August 2013
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
8
The I nstitute of Municipal
Engi nee r i ng o f Southe r n
Africa (IMESA), the oldest
industry association serving
the discipline of municipal
engineers in the country,
commenced with lobbying
for higher integration and
collaboration between local
governments in Southern Africa.
marketplace
OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS,
IMESA has
increasingly tabled the importance of not
only serving South African municipal en-
gineers, but also to develop a network of
support, knowledge sharing and service
integration for the municipal engineering
fraternity across the SADC states.
The opportunity for IMESA to open a
branch in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare has
arisen, and the organisation is actively pursu-
ing its obligation to become more visible in
Southern African countries.
“South African municipalities face very
similar challenges to the rest of Southern
Africa. It is critical for local governments in
South Africa to engage with our neighbour-
ing countries, to ensure knowledge and skills
transfer, capacity building and sharing best
practice examples at local level,” says Frank
Stevens, president of IMESA.
Two years ago, Stevens was invited to
Mutare, Zimbabwe’s third largest city to
deliver the Cecil Leonard Robertson Memo-
rial Lecture to the Zimbabwe Institution of
Engineers (ZIE), a multidisciplinary industry
association in Zimbabwe.
The ZIE has been serving engineers in
Zimbabwe since 1944, and aims to maintain
appropriate standards for engineering and
technician competence, while promoting the
advancement of the engineering discipline.
Although Stevens’ presentation focused
on water and sanitation service delivery,
he had an opportunity to share some back-
ground and information about the work
IMESA does, and left the conference being
inspiredby the 140 delegates’interest and ea-
gerness to get involvedwith the organisation.
“As an organisation we have become
actively aware of the importance to liaisewith
our neighbouring states. Recently, SADC held
a workshop to promote the co-operation
on trans-boundary water resources, and ad-
dress Southern African water management
challenges, in light of a rising demand for
water access and services.This is only one ex-
ample illustrating the growing need for cross-
border collaboration to stimulate resource
and management integration amongst
Towards a more substantial role
SouthernAfricanmunicipalities,”says Stevens.
The vision to establish an IMESA branch
in Harare gained more momentum when
members of IMESA met with Simon Muser-
ere, the wastewater manager with the City
of Harare and a corporate member of ZIE,
at the eThekwini municipality’s water and
sanitation division.
Muserere is actively involvedwith an out-
reach and upliftment programme funded by
eThekwini, the World Bank and AusAID – an
ongoing initiative in Bulawayo andHarare for
some three years.
The eThekwini programme comprises
updating records, assessing the water and
sanitation systems, and attending to bottle-
necks and faults that exist in Bulawayo and
Harare’s service delivery networks.
Training is central to the programme and
focuses on geographic information systems
and pressure management. IMESA has
written to Dr Sanzan Diarra, the CEO of the
ZIE, as well as the Town Clerk and heads of
departments of Harare Municipality regard-
ing the establishment of a Zimbabwe IMESA
branch. A two-day workshop is envisioned
to serve as a platform for planning the future
steps and will hopefully guide the planned
creation of the IMESA branch in Harare.
IMESA is currently exploring the setting
up of a similar process in Swaziland. The
notion was met with enthusiasm by munici-
pal engineers in Mbabane
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