The absence of technical expertise in infrastructure procurement is starting to have an increasingly adverse effect on the quality and sustainability of South Africa’s infrastructure, laments industry body Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA).

The association says the country needs to build quality and sustainable infrastructure that “stands the test of time”, keeping in mind the health and the safety of the population as critical factors, and not placing them at risk.

It is for this reason that CESA will, over the coming months, be embarking on a campaign to bring stakeholders in the infrastructure development arena together to deliberate and come up with sustainable solutions to the challenges that the country faces.

As part of this campaign, CESA will host a series of webinars – the first of which is on October 14.

“If you are not using the correct design principles and you are not making use of consulting engineers to get you the most optimal and innovative design at the most cost-effective price for your project, you are essentially trading with the lives and livelihoods of [the country’s] population,” says CESA CEO Chris Campbell.

He laments that “government appears to only be focusing on the creation of jobs through their infrastructure development goals as a means for economic growth [instead of] focusing on the bigger picture”.

While the creation of these jobs will be temporary during the construction phase, Campbell highlights that the “key issue is to promote better accessibility and transport services and systems for the movement of goods and people”, which contribute to economic growth which then grows the economy in respect of trade and tourism, besides others, for more sustainable long-term job creation.

Campbell says South Africa’s two larger infrastructure custodians, namely the South African National Roads Agency and Eskom, are “no way near in the position to support the scale of projects required to kickstart the economic growth trajectory”.

He adds that, if South Africa were to pursue government’s proposed infrastructure programme, frequent power outages would continue to impact on the ability of material suppliers for project execution.

Additionally, the lack of adequate transport corridors to allow for the effective movement of goods is another issue that will hamper the growth of the economy, he says.

“We are aspiring to these big build shovel-ready projects but fundamentally we are nowhere near in a position to effectively execute them,” states Campbell.

To address issues such as those presented by Eskom he suggests that South Africa needs strategic partners within the industry to provide the technical capability and capacity lacking in these institutions.

“The consulting engineering fraternity has the capacity and the skills to support government in achieving its goals to supplement their own shortage of technical people,” he states.