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The local government skills challenge
16 April 2008
By Francois Swart
The desperate need for experienced engineers in South Africa is
emphasised by recent research of the South African Institution
of Civil Engineers with related comments from its former
president, Allyson Lawless, about civil engineering being at the
heart of government service delivery.
According to Lawless, there is less than
three civil engineering staff in local
government for every
100 000 citizens,
in comparison to China, with its four
municipal/local authorities each servicing
250 million people. Given our population in
South Africa of 44.8 million in 2001, 284
local
authorities would then each have been
servicing 157 746 citizens. The question is
- what is China doing right?
The answer may be in a report dating back
to 2003 from the Centre for Development
Enterprise, when it was questioned whether
the Department of Provincial and Local
Government (DPLG) had optimised its role
appropriately - a role that includes the provision
of a support framework for 284 local
authorities. A related issue that was raised
in Business Day in October 2003 included
whether the DPLG's task was manageable,
as well as the relationship of employment
to sustainable service delivery in local government.
A net loss of between 70 and 90
civil engineers per year in local government
can only result in a service delivery crisis
that is directly linked to our skills capacity
problem.
One may look around and question this
statement, as there are many visible 'initiatives'
that seem to be focused on addressing
these problems, yet it seems as if the
capacity crisis is only addressed when
our industry is booming. What we need
is a long-term strategic plan and measurable
implementation approach. According to
Lawless, without proper planning and effective
strategic forethought and if the capacity
crisis in South Africa is realised, local government
service delivery could be brought
to a stand still. In 2006, South Africa had
150 civil engineering graduates - China had
200 000 in 2005.
The potential of our future civil engineers
is exacerbated by the fact that not one
student passed higher-grade mathematics
in 51% of our secondary schools. It is generally
accepted that mathematics and science
are specialised subjects yet all teachers,
regardless of what subjects they teach,
are paid equally. Is this not one of our root
problems? Surely incentives should be put
in place to attract and retain these teachers?
In addition, we should be leveraging
technology such as Web-based instruction
and video conferencing, or Web streaming
to achieve a return on that incentive investment.
We need 'out of the box' thinking and implementation
solutions that could also include
incentive fee rebates for learners and students
aligned with appropriate results. Many
other issues impact on addressing these
critical strategic priorities of skills capacity
and effective service delivery. We cannot
discount the negative impact that our crime
rate and related 'brain drain' has had on the
civil engineering and other industries, nor
can we ignore the lack of positive impact
that the construction SETA has had on skills
development. While many private initiatives
are addressing these looming crises, there
has to be a different approach to closing the
skills and service delivery gaps. If teaching
remuneration incentives and technologybased
education can provide some of the
solutions to equipping South Africa with
future engineers – what can be done to
address the service delivery gap?
I believe that one solution is for government
to adopt a strategic and cohesive
approach to sourcing service providers – a
skills transfer consortium or joint venture
approach versus a piecemeal allocation of
work. As Lawless said, there is an opportunity
in the civil engineering sector to harness
the expertise of our remaining experienced
engineers.
We cannot wait until 2009 for government
alone to address the attraction of professionals
such as engineers and architects
through better remuneration packages, nor
is this the only solution. So how do we form
'Team South Africa' to address the looming
crisis of a lack in civil engineering skills and
local government service delivery? Perhaps
the solution is an initiative driven by an
independent policy research and advocacy
organisation. Could it be a 2008 'round
table' through the Centre for Development
and Enterprise, comprising ministers of
provincial and local government and education,
leaders in the private sector construction
industry and related associations, and
related tertiary institution faculty heads?
I hope so.
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