4
MODERN QUARRYING
October - November 2013
AROUND THE
INDUSTRY
T
he industry continues to have to
adapt to a low growth environment
as the outlook for infrastructure
spending continues to be hampered by
poor economic growth, lower than ex-
pected revenue by government, inter-
national economic instability and price
volatility, together with low private sector
confidence.
“We shall continue to track the eco-
nomic activity of the country via this
economic and capacity reporting tool
for our members’ benefit,” says Lefadi
Makibinyane, chief executive officer of
CESA. “CESA intends to be the advisor of
choice to the three tiers of government
in order to harness and harmonise the
consulting engineering service for the
benefit of quality of service to the nation
at large, bearing in mind global standards
as set by the International Federation of
Consulting Engineering (FIDIC) of whom
CESA is a member.
“The way that infrastructure pro
jects are planned and packaged requires
a concerted effort by government and
the inclusion of consulting engineering
firms at this initial planning stage, needs
to be emphasised,” he contends, adding
that going forward CESA will share the
strategy of how to achieve this with gov-
ernment and SOEs through continuous
bilateral meetings.
Consulting Engineers South Africa’s latest Bi-annual Economic and Capacity Survey
(BECS) – January to June 2013 just released – indicates that conditions in the first six
months of 2013 were not as bad as expected, considering the better than expected
increase in earnings, alongside a healthy increase in employment.
Economic growth on par with expectations
On fraud and corruption, the BECS
report says this is affecting the ethos of
our society, with a lot of talk and little
action accompanying the growing evi-
dence of corruption. CESA established a
R1-million anticorruption fund in order to
take legal action against municipalities
and private companies that it suspects
of having acted illegally in the award or
securing of contracts. In July, the associa-
tion lodged its first case with the regional
office of the Public Protector in terms
of a district council. CESA is also engag-
ing with National Treasury to include the
concept of an ‘integrity’ pact into the
Public Finance Management Act and the
Municipal Finance Management Act.
Service delivery, especially at munici-
pal level remains a critical burning issue.
The consulting engineering industry is
threatened by incapacitated local and
provincial governments. As major clients
to the industry, it is important that these
institutions become more effective, more
proactive in identifying needs and priori-
ties and more efficient in project imple-
mentation, and management. Pravin
Gordhan made it very clear that under-
spending of infrastructure budgets is a
serious concern for the industry, where
only R177-billion of the R266-billion was
spent during 2010/11.
A further challenge to the industry
is to find a way to standardise on the
procurement procedures applied by
the different government departments.
Procurement procedures should be
standard for the country, or at least for
the specific tier of government. The
involvement of non-CESA members in
government tenders and procurement
continues to threaten the standard and
performance of the industry. Non-Cesa
members do not seem to comply with
the same standards and principles as
those firms that are members of CESA.
Whether this is linked to complaints of
‘below cost’tendering during 2009, is not
certain, but CESA members should be
better informed about engaging in below
cost tendering.
Lack of attention to maintain infra-
structure poses a serious problem for the
industry. Not only is it much more costly
to build new infrastructure, but dilapi-
dated infrastructure hampers economic
growth potential. The cost of resurfacing
a road after seven years at current prices
is estimated at R175 000/km, compared to
R3-million/km to rebuild, less than 6,0%
of the construction price. In many cases,
infrastructure is left to deteriorate to
such a state, that maintenance becomes
almost impossible. In addition to this the
quality of technical personnel is argued
by some firms to have deteriorated, put-
ting greater risk on the built environment
sector.
CESA has, on numerous occasions
shown its support for both the National
Development Plan and Vision 2030 of
South Africa, which aim to enhance the
economy and eradicate unemployment,
poverty and inequality. It believes that
more work has got to be done at the SIPS
level to break down these programmes
into tangible and costed projects so that
a proper capacity towards delivery can
be measured in terms of skills and capital
resources.
CESA CEO Lefadi
Makibinyane.
Lack of attention to maintain infrastructure poses a serious problem for industry.
