Opinion article by Frank Stevens, president of the Institute for Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (IMESA)
I came across a striking anecdote at an engineering lecture at the University of Cape Town recently. To put the story in context, one needs to bear in mind that this was in the engineering faculty – a profession vitally needed for securing South Africa’s economic future, yet where a serious shortage of young graduates prevails. The professor asked the group, made up of 70 final BSc civil engineering students, which of them had the ambition or intention to become municipal engineers… Not a single hand went up. More noteworthy, specifically in the light of Women’s Month is the fact that the class already existed of less than 10% women. This anecdote illustrates a serious challenge we face at IMESA. Within an already shrinking skills pool, municipal engineering is the lowest on engineering students’ radar. The notion to grow female students’ interest in the profession or promote municipal engineering as a career choice for women is even more farfetched. One may argue that municipal engineering is not a career consideration for young people at all. I’m confident that there are very few youngsters telling their parents or teachers that “I want to become a municipal engineer one day”. Who are to blame? Perhaps the municipal engineering profession itself… Recently, Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande announced that the number of engineering science graduates in South Africa has increased from 8 424 in 2009, to 9 387 in 2011. This may still be below the target of 10 093, but the fact remains that there are a total of 9 387 young graduates that could (and should) consider a career in municipal engineering.
Why have they not done so? There seems to be a perception that the private sector is a far more “glamorous” or “dynamic” career path, with better opportunities and higher compensation. Although there may be some truth attached to this perception, I still maintain that the lack of interest in municipal engineering is because municipal engineers themselves are not doing enough to market and endorse the profession. Female municipal engineers, in particular, need to come to fore and claim their rightful space at South African local authority level. In the past few years, IMESA has made it our mandate to advocate and promote the municipal engineering profession.
IMESA has been successfully orchestrating its Bursary Fund to support and place young university graduates at local governments across South Africa. We engage constructively with various tertiary institutions to combat the perception that municipal engineering is an unattractive discipline. We provide extensive training programmes – introducing a fair amount of graduates to the field of municipal engineering each year. We share examples and case studies of “out-of-the-box” engineering to young graduates. These are innovative, resource-savvy municipal engineering solutions that local authorities have successfully applied at rural areas across South Africa, breaking the conventional thinking patterns of how service provision ‘ought to be’ done. As the oldest organisation serving the municipal engineering profession in Southern Africa, IMESA realised that the value of municipal engineers to the future of this country cannot be overemphasised. We need young talent, including young female talent, to be passionate about the daunting task of service delivery. We urge all government organisations and tertiary institutions to join in the promotion of the municipal engineering profession, ensuring an uptake of brilliant young minds committed to the future of service delivery excellence in South Africa.
