SA engineers condemn hiring of Cubans for water projects

SA engineers condemn hiring of Cubans for water projects
BY PAUL VECCHIATTO, 02 MARCH 2015, 06:30

THE employment of 34 Cuban engineers by the Department of Water Affairs
and Sanitation has caused an uproar in local engineering circles and now
the Democratic Alliance (DA) is posing parliamentary questions over the
matter.

The estimated cost of employing the Cuban engineers, who arrived in SA
on February 17, is about R50m a year. SA has hundreds of unemployed
engineers, according to the DA.

Earlier this month Water Affairs and Sanitation Minister Nomvula
Mokonyane welcomed the Cubans to SA to work on a number of projects to
refurbish crumbling water infrastructure.

However, the South African Institute of Civil Engineers has slammed the
recruitment of the Cubans, saying local engineers would have applied for
the jobs if they had been offered the same incentives as the Cubans in
rural communities, national and provincial infrastructure departments
and local authorities.

"The money spent on establishing and accommodating these engineers in SA
could possibly be better spent relooking at current salaries and working
environments in these areas to the benefit of civil engineering
professionals, a number of whom are unemployed, thereby creating
sustainable jobs within SA," the institute said.

Consulting Engineers SA (Cesa) president Abe Thela said his association
was appalled by the department's action.

The Cubans' arrival follows a bilateral agreement that SA and Cuba
concluded last year for co-operation in water resources management and
supply.

Mr Thela warned that the recruitment was worrying since Cuban
engineering skills were not recognised by the Engineering Council of SA,
because Cuba was not a party to the Washington Accord, which governs
international engineering qualifications.

"Our member firms are currently only being 60% utilised and have 40%
spare capacity, while they are waiting for the government to bring
projects on stream," Mr Thela said.

DA MP Leon Basson said he had asked the chairman of the portfolio
committee on water and sanitation, Mlungisi Johnson, to summon Ms
Mokonyane to the next committee meeting to explain why she had bypassed
unemployed South African engineers.

Mr Basson said the same amount of money could have been spent to employ
more than 60 local engineers. There were an estimated 500 unemployed
engineers in SA, making it nonsensical for Ms Mokonyane to look abroad
to fill contractual positions in her department.

He said the DA supported the South African Institution of Civil
Engineering (SAICE) view that Ms Mokonyane's decision acted as a
disincentive to local graduates.

"It is also counter to healthy levels of cooperation between the
government and the private sector. By tapping into the local pool of
unemployed engineers, unnecessary problems such as language barriers and
a lack of familiarity with South African design codes and practice can
be avoided," Mr Basson said.

The DA will also request the portfolio committee to invite the SAICE and
the Engineering Council of SA to deliver a presentation to the committee
on how they could help solve SA's water and sanitation crises.

Source: SA engineers condemn hiring of Cubans for water projects |
National | BDlive -
http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2015/03/02/sa-engineers-condemn-hiring-of-cubans-for-water-projects