The case for bringing in Cuban water engineers to help SA
● SA and Cuba established full diplomatic relations in May 1994 and have collaborated in the field of water and sanitation since December 2001, when the first bilateral agreement was signed.
Since then, a further two agreements have been signed. To date, 82 Cuban engineers and scientists have been seconded to the department of water & sanitation (DWS).
The Cuban secondment programme continues to assist the department in the following mutually agreed areas:
● Geohydrology and engineering services in rural and other disadvantaged areas where such services are inadequate;
● Exploitation of available water resources;
● Infrastructure for water supply;
● Capacity building through training and support of local staff; and
● Water management and water supply.
The second co-operation agreement was signed on September 9 2013 between the department and Cuba’s Institute of National Hydraulic Resources (INHR). This led to the secondment of 35 Cuban engineers who specialised in different fields such as hydrology and hydraulic, mechanical and electrical engineering.
Six of these engineers terminated their secondment contracts due to ill health and some due to family challenges that required them to return home to Cuba in February 2017.
The contracts of the remaining 29 expired at the end of June 2018. Following engagements with the Cuban embassy, 14 of these engineers returned to Cuba as scheduled, while the contracts for the others were extended to March 30 2019.
The third co-operation agreement was signed on February 6 2020 between the DWS and the INHR to second engineers to the department to focus on infrastructure operation and maintenance throughout the “water value chain” — from source to tap — and to provide training and capacity building for local candidate engineers and artisans.
The agreement is valid for five years and offers advantages for both countries: Cuba gains from having its engineers and scientists exposed to fairly advanced technology and programmes in SA; and SA benefits from the expertise that the Cubans share with local engineers, scientists and graduate trainees working in the DWS.
As a result of the decades-long embargo imposed on Cuba and its lack of financial resources, its engineers were “forced” to focus on maintaining, rehabilitating and refurbishing infrastructure to prolong its lifespan.
While the DWS derived great benefit from the secondment of Cuban engineers in the first two programmes and consequently entered into a third agreement, there remains a great deal of dissatisfaction in the sector with regard to the programme.
Critics say the Cuban engineers do not meet the requirements for professional recognition by the Engineering Council of SA and might do work that would normally be reserved for professionally registered engineers.
The critics say the DWS is “importing” skills from Cuba despite there being many qualified and graduate South African engineers who are unemployed, and that local engineering consulting firms have the capacity to support the department.
They say the money spent by the government on the programme (R54m in 2020/2021 and R61m in 2021/2022) should rather be used to employ South African professionals.
The unfortunate reality is that, due to the economic impact of Covid, some companies are still retrenching staff and it is reported that graduate engineers are resorting to taking technician-level posts in the ailing municipalities. It is also true that many have been unable to complete accreditation requirements.
To ease the skills gap in the current financial year, the department has budgeted R22.6m to fill 32 posts at engineer, technologist, technician and scientist level on a permanent basis. The deployment of the 24 Cuban engineers is intended, on a temporary basis (three years), to supplement capacity while these posts are being filled. No Cuban engineers will be occupying permanent posts.
In reflecting on some of the achievements of the second co-operation programme, which ran from 2014 to 2019, we can indicate that the Cubans supplemented capacity in seven provincial offices (12 engineers), in four infrastructure cluster offices (22 engineers) and at head office (one specialist in branch regulations).
These engineers were involved in various infrastructure projects in roles that included project management, engineering design (under supervision) and hydrology. A comprehensive list of all the projects they were involved in is available.
They were allocated supervisors and most were involved in mentoring and skills transfer to departmental staff, graduate trainees and in some cases to officials working in municipalities. They developed guidelines to be used by officials in operations and maintenance in Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape, North West and on the Tugela-Vaal transfer scheme.
The main concerns of critics is that the Cubans do not have professional registration but might do work falling within the competence of professional engineers, and that the department should only appoint registered professional engineers. It is important to note that the reason they are not registered is the blockade by Western countries, not inadequate training.
The department is engaging with the Engineering Council of SA about the deployment. The council has confirmed it will not intervene in the employer/employee relationship and that there is no legal impediment to the department using nonregistered professionals.
Throughout their deployment, the Cubans will work under the supervision of registered professionals in the employ of the department.
It is also pleasing and humbling to note that Solidarity has decided to withdraw its court action against the department and minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
This will encourage cordial interaction with the trade union as part of the department’s programme of engagements with all stakeholders within the sector. We are convinced that further engagements will lead to finding common ground.