The president of Consulting Engineers South Africa (Cesa) has called for the re-establishment of a single entity to represent “the voice of the construction industry” and has told Engineering News Online that he hoped that such a structure could be put in place during the first half of 2009.

Speaking at media breakfast in Johannesburg, Felix Fongoqa said that Cesa, which was previously known as the South African Association of Consulting Engineers, would “work tirelessly with like-minded organisations to ensure that both established and emerging business work together for the good of the industry”.

It is understood that apart from Cesa, the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors, the South African Property Owners Association (Sapoa), the South African Black Technical and Allied Careers Organisation, as well as the voluntary business organisations for quantity surveyors and architects could participate.

Fongoqa indicated that the engineering and construction community had been galvanised “like never before” during 2008 in its unanimous opposition to the Built Environment Professions Bill, which had shown the power of collective action.

In fact, following a concerted lobbying effort, the Bill was eventually withdrawn from the legislative process by newly appointed Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge, who had instituted processes for broader consultation before reintroducing it to Parliament.

The Bill proposed the creation of a new ‘super council’ to replace the existing professional councils, which set standards and accredited professional engineers, quantity surveyors, architects, project managers and landscape architects.

Many in the engineering fraternity, including Cesa, had raised concern that the proposed legislation would not be sufficiently autonomous of government to ensure that South African-registered built-environment professionals would retain their international standing.

In the engineering environment specifically, concern had also been raised about the maintenance of standards, given that the new council might not have the financial and administrative capacity to continue with peer review processes, which were considered best practice globally.

“As the engineering profession, we came together in a way that, certainly in my lifetime as an engineer, I have never seen,” Fongoqa said, adding that the process succeeded in ensuring the profession’s voice was heard.

He said that since that time, affected parties had had individual and collective meetings with Doidge on the Bill and there “ is a process that has been agreed to with the department for further engagement”.

“So, I cannot say it is completely dead. But I can say that there are processes that we will go through to ensure that whatever is eventually drafted is in the best interest of the profession and society,” Fongoqa outlined.

He also said that Cesa was planning to firm up partnerships with various other business organisations, such as Business Unity South Africa and Sapoa, and build on new ones with others, such as die Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut and the Black Business Council.

Cesa executive director Graham Pirie said that there would also be a major thrust around intervening in policy processes from the start rather than allowing for a repeated of the developments associated with the Built Environment Professions Bill.

During 2009, Cesa would aspire to increasingly influence decision making and policies at the highest level.

“We plan to achieve this through regular contact with relevant Ministers and director generals and to this end have set up a detailed programme of engagement on key issues,” Pirie said, adding that there would be key thrusts around procurement procedures, including the identification of work for professional engineers, crime and corruption and education.