South Africa had more than enough money and resources to deliver on the Constitutional promise of an improved quality of life for all, but those involved in corruption had cost the country immensely.
This was said by Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela, who gave a keynote address at the Civilution Congress, in Ekurhuleni, earlier this month.
She stated that it was not acceptable to take another 20 years to achieve human dignity and that there were opportunities for all, as well as scope for people to become wealthy while keeping their integrity if “we all do the right thing”.
Madonsela enthused that Civilution – a mass movement of engineering professionals, in which engineering practitioners reinstate strategic, technical and intellectual leadership – was a great concept.
It is considered an engineering revolution, as it is a call to engineering practitioners to approach challenges differently to achieve an improved South Africa, which is the aspiration of the National Development Plan (NDP).
One of the aims of the Civilution revolution is to create awareness of the importance of ethical practices in the construction and associated industries and to establish effective anticorruption processes.
“Civil engineering is one of the critical aspects of infrastructure development. The NDP emphasises infrastructure development. There is great opportunity for the country and various professionals, but also great risks as we go into infrastructure development. “There is risk in things not being done according to specifications, on time and, sometimes, not at all,” she stated.
Madonsela added that delivering high-quality transportation, electricity, water, sanitation and housing was key to improving the quality of life.
While R1-trillion had been spent on infrastructure development in the last five years to improve the quality of life of South Africans, aspects like skills, knowledge and discipline were integral to infrastructure development, she said.
She noted that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced in his 2014 Budget Speech that government would invest R847-billion in infrastructure projects over the next three years.
She said that while government did not build its own infrastructure, it did, metaphorically, lay the foundations for these infrastructure projects to be rolled out by providing finances, adding that engineering professionals were responsible for realising this infrastructure, which resulted in the need for ethical conduct from both parties.