CESA strongly condemns the actions of vandals and the continued opportunism exercised by criminal elements and political opponents that are currently running amok destroying the lives and livelihoods of citizens.

Chris Campbell, CEO of CESA states, “There will be no winners if we continue destroying our own country, our businesses and infrastructure, we will all be losers. In times such as the war against an invisible enemy, Covid 19, we need to work together to rebuild and not compound the problem.”
 
We are calling on Government to act expeditiously as we will in no time face a serious threat to the availability of key necessities that people depend on, with this violence becoming more widespread. We cannot afford to allow anything to impede the continued and much needed roll out of our country’s vaccine programme in our fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu recently called on engineers to “patriotically contribute” to the development agenda of South Africa. This was part of her keynote address at a virtual seminar hosted by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) in June, and has reaffirmed – for me, and for Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) – the importance of our industry bodies and associations raising our hands and offering partnerships with our government.

It is well understood that people across South Africa continue to live without basic necessities such as running water and electricity, due to the ongoing failure of infrastructure provision. While many projects lie in the pipeline, they remain dormant as the state fails to execute on promises made. However, with projects approved and budget allocated, it appears that the bottleneck is not necessarily in funding. While government’s pocket is indeed tight, there are other factors at play which are preventing planned projects from going ahead.

The role of consulting engineers in today’s society is increasingly vital, but not always fully understood. Considering South Africa’s need for improved infrastructure amid a growing and urbanising population, consulting engineers play an important role in ensuring the rollout of high quality and safe infrastructure projects.

The CESA Protecting Lives and Livelihoods campaign is aimed at educating the general public on the impact that consulting engineers have on their daily lives. The campaign aimed at the public started in June and is continuing on radio and via social media during July and into August.

Consulting Engineers play a big role in protecting lives and livelihoods in South Africa. Listen to how CESA member company Zeal Engineering Consultants is working on projects #empowering communities.

In a series of articles and interviews that captured the public’s attention during, CESA CEO Chris Campbell questioned the decision by Government to import engineering skills when we have a current situation where our own local engineering skills in the private sector are under-utilized together with a large pool of unemployed graduates.

CESA recently announced the completion of the revision the CESA Practice Notes that are reserved for members and can be found on the website. CESA is currently hosting a series of webinars on these Practice Notes.

The importance of infrastructure development, premised on innovative African solutions supported by African engineers, was unpacked in the opening remarks of the first virtual 27th annual FIDIC Africa Infrastructure Conference that commenced on 18 May.

It is essential for engineers to be involved in advocacy and play an integral role in advising government and policy makers on critical issues, including infrastructure development, said US-based Matt Reiffer, Director of Transportation Programs at the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), as part of his keynote address at the second day of the FIDIC Africa Infrastructure Conference.

June is Youth Month, and Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) celebrated by profiling those young professionals that are positively contributing towards the sustainability of our profession by protecting lives and livelihoods. We invited all Member companies to submit a maximum of 2 young professionals who they felt are making their mark as future industry leaders. Below we list the young professionals featured.

CESA President, Sugen Pillay recently hosted Presidential Webinars focused on keeping CESA Members across the country abreast of industry developments, focused on Limpopo and Mpumalanga as well as the Free State and Northern Cape regions.

One of the easiest ways to boost your B-BBEE rating is through skills development. The codes demand a far greater investment in skills development, with a particular emphasis on accredited training (i.e. ECSA CPD Courses).

The CESA Youth Best Practice Webinar: Leadership and Management hosted during June was aimed specifically at closing skills gaps in the engineering environment through empowering our youth.