Date: 07/11/2003
Source: Ministry of Public Works
Title: Sigcau: Lekgotla Conference of Engineering Council of SA
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS, MS STELLA SIGCAU, MP AT THE LEKGOTLA CONFERENCE OF ENGINEERING COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA, Willowpark Conference Centre, Kempton Park, 7 November 2003
The President of the Engineering Council of South Africa, Mr Bob Pullen
The Chief Executive Officer, Mr Paul Roux
Members of the Council for Built Environment present here today
Ladies and Gentlemen
I feel overwhelmed to be surrounded by such dynamic and creative talent. It is always a marvel to observe, at close range, critical minds hard at work as they dissect through issues, identify challenges and design solutions. Invariably, one would expect a forum of fertile minds such as this one to bring forth constructive decisions. As they say, a mind is somehow like a hand. Both can grasp the world and more importantly, change it.
The next two days will be important as you deliberate about issues that affect the form, the content and the context of your organisation. Of significance, will be the debates that touch on the core mandate of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) such as the registration of professionals and the positioning of ECSA to enhance its value within the Council for the Built Environment (CBE). As you are aware, the engineering profession is one of the six professions comprising the CBE, alongside architecture, landscape architecture, property valuers, quantity surveying and project and construction management.
The CBE was established among others, to:
* Protect and maintain a sustainable built environment and natural environment
* Promote and protect the interests of the public in the built environment
* Promote ongoing human resource development in the built environment
* Facilitate participation by the built environment professions in integrated development in the context of national goals.
The above objectives are by no means exhaustive. They were chosen primarily because they touch on the critical challenges this country is facing, namely transformation, nation building and developmental agenda.
To promote and perpetuate engineering as a profession, ECSA will need to embark on a trend to demystify the profession and de-emphasize its elitist image. More blacks, women and youth must be attracted to the profession based on its potential to contribute to the transformation discourse. It is said that in just few years, the Hollywood film director, Mr Steven Spielberg, did for palaeontology what palaeontology failed to do in hundred years - i.e. to bring the discipline to the understandable levels of everyone. Today everyone goes dinosaur-hugging thanks to Jurassic Park and its influence.
Early next year my department will launch and execute the Construction Industry Week as a campaign aimed at bringing the benefits and significance of the construction industry to the attention of all South Africans. I wish to see engineering taking one of the centre stages within the campaign.
The concept of nation building should also incorporate regional development and African renaissance. To be a world-class organisation, ECSA will have to proactively network (share ideas) with sister organisations in the sub-region and benchmark (share best practices) with the best in the world.
Opportunities beckon in Africa as the continent recovers from devastating conflicts and wars, which denuded infrastructure and scarred the natural environment. In conjunction with the Department of Defence, my department is exploring constructive ways to contribute to peacetime Africa by harnessing the expertise and capability of professions including engineering. I am heartened by the involvement of ECSA in Mozambique through the provision of professional advice to the engineering faculty of the University in Maputo.
In times of peace the discipline of engineering is in the forefront of harnessing the forces of nature for the benefit of humanity. In the aftermath of natural and human made disasters, engineers play a leading role in the reconstruction efforts. In this connection we salute our engineers who in the recent period helped the people of Mozambique and Angola. Your expertise and sense of duty has definitely put our country on the map.
A holistic approach to human existence dictates that professionals, industry, academia, government and communities collaborate in the delivery of services, whilst at the same time embraces values that ensure that human beings engage nature in a rational and sustainable manner.
As I said at the Stakeholder forum, human capital is another critical factor for both growth and empowerment. We are not producing enough qualified people at the artisan, supervisory and professional levels. Not enough of those that we do produce are black or women. How do we set our transformation goals for a 10-year horizon without addressing the development of our human capital?
Skills creation and human resource development are cornerstones of a successful nation building. At the recent engagement I had with the representatives of the industry in Port Elizabeth, frustrations were raised with regard to the slow rollout of skills funds through Construction, Education and Training Authority (CETA). In defence, CETA pointed to a lack of proactivity by employers as a cause. Caught in this crossfire is a nation held to ransom by a depleted cadre of skilled personnel.
Recent tragedies such as the collapse of a shopping centre in Pretoria compromises the interest and the trust that the public had come to invest in the built environment professions. Again ECSA is called upon to take a visible leadership role in instituting disciplinary actions against professionals who contravene the Code of Conduct. I applaud the action taken by ECSA in the above incident wherein the organisation pursued the engineer responsible. Also, I noted with concern the prohibitive costs that are involved in successfully bringing those cases to conclusion. It has been brought to my attention that ECSA has to fund these hearings entirely from the annual fees paid by the registered persons, which is not sustainable in the short and long term. I avail myself to engage and discuss with you alternative sources of funding for other noble causes.
Health matters, such as HIV/AIDS, need to be incorporated into your planning. They need to inform every tenet of your business as this country and this profession cannot afford to run the risks posed by the high incidence rate of HIV/AIDS.
As the country copes with post-apartheid restructuring and globalisation, built environment professions including engineering should compete with one another to contribute to the social and economic development agenda of the country. South Africa as a developing country is confronted with high unemployment rate and an infrastructure backlog estimated at more than R170 billion. Government initiatives such as the Presidential Expanded Public Works Programme seek to address the above challenges by increasing infrastructure spending, stimulating infrastructure development, creating jobs and developing skills. Any accredited, professionally recognised engineering discipline has a role to play in designing and delivering basic and essential infrastructure that we need to increase the fixed asset worth of the country.
As custodians of state's immovable assets, the Department of Public Works manages a huge property portfolio on behalf of government. Depreciation and lack of proper maintenance plans in the past threaten this heritage. We rely on built environment professionals to salvage this treasure. New demands mean that the Department of Public Works adds to this portfolio regularly as it manages a building programme of capital works including maintenance projects on behalf of other organs of state. Again the role of the professions cannot be over-emphasised.
I want to reiterate that major civilisations of the world were driven among others by a fertile built environment activity, which created legends and bequeathed the modern world with legacies untold. The Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Walls of Zimbabwe, the Great Temples of the Incas and the magnificent sites of Mapungubwe and Thulamela, all point to the presence of a dynamic and creative talent as encapsulated in the engineering professionals. Again, what a marvel it would have been to observe, at close range, professional men and women as they conceived of designs and structures in their critical minds, before they translated their mental sketches into real wonders of the ancient world.
Thank you.
Issued by: Ministry of Public Works
7 November 2003
Source: Ministry of Public Works
Title: Sigcau: Lekgotla Conference of Engineering Council of SA
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS, MS STELLA SIGCAU, MP AT THE LEKGOTLA CONFERENCE OF ENGINEERING COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA, Willowpark Conference Centre, Kempton Park, 7 November 2003
The President of the Engineering Council of South Africa, Mr Bob Pullen
The Chief Executive Officer, Mr Paul Roux
Members of the Council for Built Environment present here today
Ladies and Gentlemen
I feel overwhelmed to be surrounded by such dynamic and creative talent. It is always a marvel to observe, at close range, critical minds hard at work as they dissect through issues, identify challenges and design solutions. Invariably, one would expect a forum of fertile minds such as this one to bring forth constructive decisions. As they say, a mind is somehow like a hand. Both can grasp the world and more importantly, change it.
The next two days will be important as you deliberate about issues that affect the form, the content and the context of your organisation. Of significance, will be the debates that touch on the core mandate of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) such as the registration of professionals and the positioning of ECSA to enhance its value within the Council for the Built Environment (CBE). As you are aware, the engineering profession is one of the six professions comprising the CBE, alongside architecture, landscape architecture, property valuers, quantity surveying and project and construction management.
The CBE was established among others, to:
* Protect and maintain a sustainable built environment and natural environment
* Promote and protect the interests of the public in the built environment
* Promote ongoing human resource development in the built environment
* Facilitate participation by the built environment professions in integrated development in the context of national goals.
The above objectives are by no means exhaustive. They were chosen primarily because they touch on the critical challenges this country is facing, namely transformation, nation building and developmental agenda.
To promote and perpetuate engineering as a profession, ECSA will need to embark on a trend to demystify the profession and de-emphasize its elitist image. More blacks, women and youth must be attracted to the profession based on its potential to contribute to the transformation discourse. It is said that in just few years, the Hollywood film director, Mr Steven Spielberg, did for palaeontology what palaeontology failed to do in hundred years - i.e. to bring the discipline to the understandable levels of everyone. Today everyone goes dinosaur-hugging thanks to Jurassic Park and its influence.
Early next year my department will launch and execute the Construction Industry Week as a campaign aimed at bringing the benefits and significance of the construction industry to the attention of all South Africans. I wish to see engineering taking one of the centre stages within the campaign.
The concept of nation building should also incorporate regional development and African renaissance. To be a world-class organisation, ECSA will have to proactively network (share ideas) with sister organisations in the sub-region and benchmark (share best practices) with the best in the world.
Opportunities beckon in Africa as the continent recovers from devastating conflicts and wars, which denuded infrastructure and scarred the natural environment. In conjunction with the Department of Defence, my department is exploring constructive ways to contribute to peacetime Africa by harnessing the expertise and capability of professions including engineering. I am heartened by the involvement of ECSA in Mozambique through the provision of professional advice to the engineering faculty of the University in Maputo.
In times of peace the discipline of engineering is in the forefront of harnessing the forces of nature for the benefit of humanity. In the aftermath of natural and human made disasters, engineers play a leading role in the reconstruction efforts. In this connection we salute our engineers who in the recent period helped the people of Mozambique and Angola. Your expertise and sense of duty has definitely put our country on the map.
A holistic approach to human existence dictates that professionals, industry, academia, government and communities collaborate in the delivery of services, whilst at the same time embraces values that ensure that human beings engage nature in a rational and sustainable manner.
As I said at the Stakeholder forum, human capital is another critical factor for both growth and empowerment. We are not producing enough qualified people at the artisan, supervisory and professional levels. Not enough of those that we do produce are black or women. How do we set our transformation goals for a 10-year horizon without addressing the development of our human capital?
Skills creation and human resource development are cornerstones of a successful nation building. At the recent engagement I had with the representatives of the industry in Port Elizabeth, frustrations were raised with regard to the slow rollout of skills funds through Construction, Education and Training Authority (CETA). In defence, CETA pointed to a lack of proactivity by employers as a cause. Caught in this crossfire is a nation held to ransom by a depleted cadre of skilled personnel.
Recent tragedies such as the collapse of a shopping centre in Pretoria compromises the interest and the trust that the public had come to invest in the built environment professions. Again ECSA is called upon to take a visible leadership role in instituting disciplinary actions against professionals who contravene the Code of Conduct. I applaud the action taken by ECSA in the above incident wherein the organisation pursued the engineer responsible. Also, I noted with concern the prohibitive costs that are involved in successfully bringing those cases to conclusion. It has been brought to my attention that ECSA has to fund these hearings entirely from the annual fees paid by the registered persons, which is not sustainable in the short and long term. I avail myself to engage and discuss with you alternative sources of funding for other noble causes.
Health matters, such as HIV/AIDS, need to be incorporated into your planning. They need to inform every tenet of your business as this country and this profession cannot afford to run the risks posed by the high incidence rate of HIV/AIDS.
As the country copes with post-apartheid restructuring and globalisation, built environment professions including engineering should compete with one another to contribute to the social and economic development agenda of the country. South Africa as a developing country is confronted with high unemployment rate and an infrastructure backlog estimated at more than R170 billion. Government initiatives such as the Presidential Expanded Public Works Programme seek to address the above challenges by increasing infrastructure spending, stimulating infrastructure development, creating jobs and developing skills. Any accredited, professionally recognised engineering discipline has a role to play in designing and delivering basic and essential infrastructure that we need to increase the fixed asset worth of the country.
As custodians of state's immovable assets, the Department of Public Works manages a huge property portfolio on behalf of government. Depreciation and lack of proper maintenance plans in the past threaten this heritage. We rely on built environment professionals to salvage this treasure. New demands mean that the Department of Public Works adds to this portfolio regularly as it manages a building programme of capital works including maintenance projects on behalf of other organs of state. Again the role of the professions cannot be over-emphasised.
I want to reiterate that major civilisations of the world were driven among others by a fertile built environment activity, which created legends and bequeathed the modern world with legacies untold. The Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Walls of Zimbabwe, the Great Temples of the Incas and the magnificent sites of Mapungubwe and Thulamela, all point to the presence of a dynamic and creative talent as encapsulated in the engineering professionals. Again, what a marvel it would have been to observe, at close range, professional men and women as they conceived of designs and structures in their critical minds, before they translated their mental sketches into real wonders of the ancient world.
Thank you.
Issued by: Ministry of Public Works
7 November 2003
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