{"id":16097,"date":"2020-11-17T20:35:46","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T20:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/?p=16097"},"modified":"2021-01-07T20:37:42","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T20:37:42","slug":"industry-transformation-is-not-just-a-social-concern-its-an-economic-imperative-cesa-webinar-addresses-importance-of-local-skills-capacitation-for-economic-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/industry-transformation-is-not-just-a-social-concern-its-an-economic-imperative-cesa-webinar-addresses-importance-of-local-skills-capacitation-for-economic-development\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIndustry transformation is not just a social concern, it\u2019s an economic imperative\u201d: CESA webinar addresses importance of local skills capacitation for economic development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>17 November 2020.<\/i> In their second episode of the successful <i>Protecting Lives and Livelihoods <\/i>webinar series, Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) hosted esteemed panellists on 17 November to discuss how the state\u2019s technical capacity can be improved, while implementing sustainable solutions which will see tangible long-term benefits. The concepts of skills development, sustainable change and public capacity to implement infrastructure effectively were discussed.<\/p>\n<p>Chaired by Danielle Petterson, editor of <i>Water &amp; Sanitation Africa<\/i>, the discussion was held through an interactive webinar featuring:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ntandazo Vimba, Chief Executive Officer, Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA)<\/li>\n<li>Cas Coovadia, Chief Executive Officer, Business Unity South Africa<\/li>\n<li>Professor Dirk Kotz\u00e9, Lecturer, UNISA Department of Political Sciences<\/li>\n<li>Refilwe Lesufi, Founding Owner, Prana Consulting<\/li>\n<li>Dr Gustav Rohde, Chief Executive Officer, Zutari<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lesufi kicked off discussions by citing the current challenges faced by South Africa in the development of sustainable infrastructure. Prominent on this list was the issue of available skills. \u201cProfessional engineers are leaving the country, young engineers are disheartened and leaving the industry, and this ultimately impacts the ability of government to engage with long term planning and engagement across institutions.\u201d She said that there are huge opportunities to create the skills we need by combining education, experience, and training initiatives. \u201cWe have the power to create the required skills,\u201d she said.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In agreement with Lesufi, Coovadia addressed the skills concern by citing the case of the <a href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2019-08-23-00-sandfs-r1bn-cuban-spend-queried\/\">SANDF\u2019s procurement of Cuban expertise for military equipment maintenance<\/a>. \u201cThis is something government should not allow. Considering our rate of unemployment, it is mind boggling that we could not train our own people with technical courses to fill this role.\u201d He said that the first question that should be asked when procuring is whether we can procure locally. \u201cFailing this, the question should be \u2018Can we train the right people for the job?\u2019 This will ensure that transformation and inclusion are top of mind.\u201d He said that the sustainability of businesses and the economy depends on transformation and inclusion. \u201cIt is not a social or CSI issue, it is a hard economic and business concern,\u201d he said.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Tackling the topic from a wider perspective, Vimba said that poor collaboration and coordination internally and across the three spheres of government, including business and civil society, undermines South Africa\u2019s ability to execute sustainable development. \u201cThe District Development Model should go somewhere towards addressing this,\u201d he said. The model aims to improve the coherence and impact of government service delivery with focus on 44 districts and eight metros around the country as development spaces that can be used as centres of service delivery and economic development, including job creation. Vimba also highlighted that climate change is something to consider as a challenge facing South Africa. \u201cInfrastructure solutions need to take this into consideration. Further, our limited resources mean we must be innovative and be willing to try new ways of doing things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr Rohde highlighted the existing capacity in South Africa \u2013 consulting engineers who are eager to provide expertise to see the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery plan to success. \u201cWe as infrastructure consultants have a huge role to play in the design, delivery and maintenance of infrastructure. We cannot allow this critical programme to be hijacked by corruption or poor implementation.\u201d He said that CESA members are aligned to a strong integrity policy and are committed to sustainable development initiatives.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>On the topic of funding, Prof. Coetzee posed the question of who should be responsible for infrastructure development. \u201cAt the moment there seems to be no answer to this question, and it should really be addressed systematically.\u201d He says that funding currently appears to come one third from the private sector and two thirds from the public sectors. Promoting South Africa as an attractive investment opportunity was a theme which all panellists could agree on.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In their second episode of the successful Protecting Lives and Livelihoods webinar series, Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) hosted esteemed panellists on 17 November to discuss how the state\u2019s technical capacity can be improved, while implementing sustainable solutions which will see tangible long-term benefits. The concepts of skills development, sustainable change and public capacity to implement infrastructure effectively were discussed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cesa","category-press-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}