Engineers at forefront of delivery

ENGINEERS in the Eastern Cape are on the frontline of infrastructure delivery and have to resist political pressure which could lead towards maladministration and corruption.

This was said by Malcolm Pautz, the president of the SA Institute of Civil Engineering (Saice), and Saice chief executive Manglin Pillay in an interview in East London.

They were speaking before addressing the Saice Eastern Cape regional engineering awards gala dinner at the East London Golf Club last week.

Fifteen projects entered the competition, last held 12 years ago.

The competition was revived to support the province’s 850 technicians, technologists and engineers who have suffered an exodus of colleagues in their 30s and 40s.

A lot of young black engineers were coming into the sector and were being mentored by the 50- and-older greybeard generation.

The winners, said Saice’s Amathole chairman Leigh Bahlmann, were:

● Community-based project: Sontinga Consulting Services and ARQ Consulting Engineers, appointed by Amathole municipality, for their design and construction of the Mncwasa regional water supply scheme for 63 villages in the Mbashe municipality near Hole-in-the-Wall;

● Technical excellence: Aurecon SA’s joint venture with Sanral to design the 14km two-lane portion of the N2 between Soutwerke and Colchester. Concor Holdings (Pty) Ltd were the main contractors, and Ibhayi Contractors and Dura Soletanche Bachy were the sub-contractors.

Pautz and Pillay said: “We are celebrating the victory and successes of Eastern Cape civil engineers. These projects translate to service delivery to the people, to the poor and to the politicians.

“When you have competent engineers, projects happen. When you don’t, money is siphoned off, there is maladministration, and people burn tyres and get upset with politicians.”

Pillay said: “We are celebrating these 15 projects because they are getting it right, because there has been understanding and collaboration and that is when service delivery happens, and not blockage.”

Pautz said: “We have a good bunch of youngsters coming up, but the public sector lacks capacity to mentor and upskill. Municipalities are sending their youngsters to the private sector. But we need competent, registered experienced engineers in the public sector, inside government, who can ensure projects happen.”

Pautz encouraged young engineers to get involved and take responsibility to effect change.

“They should hold government accountable,” he said.

They said 80% of infrastructure work “comes from the public sector but R34billion has been lost to corruption”.

In September last year the public works department reported losing R34.9-billion to wrongful and wasteful construction and leasing of state buildings since 2009. The department blamed “supply-chain management processes not (being) adhered to”.

Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi said: “Accountability for all of us is the culture I am trying to inculcate at public works.” —