Infrastructure crisis highlights urgent need for engineers to occupy ‘meaningful seat at table'
Amid a national maintenance “crisis” and slow delivery against government’s R1-trillion infrastructure commitment, Consulting Engineers South Africa (Cesa) believes it has now become urgent for engineers to occupy a “meaningful seat at the decision-making table”.
In an address to the media, Cesa president Dr Vishal Haripersad argued that engineers remained “vastly underrepresented on government boards, statutory bodies, and strategic advisory forums”.
The absence of engineering professionals on such structures, he added, raised serious questions about who was making decisions about infrastructure.
“Is it any surprise, then, that projects overrun, infrastructure fails, and public trust erodes?” he asked.
“This exclusion is not abstract. It has consequences, measured in unsafe bridges, roads, unreliable water systems, stalled projects, and billions lost to corruption.”
Haripersad also bemoaned the fact that engineers were generally consulted only after projects failed.
“Why do we call on engineers to fix collapsing systems, but exclude them when strategies, budgets, and priorities are set?”
The underrepresentation of engineers was not only evident in decaying infrastructure, and most notably recently in the failure of municipalities to provide households and businesses with a stable supply of water, but also in the way engineering services were being priced and procured.
“Too often, engineers are perceived, and perhaps we have started to perceive ourselves, not as visionaries, but as implementers or as a commodity to be procured at the lowest price,” he said, while also highlighting that many Cesa members were either not being paid on time or not being paid at all.
“Our nation, and indeed our profession, is at a crossroads.
“We must reclaim the role of our engineering expertise, and accountability in both the public and private sector space as the foundation of development.”
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