President’s comment

A warm welcome to all our Institute members and IMIESA readers! We hoped that we’d see the back of Covid-19 going into 2021, but that was not to be. The best we can do for now is adhere to health and safety protocols and await the nationwide vaccination roll-out.

The year 2020 was period of turbulent change; however, history demonstrates that change is inevitable and that we must embrace both the threats and opportunities presented. This is particularly the case when it comes to addressing the major inequalities in our society exacerbated by the pandemic. Examples include infrastructure gaps in the provision of key services that include housing, water and sanitation, and transportation.

For municipal engineers, the responsibility rests with us to deliver the optimum solutions if we want our communities and regional economies to flourish. Despite recent budget cuts, a lot can still be achieved when we prioritise the most urgent projects and implement a value engineering approach.

From past Auditor-General reports, we know that wasteful and fruitless expenditure has been a major factor hampering service delivery and this must stop. A contributing factor has been a fragmented approach to planning and execution, the so-called ‘fast-tracking’ methodology where projects deemed urgent are actioned, sometimes without effective due diligence. Going forward, rigorous project, risk management and quality control processes are essential, as is real-time oversight of infrastructure expenditure.

As civil and municipal engineers, we must stand together in ensuring that we live up to the Code of Conduct for Registered Persons in terms of the Engineering Professions Act (No. 46 of 2000). In addition to this, one of my key mandates as IMESA’s 2020-22 President is to take this a step further by motivating that ethics be made a compulsory part of the CPD cycle required for registration with the Engineering Council of South Africa. That would require registered practitioners to attend an ethics presentation annually during their five-year registration cycle.

Within my personal life, my husband and two children are qualified medical doctors and their professional lives are governed by their Hippocratic Oath. In my view, civil engineers should take a similar oath that determines the moral principles for ethical practice since their actions have a direct bearing on civilised society.

Our actions can either be intentional or unintentional. However, even if unintentional, a poorly evaluated decision or applied solution can still have negative consequences that could have been avoided.

In the aftermath of the devastation caused by the pandemic, South Africa’s ambitious infrastructure-led economic recovery plan will serve as a vital catalyst. As municipal and civil engineers, we are an integral part of that process and have an onerous responsibility to act as quality assurance gatekeepers.

Bhavna Soni, president, IMESA