by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, as an example of what may be the case elsewhere, was discussed and there was agreement that we should try to do more to share knowledge with these entities through our endeavours with the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA);
  

• All welcomed the notification that the Council for the Built Environment (CBE) would be requesting the Built Environment Professions Councils to re-commence the publication of fee guidelines. Furthermore, the CBE will be looking at the disparity that exists in the basket of fees for the various Professions in property development projects with a view to re-establishing fairness and normality amongst the professions;
  

• The possible revisions to the Construction Sector Codes in respect of Equity Equivalents has not yet been finalised by the Charter Council and feedback will be provided to affected parties as soon as such information becomes available.
  It was agreed that this Forum should meet as a minimum two times a year. The next meeting is scheduled for 26 June 2019.

Business Economic and Capacity Survey July-Dec 2018 - You will have recently received a copy of the latest BECS and we would like to point out that the response rate for the current survey was probably the most dismal at less than 10% of the 550 member companies. The company doing the analysis has however assured us that there is still a level of credibility in the results of this survey. It is noted that this survey includes a combination of business strategic focus aspects and benchmarking elements. It is of concern that the response rates are so low and we would like your input on whether we incorporate more benchmarking elements as a mechanism to encourage more participation.   

State of lawlessness in the construction sector - CESA wishes to inform our members of the action we have taken with respect to the letter sent to the State President by SAFCEC,  http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/1508_001.pdf, regarding the unacceptable state of lawlessness in the construction sector. The action includes bringing the matter to the attention of BUSA, who have also written to the President. We have facilitated the organising of a petition signed by 26 Major Industry Organisations and Voluntary Associations across the Sector, ranging from Consultants to Contractors and Suppliers and in support of the letters from the aforementioned parties have sent this off to the office of the President on 1 April 2019,  http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/20190401_-_Construction_Sector_Petition_to_President_Ramaphosa.pdf
It is noted that the BBCBE has separately requested a meeting with the Minister of Police to discuss the matter and the lack of law enforcement. We will keep members updated in this regard.  

ACEZ visit - CESA had the pleasure of hosting a visit by the Association of Consulting Engineers of Zambia on 19 and 20 March 2019 that allowed the exchange of information and operating procedures to the benefit of both parties. The ACEZ delegation were very complimentary about the CESA systems while the visit undoubtedly strengthened relationships between the two associations and opened up opportunities for CESA.

SA Forum of Engineers (SAFE) - This Forum which is made up of key engineering VAs and ECSA representation, has taken the place of the previous ECSA Presidents Forum and to an extent replaces the SAICE Civilution Forum. CESA views SAFE as an important vehicle for discussing, resolving and coordinating mutual engineering-issues and hence is committed to participation in, and promotion of, the Forum. CESA attended the Forum meeting on 13 March 2019. 

CESA 2019 Infrastructure Indaba - The annual CESA Conference was held on 6 and 7 March 2019 at the Durban ICC. The event was well attended and delegates were pleased at the depth and relevance of the programme as well as the interesting exhibitions. Definitely a 'value-for-money' conference that offered great networking opportunities.  On behalf of CESA, we would like to sincerely thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to attend our annual Infrastructure Indaba - Engineering the Future now!  Access all the presentations online: http://bit.ly/2019CESAIndabaPres 

CESA Council meeting on 27 March 2019 - The meeting held at the Southern Sun ORT Hotel, presented an opportunity for members of the Board and Branch Chairpersons to discuss and debate the severe challenges facing the consulting engineering industry, including the abovementioned 'State of lawlessness in the construction sector', non-payment of member firms, the upcoming election with demands for unauthorised projects, lack of work etc. A 'SWOT analysis' was undertaken at the meeting that will form the basis of a series of action plans that CESA will undertake to improve the lot of our members and the industry. Members will be kept informed in this regard.

Technical Heads of the National Department of Public Works responsible for Mechanical & Electrical as well as Civil & Structural met with CESA to discuss their concerns regarding the integrity of our member companies providing professional services to the Department. Notwithstanding, the concerns that member companies may have which we will be addressing in our subsequent interaction with the Department, your attention is drawn to our Code of Conduct  http://www.cesa.co.za/sites/default/files/CESA%20Code%20of%20Conduct.pdf that is applicable to all members, which we expect to be so upheld by every member. It became apparent that we do indeed have shortcomings and that  we probably need to do some introspection as an industry if we are to retain the high esteem with which CESA Membership is regarded both locally and internationally.

Contractual Affairs, Procurement & Membership

FIDIC task force to tackle diversity in global consultancy and engineering industry - CESA's Michele Kruger will chair the new FIDIC diversity and inclusion task force to actively support representation and inclusion from more diverse groups so they can become leaders and influencers in the consulting engineering sector. A major survey will be conducted of FIDIC's 102 international member associations and those who have attended the annual FIDIC conference over the last five years to gain feedback on global trends in these areas. http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/Document1.docx

CIDB & National Treasury contract documentation - CESA learnt at our meeting with the CIDB on the 15 March 2019 that the SFU is being revised and will cater for Contractors however, it will retain its existing contracts, including FIDIC, NEC and GCC. We also learnt that National Treasury's revised SIPDM known as the 'Control Framework for Infrastructure Procurement and Delivery Management' (CFIPDM) will cater for Professional Service Providers (PSPs). In addition, National Treasury is pressing ahead with the development of state contracts for construction and professional services.

Annual Declarations and subscriptions - members are reminded that the deadline for the submission of their 2019 Annual Declarations lapsed two months ago.  Kindly visit http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/2019_CESA_BY-LAWS_-_SUBSCRIPTIONS.docx for a more detailed extract from the approved By Laws in this regard.

CESA Practice Notes - Members are reminded to make use of these practice notes that are reserved for your exclusive use. They can be found on the Members Section of the CESA website at http://www.cesa.co.za/node/19. A username and password can be obtained by phoning Ms Gillian Wands on 011 463 2022 during office hours.

Contract documents - Members are encouraged to purchase the standard contract documents they require from the CESA Bookshop and to respect the copyright of these documents, especially the CESA Forms of Agreement. The full range of hard copy documents stocked by CESA as well as the online documents (CESA, PROCSA & JBCC), can be seen on the CESA website at http://www.cesa.co.za/bookshop To order hard copies or make enquiries, kindly contact CESA's Ms Patience Tsotetsi at 011463 2022 during office hours.

School of Consulting Engineering

Business of Consulting Engineering (BCE) Development Programme
The BCE Development Programme had a very successful first Contact Session held from the 4 to 8 March for the 15 students on this year's programme. 
This flagship one-year development programme has 20 different subject matter experts / trainers throughout the year, all working towards developing young consulting engineers into future industry leaders. The programme covers subjects including the consulting engineering environment; project delivery and finance; as well as legal and contractual matters. Students are supported by mentors all the way through in order to develop them into well-rounded professionals. A range of assignments are completed for each module that highly experience convenors and trainers assess and moderate in order for the students to build a comprehensive Portfolio of Evidence.

HR FORUM
The next HR Forum meeting will be held on the 17th April 2019. At these meeting the HR Managers discuss a wide variety of topics relating to HR, such as, changes in HR Law; CCMA changes; Paternity leave and how it affects the workplace; CETA updates like WSP/ATR; Candidacy progress; and bursaries, to name but a few. There are also guest speakers invited to the meetings who come and give presentations on operational human resources topics.

IN-HOUSE COURSES
Get up to 25% off in-house courses for companies who choose to train their employees in their own offices or at a location of their choice. In-house training is a more cost-effective solution when training a number of employees who have the same training requirements.

Benefits Include:
• Training is tailored according to your company's and employees' specific needs
• Time out of office, travelling and accommodation costs are dramatically reduced
• Training needs can be customised and aligned to the company's culture, work procedures and strategic vision
• Use of your own company's internal policies, procedures and financial information is used confidentially in these training sessions
• Being able to adapt the learning outcome to suit existing staff experience
• Improvement in networking, understanding and collaboration between departments
For a quote please contact Brenda Lacey-Smith on Brenda@cesa.co.za or 011 463-2022.

SCE Training Course Calendar Are you a Registered Professional? If so, you can earn CPD points from both ECSA and SACPCMP attending just one course! To access our comprehensive list of courses and to book online please visit: http://www.cesa.co.za/scecalendar

Young Professionals Forum

Young Professionals Volunteerism Lekgotla - 11 April 2019, Mahikeng, North West.
Future leaders in engineering in the province are encouraged to participate and work towards sustaining the industry through volunteerism and professionalism. The Lekgotla is an empowerment event for future leaders boasting a programme that covers various leadership topics including Leadership & Management; Professional registration with ECSA; and Procurement / SCM, etc. Registration fees are sponsored by the CESA YPF.  Enquire: general@cesa.co.za or register online http://www.cesa.co.za/eventreg?id=153

CESA Youth Best Practice Seminar: Leadership and Management - This series of one-day seminars, initiated by CESA is aimed specifically at closing the skills gaps in the engineering environment by empowering our youth.  The development of these seminars is underpinned by the philosophy that the sharing of unique experiences by senior consulting engineers will result in more informed young professionals. This will enable these young professionals to make more informed choices, either to grow within their current firm or to start their own consulting engineering firm.
Please view the schedule: http://www.cesa.co.za/ypleadershipseminars

YPF Sponsorship - To become a YPF sponsor or renew your sponsorship please visit www.cesa.co.za/node/61

Communications

Classic FM Interview - Chris Campbell was interviewed by Michael Avery on Classic FM, speaking about 'the state of the construction industry'. Listen to the interview on Classic Business: https://embed.iono.fm/prov/551?description=1&theme=classicfm

Join the conversation by connecting with us on Social Media:
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LinkedIn: 2,996 followers

Marketing & Events

2019 CESA Aon Engineering Excellence Awards - Thank you to member firms who submitted entries into the Awards this year.  The deadline date for full submissions is Thursday the 23rd May. The winners of the Awards will be announced at a formal banquet held at the Vodacom Dome in Midrand on Wednesday the 14th August 2019.  Please save this date in your diary as you will be receiving your invitation to attend the Awards by mid-June.

2019/2020 Directory of Firms: Deadline for Advertising is Tuesday, 30 April 2019 - Collation of the CESA Directory of Firms has begun and as members of CESA we are offering you advertising opportunities at discounted rates. A special request to all Principals: Please pass this information on to your Marketing personnel or department.  Please click on the link for more information and to reserve your firm's advertising space http://www.cesa.co.za/directoryoffirms

2019 Events Calendar
For details of our upcoming events please visit http://www.cesa.co.za/node/13

Member News

New members - CESA welcomes Chaithoo (Pty) Ltd, Hydro-Comp Enterprises SA (Pty) Ltd, Lekgau Consulting Engineers cc, Letsopa Project Managers & Consulting Engineers cc, Peak Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd and VNMM Holding (Pty) Ltd as the first official new CESA members for 2019. There are another five firms that will become members once they have paid their initial subscription, and another five membership applications being processed.

Lyners reaches milestone - CESA wishes to congratulate long standing member firm, Neil Lyners and Associates (RF) (Pty) Ltd, on recently celebrating its 20th Anniversary, see www.lyners.co.za.

Royal HaskoningDHV achieves stable 2018 results - Royal HaskoningDHV reports an organic operating income growth of 3,1%, a recurring EBITA of €25,9-million and a stable net result of €12,7-million over 2018. These results were delivered against continued investments in strategic priorities with the focus to strengthen its domain knowledge and data-driven expertise. The article mentions that "The order book ended at €306-million (2017: €341-million) due to disappointing sales, especially in Industry & Buildings and in South Africa". See  http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/20190329_-_RH_DHV_stable_results.docx   (Construction World, 19 March 2019)

New Arup report advocates use of timber to help tackle climate change - Arup has launched its "Rethinking Timber Buildings" report aimed at accelerating the construction industry's response to reducing global emissions and achieving net zero carbon buildings by using sustainable materials. The report, which highlights the time and efficiency savings that can result from the use of mass timber as a sustainable and safe alternative to more commonly used materials, says that architects, developers, planners and corporate organisations should consider mass timber when designing low and mid-rise buildings, see http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/20190329_-_Arup_timber_report.docx  (Infrastructure Intelligence, 19 March 2019)

UWP name change - On 1 February 2019, UWP Consulting changed its name to Mariswe. The company remains true to its core business of consulting civil and structural engineering, driven by a desire to improve lives by providing sustainable engineering infrastructure solutions, and is positioned to provide services throughout the life cycle of infrastructure - from planning, design and construction through to maintenance. "We are confident in our ability to successfully serve the total infrastructure life cycle, as we bring a great depth of knowledge, experience and client relationships to Mariswe," says CEO Nonkululeko Sindane, see http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/20190329_-_Mariswe_name_change.docx (IMIESA 20 March 2019)

Bosch Ulwazi turns 10 - Bosch Ulwazi marks its 10th anniversary this year, with a track record in the advancement of engineering skills across South Africa. The company was established in 2009 as a subsidiary of Bosch Holdings, to mentor engineers and project managers to achieve professional registration with regulatory bodies, see http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/20190329_-_Bosch_Ulwazi_turns_10.docx  (Construction World, 14 March 2019)

Sector News

Construction Sector being demolished as Group Five succumbs to depressed market - the depressed state/ demise of the South African construction sector is well documented in this article published in the SA Commercial Prop News, 29 March 2019, which deals with the decision taken by Group Five, one of South Africa's construction giant who built the Moses Mabhida stadium, see http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/20190329_-_Group_Five.docx

Ceta SMME strategy - Focus on access to opportunity, rather than training  - The Construction Education and Training Authority (Ceta) on Wednesday, 27 March 2019 presented a draft version of its five-year small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) strategy, which has followed an extensive stakeholder engagement process and aims to support SMMEs past the training stage and into the entrepreneurial stage, see http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/20190329_-_CETA_Strategy.docx (Engineering News, 29 March 2019)

Construction index improves in Q4, but 2018 average is below year before - A recovery in the 2018 fourth-quarter Afrimat Construction Index (ACI) has failed to lift the index to a higher level than the year before, but economist Dr Roelof Botha is optimistic that construction sector activity could improve in 2019. The ACI, which Botha compiles on behalf of JSE-listed Afrimat, shows that the average value of the index in 2018 was 4.7% lower than in 2017, and highlights that the South African construction sector has been underperforming since the end of the recession in 2009, see http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/20190329_-_Construction_Index.docx (Engineering news, 11 March 2019)

Government backs ACE's "Future of Consultancy" campaign - The UK Research & Innovation Council (UKRI) has formally recognised ACE's "Future of Consultancy" campaign, with a pledge to collaborate with and sponsor it as part of the Construction Sector Deal's Transforming Construction programme. The two-year multi-phased campaign will help the entire consultancy and engineering sector to welcome and adapt to a new era of design and delivery in the built environment. UKRI has agreed to contribute to the project and will provide additional support throughout the campaign by sharing its expertise and knowledge, see http://www.cesa.co.za/uploads/20190329_-_Future_consultancy.docxcx (Infrastructure Intelligence, 11 March 2019

Upcoming Industry Events

FIDIC GAMA 2019 Conference - Uganda (Kampala) from 12-15 May 2019

FIDIC 2019 Conference -Mexico City from 8-10 September 2019

IMESA 2019 Conference -Durban ICC, from 2 - 4 October 2019, visit www.imesa.org.za

CE-news Contributions: 
• Email or phone Bonolo Nkgodi at bonolo@cesa.co.za or 011 463 2022 to contribute news, comment etc.
• Email Wally Mayne at wallym@cesa.co.za if you work for a member firm and would like to receive a copy of this newsletter direct.
• News of member firms is usually provided by the firms themselves or copied from their newsletters or the media.

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