Construction World May 2021

COMMENT

South Africa has imported 24 engineers from Cuba to help with the transfer of skills and knowledge and to specifically assist with the government’s efforts for water delivery. This decision has been widely questioned and criticised – especially against a backdrop of an already struggling industry where many engineers are jobless.

O ne of the most vocal critics of this decision has been Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) who questioned the decision against the backdrop of an under- utilised private sector in addition to a large pool of unemployed graduates. Government’s spin on this is that the engineers are here to help resolve the country’s water infrastructure problems. As such, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has called for South Africans to embrace the Cuban engineers following widespread criticism as importing skills implies that the country does not have enough or sufficient skills. Sisulu, however, says that Cuba faced similar challenges and these engineers will therefore, over the next three years, assist with overcoming these problems. CESA’s argument, however, makes a lot of sense. Its recently released Bi-annual

Economic and Capacity Survey shows that since 2017 the capacity utilisation of local engineering skills has dropped from 95% to 80%. This reduction in capacity utilisation in addition to the large pool of unemployed graduates, casts doubt on why government is importing foreign skills when such skills exist locally in the private sector. It is all about a sustainable solution CESA rightfully says that by employing highly skilled locally experience engineers, who are in turn supported by unemployed graduates, will provide a more sustainable solution as the 24 Cuban engineers are unlikely to make a major impact on the capacity challenges that exist on national and provincial levels. For CESA the true solution lies in public private partnerships Chris Campbell, CESA’s CEO put the

import of skills in perspective: “South Africa is ironically known for its own engineering skills globally and with our water resource management substantially larger in scope than that of Cuba, this appears to be an ongoing and fruitless exercise in skills exchange at the expense of our own unemployed engineers”.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD MAY 2021