At CESA, we are leading the call for a collaborative and sustainable approach to the manner in which the private sector supports government in enhancing service delivery at all levels so as to ensure the economic wellbeing of all business enterprises and to improve the quality of life for all.  At our annual conference and AGM held recently at a venue close to Johannesburg, we invited participants to join us as we appealed to delegates to start “Working Together towards a Sustainable Future - Accelerating and Enhancing Infrastructure Provision and Maintenance in the Public Sector”. The conference provided a platform to explore tangible tools in order to strengthen relationships in order to facilitate constructive support of the public sector to ensure effective delivery.

Water quality the single biggest concern for South Africans – Zulch Lötter
In his welcoming address President of CESA, Zulch Lötter stated that although access to water and sanitation had improved substantially only 30 out of 283 of our municipalities  are functioning satisfactorily (Ms Sonjica’s evidence to parliament). He also stated that water demand could exceed supply by 2020 and in addition to this our water quality is deteriorating with only 3% of our Municipalities achieving Green Drop status. As far as Roads and Transportation is concerned he stated that although our National Road Network is in good condition our Provincial and Municipal roads are literally going to ‘Pot (holes)’. Once again maintenance is paramount as the cost to maintain a road is approximately R200 000 per kilometre, but the cost to rebuild a road is a staggering R3 million per kilometre.

With this in mind he stated that the objective of the conference was to - Interrogate delivery models used elsewhere; Consider SA’s unique development objectives; Assess social and political acceptability; Identify sustainable instead of ad hoc interventions; and Reach reasonable consensus with regards to the framework with which to engage our partners.  Based on the Dinokeng Scenarios (www.dinokeng.co.za), he urged Clients and members to start Walking and Working Together to achieve a sustainable future for our country.

Cath Schefer and Chris Barker from MWH, UK

Partnerships between Public and Private Sectors will improve delivery – Cath Schefer
Cath Schefer, Water Sector Director for Europe and Africa at MWH, UK gave an enlightening presentation on a 20 Year Perspective on Municipal Service Delivery Models in the United Kingdom Water Sector highlighting lessons that South Africa can learn. Schefer presented various business models used in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales that can be used as examples in order to supply sufficient funding to achieve an infrastructure investment programme for South Africa’s needs.  Schefer noted that these models were changed frequently to achieve differing outcomes and that workflow was key to delivery.  She concluded by stating that it was important that we move towards partnering, teamwork and collaboration and that consultants need to take the lead in developing and influencing approach with Government and stakeholders in order to prioritise investment and maximize economic growth and value to the public.

Consulting Engineers have a vitally important responsibility to society to influence policy to ensure the right outcome – Chris Barker
Chris Barker, Technical Director for Environment Regulation at MWH, UK expanded on Schefer’s presentation making the point that “secure clean water and sanitation costs money”, he also pointed out that the visibility of the cost of water is essential, as without visibility changes and efficiencies are stifled.

Alternative Delivery Models for Infrastructure Delivery in the Public Sector:

CESA has a responsibility to educate clients through collaboration and focus on development of teams through long term relationships - Alain Jacquet
Alain Jacquet, Consulting Engineer at Soderlund & Schutte believes that the industry has started to evolve and is already implementing alternative models and that the relationship between the Consultant and Contractor has moved from a Master/Slave relationship into a more collaborative approach.  He provided a number of examples and also discussed alternative pricing strategies and believes strongly that, “The client must drive the process of change and that the consulting engineer is responsible to educate clients through collaboration and focus on development of a team through long term relationships”.  It was also important, in the process, to reduce the number of relationships that the client was expected to manage.

Alain Jacquet, Sorderlund & Schutte; Mike Wylie, WBHO; Spencer Hodgson, WITS

Working to change relationships from master/slave to a collaborative approach with Health and Safety a non-negotiable - Spencer Hodgson
Spencer Hodgson, who is currently seconded to Wits University from Murray and Roberts to manage, their not inconsiderable, infrastructure programme, gave an interesting presentation from a client’s perspective based on the University’s current R1,5 billion infrastructure development programme involving approximately 40 active projects.  Their contract of choice was the New Engineering Contract – Target Cost Contract.

We need to get out there and do it - Mike Wylie
Mike Wylie from WBHO provided the conference with an insight from the Contractor’s perspective discussing the provision of services to rural towns.  He stated that the World Cup proved that Consulting Engineers and Contractors can work together on massive infrastructure projects and should be able to take these same skills and use them to improve the state of services in our country including the upgrading of municipalities, and in the process training and mentoring municipal employees in the town to be self sufficient.

We need to remove bureaucratic red tape – the more you regulate the more you provide room for corruption. We need to remove political interference in Municipalities - George Seitisho
George Seitisho, Portfolio Head of the Local Government Turnaround Strategy (LGTAS) for the Department of Cooperative Governance (DoCG) provided the conference with an enlightening presentation on overcoming the barriers to effective service delivery.  He stated that he gives full support to the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Mr Sicelo Shiceka with his efforts to depoliticise municipal functions. He went on to state that local government is working but is in distress  - there are many failures and weaknesses but that the LGAS is aimed at propelling municipalities towards the ideal state envisaged in the RDP and White Paper on Local Government (1988) and subsequent legislation e.g. the Local Government Act.  Innovative approaches to improve the state of service delivery are currently being put in place and include: the Review of the Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations System; to Strengthen and clarify support and intervention frameworks; Review the two tier model of Local Government; and the Review of local government legislation and introduction of policy reform where necessary.

Ronnie Khoza, cidb; Brenda Madumisa, BUSA; George Seitisho, DoCG

We have the capacity let’s use it - Ronnie Khoza
Ronnie Khoza, CEO of the cidb, stated that if South Africa is capable of hosting a tournament like the World Cup then there is a problem somewhere if we cannot sort out our municipal issues.  He stated that we need to go back to the time where the municipalities were the training ground for engineers.  He also stated that payment delays from government were getting worse and that although empowerment is important it needs to be balanced with delivery.  He believes that water and Waste Water Treatment is the next time bomb but that we have demonstrated our capacity and so let’s use it.  What is needed is a ‘World Cup’ approach to meeting the needs of service delivery in the municipal sphere of government.

The challenge is to ensure that we are ethical at all times and lead by example - Brenda Madumise
Advocate Brenda Madumise, Vice President: Professional Organisations at Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) believes that the Government cannot see the private sector as the enemy and that they must realise what we have as a country and need to leverage on this. Madumise believes that there should be a partnership between business and Government with no dominance.  She also believes that the industry needs to be a guiding light for Government and society in general and that with rights come responsibilities.  She stated that BUSA provides CESA with the ability to engage with Government to achieve their goals and that they will be engaging with Government and CoGTA during October in order to assist with service delivery strategies.  The cornerstone of this interaction has to be based on integrity and transparency.

Consulting Engineers have the power to design things in a sustainable manner - Naren Bhojaram
Naren Bhojaram, Deputy President of CESA and CEO of SSI Engineers and Environmental Consultants presented CESA’s role in ensuring sustainable development and introduced the conference to the concept of PEOPLE/ PLANET/ PROFIT and stated that when these are in balance it leads to a sustainable solution.  He believes that Consulting Engineers have the power to design things in a sustainable manner.  CESA supports the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) of the United Nations (UN), this is important as, 'if you can’t measure it then you can’t improve it'.  The organisation also has a commitment to the International Federation of Consulting Engineers’ (FIDIC) worldwide sustainability agenda and supports a number of FIDIC guidelines in this regard.

John Petzer, Border Kei Branch Chairman being congratulated by Zulch Lötter, CESA President

The Border Kei – East London Branch was named the winner of the Branch of the Year Award at our Annual General Meeting held recently.  The 2010 Branch of the Year award was closely contested between KwaZulu-Natal (the winner of the previous two consecutive Branch of the Year awards), Western Cape and Border Kei Branches.

This is the seventh year that CESA has given recognition to the best Branch out of 12 Branches nationwide. The award is based on the effectiveness of the Branch committee structure; Branch organisation; and communication with local members.  In addition, the judges look at the consistency and number of client liaison and Branch meetings as well as how well the Annual Presidential visit is organised by the Branch.

The Border Kei Branch stood out above the rest by consistently organising monthly Branch meetings as well as organising a Joint Branch Job Shadow Day to name but a few initiatives.  “The success of the Border Kei Branch is as a result of the committee and member companies working together. As a team we tried to solve common issues that affected members, clients and the young professionals for the benefit of our industry,” commented John Petzer, Border Kei Branch Chairman.

“A decision has been taken to announce the Branch of the Year Award at the prestigious 2011 CESA Glenrand MIB Engineering Excellence Awards and in so doing elevate the status of this very important award,” announced Godfrey Ramalisa, CESA's Client Liaison Manager.  Once again, congratulations to John Petzer and his team of volunteers for winning the award and contributing to CESA’s success over the past year.

A 20 strong delegation from Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) have just returned from the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) conference held in New Delhi, India where FIDIC hosted 650 delegates, with 140 emanating from India.  The theme of the conference was ‘Managing Innovation – The Way Forward’ covering topics such as: The Driver’s of Innovation; Innovation in Project Finance; Risk Management; and the Tools of Innovation.  There was a strong emphasis on tracking deliverables from last year’s conference and exploring the many facets of innovation, including political challenges, business issues, services provided and how best to achieve high quality sustainable projects.

Enrico Vink (FIDIC CEO), Nader Shokoufi (YPF outgoing Chair), Michele Kruger(YPF Incoming Chair), Greggs Thomopolous (FIDIC President), Geoff French (FIDIC Deputy President), Adam Thorton (FIDIC Executive
Committee)

The CEO’s of 3 member firms and CESA Council Members presented papers at the conference. Naren Bhojaram, CESA Deputy President and CEO of SSI, presented a paper on Integrity Management – the South African Experience; Francois Swart, Council member and CEO of Bigen Africa presented a paper on Innovation in Project Management – a South African Case Study; and Zulch Lötter, CESA President and CEO of UWP Consulting, chaired the afternoon session for the Group of Africa Member Associations (GAMA) with a theme of the Impact of the Economic Downturn on Africa.  The GAMA Africa Regional Business Forum focused on an overview of the market situation as a result of the global economic downturn and the impact on Africa.

There was much discussed about Innovation in particular that it has to become the cornerstone of maintaining a firm’s competitive edge focusing on value add to the client. Risk Management remains a central element, but can in fact become a barrier to innovative processes. The link between sustainability and innovation was also explored and it was emphasised that meeting targets was no longer sufficient. There is a major case for restorative action going way beyond just attaining zero environmental impact, if the drivers of climate change are ever to be mitigated in any meaningful way. It was stated that innovation should be celebrated within a company where management means it, rewards it, respects it and creates an environment that will not tolerate anything less than delivering it. It is essential to ensure a blameless management culture. FIDIC is currently reviewing a number of its guidelines and policy statements and Graham Pirie, CEO of CESA has been included in the Capacity Building Committee which will review all of FIDIC related policies and guidelines which were last published in 2001.

Association Directors from 22 countries met to discuss a wide range of issues including the aftermath of the global credit crunch on local industries, industry policy issues and Association management issues. Graham Pirie, CEO of CESA, presented a paper on the impact of the global economic downturn on South Africa and listened with interest to a similar paper presented on the situation in Japan, where drivers affecting the that country are diametrically opposed to that of South Africa.  Pirie stated that, “It became clear that emerging economies have been shielded from the worst effects”.

Joel McAllister (Canada), Selena Wilson (Canada), Meggyn Visser (RSA), Michele Kruger (RSA), Nader Shokoufi (Iran), Monoocher Azizi (Iran).

A highlight of the conference was that Dr. Michele Kruger, Chairperson of the South African Young Professionals Forum (YPF) was elected International Chairperson of the FIDIC YPF Steering Committee for a 2 year period.  Winner of the Young Engineer Award at the 2010 CESA Glenrand MIB Engineering Excellence Award’s, Dr. Willem Sprong from GIBB also attended the conference. The YPF hosted a successful business forum, looking at the key issue of succession management in consulting firms.  Not surprisingly, with the greying of industry leaders becoming a more significant issue, the question of identifying and nurturing future leaders become all the more important, especially when addressing innovation as a core strategy in maintaining competitiveness. Other YP activities at the conference included:

• an informal “Mix and Meet” where the Steering Committee introduced themselves and the conference YP activities,
• meeting with the FIDIC Executive Committee, where the YPs were encouraged by the FIDIC Executive Committee, especially regarding the worldwide recession and how “it too will pass”
• a YP technical tour of the Delhi Metro, including a trip on the Metro to “Old Delhi”, and,
• a Social Evening that was filled with sumptuous Indian food,  wonderful company and enthusiastic dancing!

Godfrey Ramalisa, CESA; Derrick Makhubele, Deutsche Securities; Rudd van Deventer, SpaceWorx

The 3rd annual convention of the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) took place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre during September this year.  CESA was represented at the conference by Godfrey Ramalisa, Manager: Client Liaison and Cobus van Dyk from UWP Consulting. The informative presentations ranged from updates on progress in the South African Green Building sphere where two new office building certification awards were announced; to inspiring overviews by leading international consultants on Green Building developments abroad. An important aspect that became evident during the convention was the need for professionals to rethink normative economic-based design in order to move beyond merely decreasing environmental impacts (as is the case with just realizing greener buildings.) Industry needs to move towards attentively integrated and appropriate development solutions adding “Real Value” to social and ecological spheres – the life around us.  For more information please visit www.gbcsa.co.za.

MEETING SERVICE DELIVERY CHALLENGES

CESA was once again pleased to partner with the Institute of Municipal Engineers (IMESA) for their annual industry Conference and Awards Ceremony.  The theme of the conference was ‘Meeting Service Delivery Challenges’.  A number of courses were run alongside the conference and Graham Pirie attended the ‘Infrastructure Asset Management’ one day course which he found most enlightening. CESA member firms featured prominently in the IMESA Awards ceremony with Awards in 6 categories being handed over at a gala dinner by Jannie Pietersen, the incoming IMESA President and Zulch Lötter, President of CESA.  eThekwini Municipality was the winner in the Structures and Buildings category for the Warwick Triangle Viaduct Outbound; Knysna Municipality was the winner in the Water and Waste Water category for the Life Beyond Our Rivers – Sedgefield Case Study; eThekwini Municipality was the winner for the Roads and Stormwater category for the Warwick Triangle Viaduct Inbound; the City of Cape Town was the winner in the Environmental category for the Lourens River Flood Alleviation; George Municipality was the winner in the Community Upliftment category for the Emergency Re-use of Treated Effluent; and eThekwini Municipality was winner in the New Soccer Stadium category for the Moses Mabhida Stadium.

Jannie Pietersen, IMESA President and Zulch Lötter, CESA President handing over of the Certificate to Dave Renwick of eThekwini Municipality for the Moses Mabhida Stadium - winner in the category 2010 New Soccer Stadium

Jannie  Pietersen (IMESA), Harold Basson (George Municipality)  Zulch Lötter (CESA) Drikus Potgieter (Aurecon) Japie Van Eeden (SSI)

Jannie  Pietersen (IMESA), Francis Gibbons (SSI) Johan Massyn (CoCT) Zulch Lötter (CESA)

The 2010 CESA Presidential Golf Challenge was held on both the Woodmead and Rocklands courses at the Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead during September and was a huge success. This year 42 four ball teams participated, up from 30 last year.  Kuvashnee Govender, Manager: Marketing and Communications, would like to thank all CESA member firms that participated in helping to achieve yet another successful Golf Challenge.  Fanie de Villiers acted as Master of Ceremonies and prizes were handed over by CESA President, Zulch Lötter.

Fannie de Villiers, Master of Ceremonies

WOODMEAD COURSE:

Winning Team: TWP Consulting Engineers, Digby Glover, Chris Erasmus, Nico Muller, Don Munro

ROCKLANDS COURSE:

Winning Team: Honeywell Automation & Control Solutions, Kevin Pearman, Jayce Reddy, Wieland Madel, Richard Creighton

A long list of sponsors helped make the day the success that it was and CESA would like to, once again, sincerely thank them for their continued support:

PREMIUM HOLE SPONSORS:

STANDARD HOLE SPONSORS:

The 2010 CESA Bowls Day dished up some hot competition on an otherwise chilly spring day. Local consulting engineers from Tsitsikamma to Mossel Bay arrived at the George Bowling Club to participate in this annual tournament. The aim of the tournament is for consulting engineers in the Southern Cape area to get together and mingle in an informal setting. This networking opportunity is an important part of Consulting Engineers South Africa’s (CESA’s) mandate.
Last year 16 teams entered the competition and this year saw 20 teams entering. The tournament consists of two rounds with the first round being a random draw. Based on the results from the first round, winners were then drawn to play off against winners for the main trophy while losers would play off against other losers in competition for the plate event. At all times friendly George Bowling Club members were on hand to give coaching tips and help decide which bowls were lying the closest to the ‘jack’. Great fun was had by all, confirming that contrary to popular opinion, the sport of bowls is highly enjoyable for people of all ages. An added benefit is that one gets to socialise not only with own your team mates and opponents, but also with teams playing on the neighbouring rinks so, for a networking function, a bowls day is the ideal event.

The tournament winners were:

CESA is pleased to announce that the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has approved the exposition documents relating to the proposed merger between BEPMEDS and TopMed Medical Scheme based on the following:

Size – TopMed meets the medium size criterion laid down by the Trustees, so that there is potential for BEPMEDS to have greater influence, both in merger discussions and going forward. TopMed exceeds the minimum size required by the CMS.

Option Choices – TopMed has five options, falling under the categories of Traditional (1), New Generation (2) and General (2) (Hospital and Network). Thus, greater choice will be available than via BEPMEDS three options.

Savings – TopMed offers options with and without medical savings accounts. BEPMEDS members with savings will therefore be able to retain them within TopMed, provided a savings option is selected. A payout of savings triggers a taxable event.

Administration – TopMed is also administered by MMSA, BEPMEDS’ administrator. A merger with TopMed will thus provide minimal disruption, as Bepmeds members will be able to retain their existing membership numbers.

Solvency – TopMed has significant reserves (R111m) and has budgeted for a solvency ratio at end 2011 of over 36%, well in excess of the CMS requirement of 25%. Even after a merger with BEPMEDS, the solvency at end 2011 is still projected to be above 30%.

Loyalty Programme – TopMed also offers Multiply, the loyalty programme already enjoyed by BEPMEDS members.

Underwriting – TopMed has advised that BEPMEDS members (current and future) will be combined and treated as a `super group’, which means that no underwriting will be applied. This will be to the advantage of new members joining existing firms and new Built Environment firms that apply for membership of TopMed.

The proposed merger date, subject to final CMS approval is 1 January 2011.

Should you have any queries, please contact the TopMed call centre:
Call Centre: 0860 00 21 58
Fax Number: 031 580 0480
E-mail: info@topmedms.co.za

Or you may contact Vincent Knox, the TopMed Broker at:
Professional Benefits Solution
Tel: 012 460 0430
Mobile: 083 676 0124
Email: vknox@profhealth.co.za