From the Chairmans Desk

Now that we have virtually reached the end to lockdown and have got used to the new normal in the work place since my last communication LEEASA has held two days of a face to face CPD conference.

LEEASA conference 12th and 13th August 2010

The conference was held over two days at ERPM golf club function venue in two groups was very well attended considering the challenges around COVID19 regulations. The subject that was covered focused on registration requirements, applying standards and regulations, scope of competence, code of practice, codes of conduct and ethics, CPD requirements, lability, indemnity, and the inspection and testing of monorail runway beams and jibs – as a SANS. Further LEEASA CPD conferences and workshops will be held as soon as dates have been confirmed with conference venues for Gauteng: LEEASA will hold the same conference for the KZN members on the 18th September 2020 at Westville country club, Durban. Contact me directly 0749008378 or send me an email to book (1 CPD point).

Engineering Council and Meetings,

After the CEO instructed those responsible for meetings to reinstate the first video conference meetings VC – virtual meetings were held. This meant that I have attended Hight Impact Committee meetings and the overarching Code of Practice for the Performance of Engineering Work was completed in the lock down period:

ECSA CoP – PoEW

The Steering Committee and the Working Group that I am a member of finalised the overarching Code of Practice for the Performance of Engineering Work was presented to council for approval on 11th June 2020. This document has since gone out for public comment and was sent out by ECSA to registered persons. The next step will be for each sector of engineering to develop a Code of Practice for that sector of engineering for registered persons.

CRC – Central Registration Committee meeting 23rd July 2020

From this CRC meeting it was clear that this meeting was very important that the concerned regarding the backlog of applications that had building up since the registration process had come to a standstill since the beginning of lockdown was been dealt with as a matter of urgency. Since interviews and assessor training through the means of VC (Virtual online) to meet the backlog were carried out.

IC – Investigation Committee meeting 21st July 2020

Investigations are ongoing and all I can say is that there are a number of LMI’s that are under investigation. Most of these are due to practicing out of scope of competence. This has become a concern by the IC and I was requested by the IC to remind the LMIs through possibly holding conferences and workshops of their responsibilities and obligations as registered professionals registered as LMIs at ECSA.

EC – Education Committee meeting 28th July 2020

The EC meeting dealt mainly with the international accords and how ECSA is able to carry the assessment of engineering programs that are due for approval by ECSA at the universities due to lockdown restrictions to meet the requirements of the Dublin, Washington and Sidney Educational agreements. I reminded the Education Committee - EC that Council has as part of its strategy for the next term of council to roll out ECSAs program for the approval of academies and the EC would need to deal with the approval of those engineering programs at the academies in the future will deal the determination of education standards and the accreditation of educational programs and set accreditation criteria for Academies’ Engineering programs for seamless integration into mainstream engineering qualifications. This would open the required be a pathway for the LMI qualification to be eventually achieved.

SABS/SANS TC 96 meeting 24th July 2020

TC 96 met online via VC for the first time and a very fruitful meeting was held. The main highlight was that not every one of the members had received a draft copy of the newly proposed SANS 522. The meeting mostly dealt with the new work items and motivations that are required to be completed by the committee member for the reaffirmation of existing SANS standards that required to be confirmed after five years, adoption of new standards and new work items for the drafting of new standards required by the crane industry. The most significant of the new work items in motion is the required SANS – South African National Standard for the inspection and testing of Monorail and Jib cranes which will assist the lifting equipment industry in this area.

LEEASA AGM/SGM

A general member meeting needs to be held before the end of the year. A date will be announced in in due course. Until next time stay safe and take care, From Chairman, Arni Sommer.