CESA Responds to SONA – Collaboration is Key

In response to the State of the Nation address, Chris Campbell, CEO of Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA), states, “We are pleased to see that our voice is being heard with the imminent finalization of the public procurement bill to address weaknesses identified by the state aimed at improving efficiency, value for money and transparency in our procurement system”.

Campbell said that CESA is pleased with the continued focus by government on professionalising of the public service, that will be staffed by skilled committed ethical people critical to an effective state and ending corruption and patronage as well as wastage while ensuring that qualified people are appointed to senior management positions and to move towards creating a single harmonized public service.

Campbell went on to state that, “While we agree that we need all hands on deck to deal with the macro infrastructure issues such as energy and water security, we need to simultaneously accelerate the pace of fixing our micro infrastructure delivery systems”.  

He went on to explain, “Even if we get enough water from other sources as a water scarce country, if our local municipal distribution systems do not work there will be no water for the people.

“Similarly, even if we get enough power onto the grid, and if local power distribution systems are unreliable, there will be no power for the people either. All too often citizens have no electricity and go hours and days even after loadshedding cycles have ended. We need to fix this at all levels”.

Campbell believes that there is still much work to be done and in order to achieve this collaboration is key, as we are united by a common purpose.