The CESA Infrastructure Indaba got off to a roaring start with MEC for Infrastructure Development in Gauteng Jacob Mamabolo challenging the industry to bring innovation to the forefront in order to take advantage of the fourth industrial revolution.

In his keynote address Mamabolo stated that a lot of responsibility has been given to the industry through government’s investment in infrastructure and that it was time to do things differently. “Through the use of technology, artificial intelligence and our human capital I believe we will be able to turn around how projects are delivered”.

“Our industry has an opportunity to inspire a new thinking and a new approach that can make the new dawn not just an ideal but a reality that can start impacting communities now,” he said.

Neresh Pather, CESA President in his opening address welcomed MEC Mamabolo’s invitation to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to bring quality based consulting engineering services to the Department of Infrastructure Development.

Infrastructure delivery

The first day of the CESA Infrastructure Indaba saw a wide variety of presentations from industry stakeholders all aimed at ‘Engineering the Future now!

The first session facilitated by CESA Deputy President, Sugen Pillay focused on Infrastructure Delivery with presentations from Elsie Snyman an Economist from Industry Insights who discussed key trends in the industry.

This was followed by Themba Dladla from the National Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs who focused on MISA – the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency which is focused on Sustainable Infrastructure Planning Implementation; Implementation of Infrastructure Projects; Operation and Maintenance and Building Capacity within Municipalities.

Investment

The second session focused on Public and Private Investment which kicked off with a presentation from Chitambala John Sikazwe from the World Bank, followed by Crouse Schoeman, Head of Strategic Construction and Maintenance Projects at the Development Bank of SA (DBSA).

Water security

The third session for the day focused on Water Security with Mbangi Nepfumbada from Rand Water gave a presentation focusing on Planning for Water Security from a National Development Plan (NDP) perspective.

He was followed by Trevor Balzer from the Department of Water and Sanitation who presented the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan – Building a Water Secure Future.

Balzer stated that “Our challenge is not necessarily about building new infrastructure but it is about dealing with and maintaining our current assets to get them functioning optimally”. Balzer stated,

“Our challenge is that across the country 144 municipalities are designated as Water Supply Authorities – some of these municipalities are not fully functional, this coupled with the issue of aging and poorly maintained infrastructure exacerbates the issue”

Transformation

The final session for the day dealt with Transformation – Beyond the Scorecard facilitated by Abbas Jamie, CESA Board member and member of the CESA Transformation Committee which resulted in robust, honest and open debate.

Jabulile Msiza presented Transformation from the perspective of CESA’s Young Professionals Forum (YPF). Stanley Bongwe from the Diversity Institute gave a presentation about Diversity – Winning Work Behaviours.

He stated, “Success in this arena requires a deeper understanding of diversity in the workplace, which includes understanding the subtleties of human behaviour. Companies need to realize how strong they can become as a result of leveraging from the diversity within their organisations to achieve creativity and innovation for success”.