As the year draws to a close, I would like to take the opportunity to thank our Board Members, Committee Members and Branch Chairs who provide the support in ensuring that we remain the leading organisation for the consulting engineering industry, recognised not only locally but across Africa and around the globe, ably driven by a dedicated team of people in our Directorate. Without our member companies volunteering some of your key staff to participate in our various committees, none of what we do would be possible and for this we thank you for your commitment.
This year will go down in history as a watershed year. Most of us started the year on a rather positive note with, CESA enjoying invitations from the Presidency to attend planning sessions with the Infrastructure Investment Office, headed by Dr Kgosientso Ramokgopa on the 2020 Strategic Infrastructure Development Symposium. Our Infrastructure Indaba hosted in mid- March this year, at the prestigious Spier Estate in Stellenbosch was rated as one of our more successful conference events in recent years by attendees, having attracted a range of informative and influential speakers.
News of the first case of Covid-19 reached us on day two of the Indaba, and by the end of March, the country was in full lock-down to ready itself for the unprecedented demand for hospitalisation and treatment that would be required from an already fragile and neglected public healthcare system.
South Africa’s economy and the construction sector, which were already reeling from several investment downgrades and negative growth, were then further set back by the unintended consequences of lockdown as we tried as a country to “save lives” whilst being fully cognisant of the impact that industry shutdowns would have on the employability and the subsequent need to “save livelihoods” with the country already at over 30% unemployment levels. Like many of our member companies, CESA was fortunate enough to have already invested in online technology and remote working facilities.
During lockdown, CESA played a leading role in industry as part of what became then known as the Construction Covid-19 Rapid Response Task Team (CC19RRTT), the first ever collaboration of over 30 organisations in the construction sector. Much effort was devoted to liaising with Government decision makers and providing guidelines and protocols that could be adhered to by all players in our sector, so that employees could safely re-commence work on various projects which were underway before lockdown.
In addition, we acted as the main facilitator for information from CC19RRTT to the construction sector interface for the Public Private Growth Initiative (PPGI), another initiative established some 24 months ago as a means of strengthening the relationship between government and the private sector in effecting the regrowth of our economy. Much of CESA’s efforts were devoted to obtaining and sharing information through the creation of an active Covid-19 Bulletin Board on our website which was available to both members and non-members alike.
CESA’s activities have rapidly adapted to the prevailing circumstances relating to gatherings and physical contact, and many of our usual in-class training and networking events were migrated to online formats. Our flagship Engineering Excellence Awards function was hosted online for the first time ever.
Announcements made by President Ramaphosa in mid-October 2020, highlighting the emphasis on infrastructure development as a catalyst for economic recovery, have certainly added greater optimism to our industry which has been largely affected by the decrease in spending on Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) for the last eight years at least.
It remains unclear when the further projects related to renewable energy will be finalised; however, it would appear that the auction of spectrum is intended to be completed by March 2021. Both of these will give rise to the need for more energy and ICT infrastructure requirements, which is positive for the industry and the economy as a whole. The jury is still out on the funding that will be required for water and sanitation projects as well as for major road projects planned by SANRAL.
However, our public entities seem to lack sufficient capacity to manage their internal procurement processes which require capable technical input, as well as the technical capacity for implementation. This capacity exists in the private sector, which could be leveraged on a corruption free, good governance basis.
As a country we are currently facing even more dire economic circumstances exacerbated by many of the measures adopted during the national Lockdown, some warranted, and others still being questioned. The economic recovery journey is going to be a long and hard one.
At no other time since the dawn of our new democracy has it been more imperative that all social partners, government, business, community and labour become less suspicious of each other’s motives and focus on what is good for the country and all of its people. We need to join hands as we claw back the gains made in the past and start rebuilding our wonderful country.
Chris Campbell
CESA CEO |
