President’s comment

When engineers become managers

The complexity of South Africa’s municipal and built environment legislation can often be a stumbling block to effective infrastructure implementation. It can also hamper the development of municipal engineering managers who get caught up in its bureaucratic web. Working with key public sector stakeholders, IMESA’s objective is to streamline the process.

When I graduated as a civil engineer, it was an exciting and treasured milestone, and the starting point for a career that has transcended anything I initially imagined. After graduation, my major lesson was that university certainly provides an invaluable foundation, but life remains the ultimate teacher. It defines us, ethically and professionally.

Initial tasks assigned to young engineers can often seem overwhelming; however, with the right mentor and organisational culture, proficiency grows over time. Candidates embark on their exciting journey to professional registration, which is another milestone that opens the door to new career possibilities.

A transition to leadership

This professional pathway starts with specialisation, and then often evolves, as exposure is gained to the multifaceted nature of infrastructure implementation. This often leads to promotions to supervisory and/or management level. Interestingly, it’s a point where many specialists become conflicted. They experience a form of separation anxiety from their core skill sets.

However, in time, these new leaders soon understand that their strong technical foundation and reputation for excellence are what make them such effective leaders in implementation. Additional skills they now apply include project and programme management, conflict resolution, community liaison, plus new ways to optimise design through technology.

Administrative bottlenecks

The sad reality though is that many of these municipal engineering managers soon become bogged down by myriad legislative reporting requirements, which shift their primary focus away from project delivery. Financial constraints and procurement delays further compound the problem. We urgently need to address this since it compounds existing challenges faced by under-performing municipalities.

Some level of administration inevitably comes with management, but it must be efficiently streamlined if the objectives of initiatives like Cogta’s District Development Model (DDM) turnaround strategy are to be achieved.

Stakeholder engagement

IMESA fully supports the DDM initiative, plus allied government programmes that can affect an infrastructure-led economic resurgence. In this respect, IMESA is well equipped to assist in facilitating implementation processes, as many of our members are highly experienced engineering managers with an in-depth understanding of impediments in the current municipal environment.

As a proactive step, IMESA set up a meeting in August 2020, which was attended by representatives from Cogta, CIDB, MISA, National Treasury and Salga. This was coordinated by Randeer Kasserchun, our immediate past president.

Key issues raised include adherence to a 30-day payment timeframe for approved vendors. Another concerns various supply chain management (SCM) processes relating to interpretation of the Municipal Finance Management Act (No. 56 of 2003), which are causing delays in service delivery.

Other industry bodies were also raising their concerns, so IMESA felt a coordinated approach was required when engaging with National Treasury on SCM issues. The first subsequent meeting with National Treasury, coordinated by IMESA’s Neil Macleod, included SAFCEC, SABTACO, SAICE and CESA representatives. At this meeting, it was also agreed that Neil Macleod, who was head: Water and Sanitation at eThekwini prior to his retirement, would serve as the coordinator for future industry stakeholder engagements.

IMESA is committed to working with all government stakeholders and to share knowledge and best practices via Council-led work groups and our Exco technical directors. We’d also like to encourage our IMESA community to come forward in addressing our infrastructure challenges. After all, municipal engineering should be about service delivery, not project administration.

Bhavna Soni, president, IMESA