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OPINION : The Government of National Unity and engineers

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South Africa is fortunate to have a wealth of highly skilled, knowledgeable, and seasoned engineering specialists, according to Mvuleni Kekana. Given the opportunity, these professionals have the potential to transform service delivery in struggling provinces. Their expertise could turn poor projects into high-quality initiatives, leading to sustainable job creation and economic prosperity.


Poor service delivery is a lose-lose situation for all in South Africa! Politicians/government promise to deliver infrastructure service. However, those are empty words as ONLY ENGINEERING PRACTITIONERS are capable of actually delivering services such as water, roads, sanitation, schools, hospitals, etc. to all the people of our country!

Poor service delivery, which includes potholes, loadshedding, no water, inadequate sanitation, etc. is a threat to democracy for it leads to riotous protests and even to people not voting in elections!

The Government of National Unity (GNU) MUST take corrective action to deliver basic human rights infrastructure. If it is not done, it would be perilous for peace and stability.

A starting point is to appoint professionally registered, competent engineers in positions from ministers, heads of departments, SoEs, etc. in technical infrastructure ministries/departments across all tiers of government — ONLY then would real services infrastructure delivery happen!

The GNU must issue an instruction reserving senior technical managers’ positions in infrastructure-related provincial and national departments for engineering practitioners who are ECSA registered and with the relevant sector skills.

The same must be done for technical services managers and engineering profession municipal ‘manager’ positions for infrastructure #electicity #roads #water #sanitation, etc. as they are supposed to be reserved for competent professional engineers with relevant experience.

South Africa is blessed with highly qualified, competent and experienced engineering practitioners, who could, if given a chance, change services delivery in the worst-performing provinces from poor into quality projects, sustainable jobs and economic growth!

President Ramaphosa: Send for the engineers!

Mvuleni Kekana, a skilled engineering professional, has worked in software engineering, higher education, and management consulting. His experience includes consulting, cloud engineering, strategy development, technology architecture, software engineering, and project management. Kekana's background in electrical engineering has equipped him with strong planning, organizational, and interpersonal skills.

Do you agree with Mvuleni Kekana? Send us your views on your thoughts around the GNU and the infrastructure sector here. 

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Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 20, 2024 at 4:06 PM

    I agree with Mvuleni Kekana. The construction industry has been opened to everyone in this country, educators, sports men, health practitioners, artists, law practitioners, banking practitioners, taxi owners and etc. The sector is not confined to professional and experienced engineers and construction managers. Everyone does construction work in this country; hence we find poor quality, no project completion time frame met, poor cash flow management. Surprisingly professional engineers and construction managers are not welcome to the other sectors. You wouldn't be allowed to run a medical surgery or law firm without the relevant qualifications for that field. Most people who win construction tenders in state institutions are not engineers or construction managers. How can service delivery be achieved in this situation?

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