The Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) has concluded its nationwide consultative process on the revisions to its governance instruments, including the recognition of the Voluntary Association (VA) framework, the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) policy, and commitment and undertaking guidelines.

ECSA said that the profession’s concerns highlighted during the process motivated the revision of the frameworks under review. 

During a presentation to ECSA members in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Friday, CEO Sipho Madonsela noted that the revision of these frameworks would align the measure of responsibility of all involved engineering practitioners with the accountability required of every professional engineer.

“Our regulatory framework cannot be seen to be stagnant, especially when the needs of our stakeholders are changing at a dynamic pace. This is why we have chosen to take such a bold step in response to the needs of the profession – to strike a balance between ECSA’s role as the custodian and regulator of the profession, and the engineering profession at large,” he said. 

He explained that the CDP policy was under review because CDP activities were seen by members as unaffordable. The quality of CDP offerings was also not quality assured by ECSA and CDP activities were inaccessible to most rurally-based engineers.

“Going forward, continuing professional development is going to be subjected to more rigorous and stricter oversight,” he said, adding that CPD service providers would also be subject to more rigorous course content accreditation by ECSA.

“ECSA will take steps to ensure that CPD courses are more accessible and affordable to registered persons,” he noted.

Regarding the VA framework, Madonsela said that it had to be reviewed and amended as it was limited in terms of its alignment with ECSA’s strategic objectives, policies and corporate values with recognised VAs.

He added that key proposed changes included reducing the categories of VAs from 3 to 2 and that there be a higher threshold of registered persons in VA membership and governing bodies.

“Every VA that is recognised by ECSA will sign an accord with us. If they do not sign the accord, they will not be recognised,” he said.

Also speaking at the roadshow, Advocate Rebaone Gaoraelwe emphasised that the process of public consultation sought to get input from all those who were affected by the revisions, as this allowed for amendments to be made, where required, in an equitable manner. 

“We are not here to defend our recommendations, but rather to explain them and seek your input as we work to become a modern and efficient regulator of the profession,” said Gaoraelwe.

ECSA had also received independent requests from government and from the VAs to consult on the compilation of the revision of these documents. 

The entity has drafted one revision that all stakeholders can align with, which has been made available to all stakeholders for review and commentary.

Meanwhile, Madonsela stated that the Competition Commission threw out ECSA’s application to have the Engineering Work and the draft Identification of Engineering Work (IDoEW) regulations passed as law.

“Had the IDoEW regulations passed the Commission's scrutiny, only registered persons would have been allowed by law to practice defined engineering work,” he said, adding that ECSA intended to appeal the ruling.

He said that, going forward, a concerted, unified and collaborative effort by the engineering community could result in increased professional registration and the use of only registered persons in the engineering practice.