The Institution of Certificated Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, South Africa

In accordance with clause 3.4 of the constitution:
The President, Vice Presidents and Honorary Treasurer for the ensuing year shall be Members of the Institution and shall be elected by the Council. Their election shall be announced at the Council Meeting of the Institution immediately preceding the Annual General Meeting.

At the meeting held on 7th November 2006 the following members were elected:

President: Chris Schnehage
Immediate Past President: Vaughan Townsend
Vice President: Jack Cunnington
Honorary Treasurer: Robbie Holmwood

Council members:
Obed Letsholo; Keith Potter; Klaus Schönteich; du Toit Grobler, Andre du Plessis, Gus Müller, Rob Higgo, Ian Buchanan

Branch Chairpersons:Klerksdorp District Branch; Rustenburg District Branch; Western Cape Branch; KwaZulu-Natal Branch
Free State Branch; Eastern Cape Branch

Financial review of 2006

The financial situation of ICMEESA remains sound with the financial year of 2006 ending on a positive note.
Thank you to our members for their prompt payment of subscriptions which, combined with good control of expenditure by the secretary, has resulted a slight surplus for the year.
Subscription income is our main source of income with the only other income being interest from investments, and income from the WP Jones Bursary Trust Fund. The financial statements will be submitted to the auditors for presentation at the Annual General Meeting which will be on 30 March 2007.
Bursary expenditure was R35 700. Bursary income from the WP Jones trust fund was R34 400. Although bursary expenditure is slightly in excess of bursary income, accumulated bursary funds from previous years is utilised to finance the deficit.
The operational expenditure includes a total of R28 000 which is paid to branches as a percentage of annual subscriptions received from members of that specific branch. This is to assist the branches with the expenditure incurred in running branch activities.
Due to the ongoing positive response from members for prompt subscription payment, subscription increases for 2007 have been restricted to 4% and are as follows:

Senior R 517.00
Member R 517.00
Associate R 517.00
Student R 388.00
Patron R 1034.00
Retired <20 R 258.00
Retired >20 R 129.00

Membership Trends

There has been a continued positive trend in the new membership figures for the previous number of years. A total of 47 new members were recruited in 2006. Considering the number of engineers emigrating and the reducing numbers of engineers in the gold mining industry, this is an encouraging trend.
The membership graph displays the number of members that “joined” that specific year, with the adjacent bar on the right displaying the number of members from that years recruiting, which are paid up members as at December 2006.
Taking the members recruited in 2001. A total of seven are no longer paid up members. One member resigned, while the other six are reflected on our database as “lost”. We record members as “lost’ when we are unable to contact the member. This normally occurs when members fail to update their contact details when changing employers or relocating.
The “lost” member problem is also exacerbated by subscription payments being made without the correct reference number being used. The reference number shown on the invoice is the member’s membership number, preceded by the year invoiced. This mostly occurs when payments are made on behalf of the member by his employer without using the correct reference number. Certain companies make bulk payments on behalf of a group of members. In this case, the secretary will have difficulty in associating the payment to the specific member. We request members to have the employer fax or mail a remittance note to ICMEESA, listing the names of the members paid for, if they are unable to use our requested reference number.
Members are encouraged to regularly update their contact details on our website at www.icmeesa.com . New members can also sign on by completing the online application form which takes a few minutes to complete.
Should a member wish to resume membership, as a result of having lost contact due to omission to update his address, Council will review continued membership without the member having to pay arrears subscriptions.

Welcome to new members 2006

ICMEESA welcomes the following new members for 2006:

Title Surname Initials Branch Title Surname Initials Branch

Mr Africa BB Central Mr Albertyn W Westcape

Mr Awe OO Central Mr Bedeker IW Westcape

Mr Bhugwandin P Kwazulu Mr Botha SJ Central

Mr Brown SG Westcape

Mr Buckley RS Central Mr Bullock HJ Central

Mr Buys HJ Central Mr Clark BA Central

Mr Dipeere AM Central Mr Dladla S Kwazulu

Mr Hayes RB Kwazulu Mr Houston MA Central

Mr Kotze G Central Mr Krishnaswamy S Central

Mr Lombaard JJ Westcape Mr Malkiewicz T Central

Mr Matagne F Kwazulu Mr Mazibuko MLS Kwazulu

Mr Mdlalose B Kwazulu Mr Mtetwa BC Rustenburg

Mr Myataza NM Kwazulu Mr Naidoo K Kwazulu

Mr Naidu K Kwazulu Mr Nair D Kwazulu

Mr Ngangoue Leuga M Central, Mr Notununu F Central

Mr Nqandela A Rustenburg Mr Nyamukapa T Central

Mr Odayar M Kwazulu Mr Owen NZ Kwazulu

Mr Payne M Central Mr Petersen Y Eastcape

Mr Phillips DK Eastcape Mr Pillay K Kwazulu

Mr Pinheiro RFR Central Mr Potter BA Westcape

Mr Singo E Central Mr Smart AT Central

Mr Smit FAC Central Mr Turner JA Westcape

Mr van Vuuren JJ Central Mr Warchol J Central

Mr Weber WH Central Mr Wessels JJ Central

ICMEESA Study Bursaries

Two university bursars have been sponsored since 2005.
The bursary holders are:

Jasoda Naidoo from Chatsworth in Durban. Jasoda is registered at the Universtity of KZN studying electrical engineering.
Ernest De La Hunt from Rustenburg in the North West. Ernest is registered at the University of North West and is studying mechanical engineering.
Council will review the continued support for these two bursars depending on the results achieved for the past year. The bursary covers the costs of tuition, books and other associated cost with approval of council. Total cost for 2006 are commented on under the section on finances.
Both bursars are children of members of ICMEESA. Although bursaries are not restricted to our members’ families, they will be given favorable consideration. Bursary application forms can be obtained on the website or from the secretary.

Recognition as a Voluntary Association

ICMEESA is recognized as a voluntary association with ECSA. The benefit of this is that our members will be granted by ECSA, in terms of section 12(2) of the Act, a reduction in annual fees payable by registered persons who are members in good standing of a voluntary association.
Why the need to have formal recognition as a voluntary association? Certain of our Council members play an active role in ECSA, ensuring that the interests of the Certificated Engineer are adequately addressed. This is part of the hidden added value of membership of the ICMEESA that our average member is not aware of.
How much influence do they have? The Engineering Profession Act, 2000 (Act No. 46 of 2000), Section 25, stipulates the requirements for the recognition of Voluntary Associations.
Section 26 of the Act stipulates that Voluntary Associations “must” be consulted with if they may be affected by any laws regulating the built environment professions regarding the identification of the type of engineering work which may be performed by persons registered in any of the categories.
The term Voluntary Association occurs eighteen times in the Act and obliges Council to consult with the voluntary association in terms of the following:
• Nominating persons as members of Council
• Determining Competency Standards
• Determining Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements.
• Identification of work.
• Drafting of Code of Professional Conduct.
• Determining Professional Fees
• Rectification of errors or exemption of the Act.
ESCA is also undertakes to give preference to persons nominated by voluntary associations for purposes of appointment as members of the Council and any of its committees.
Advising ECSA your membership of ICMEESA not only benefits the member financially, but also assists in the amount of influence out actively participating members have on the decision making bodies.

The Future Engineering Qualification

Articles in the ICMEESA newsletter of March 2006 addressed the country wide problems with respect to the unavailability of competent engineers and the use of unqualified persons to perform tasks for which they were not qualified to perform.
The importance of engineering activity cannot be underestimated, as it is essential to both economic activity and to national development. Engineering activity involves health, safety, environmental and sustainability risks that must be managed. Effective, safe and sustainable engineering activity is founded on the competence of engineering professionals.
We can either debate the problem further, or, actively participate in a solution. The previous article on Voluntary Associations describes where we, as members of ICMEESA, can influence the process to our desired outcome, specifically with respect to changes affecting the Professional Certificated Engineer.
This article attempts to summarise the process in which ICMEESA is actively represented. Our members are playing a leading role with other stakeholders to define the way forward to establishing the level of qualification and structures required for the future Certificated Engineer.

Engineering activities involve a number of recognised roles that fall into three broad groups.

First, the engineering professionals are the Professional Engineer, Professional Engineering Technologist, Professional Engineering Technician and the Professional Certificated Engineer.
Second, engineering support occupations include inspectors, draftsmen and supervisors.
Third, the team is completed by various artisans. The first two groups fall into the higher education and training band. Professionals and some support occupations are regulated by the Engineering Profession Act.

At present, the requirement for registration as a Professional Certificated Engineer is the attainment of a Government Certificate of Competency, based on prescribed responsible experience. There are several routes to obtaining a Government Certificate of Competency. Stakeholders are interested in moving to a new dispensation where Registration as a CE replaces the GCC examination for the purposes of the various health and safety acts. This development has two consequences:

With the proposed move from the Government Certificate of Competency examination to registration as a licensing mechanism, it has been necessary to define the competencies for practice as a Certificated Engineer.
Review of the professional competency calls for the required educational level to be defined. One of the routes available at present to progress to Certificated Engineer and Certificated Manager, namely via the N6 or National N-Diploma will no longer be available after 2009. The educational routes toward becoming a Certificated Engineer have also been subject to scrutiny and new qualifications have been proposed.

A number of pathways need to be identified for candidates to attain the required certificate in future.
The purpose of the process presently under way, is to establish a system whereby a person meeting the requirements of this qualification is assessed as competent at the level required for entry to:

Registration with the Engineering Council of South Africa as a Professional Certificated Engineer, and the accompanying statutory licensing.
Recognition as a competent Certificated Engineer for specific statutory, industry or company functions:
- Certificated Engineer (Electrical : Factories)
- Certificated Engineer (Mechanical: Factories)
- Certificated Engineer (Electrical : Mines)
- Certificated Engineer (Mechanical : Mines)
- Certificated Engineer (Mining : Metalliferous)
- Certificated Engineer (Mining: Coal)
- Certificated Engineer (Merchant Shipping)

The seven Certificated Engineer Qualifications have a common set of generic competencies expressed in the form of outcomes, assessment criteria and level descriptors in this standard. The Stage 2 Certificated Engineer Certificate indicates that the holder is competent to:

Perform work in a broadly-defined engineering environment.
Solve broadly-defined engineering problems;
Take responsibility for engineering work within the competencies defined in this standard and specifically as required in Health and Safety legislation.
The context of assessment, expressed in terms of the engineering, management and legal knowledge, differentiates the various qualifications. The contextual information for each certificate is defined in the respective range statement.

Learnerships may be attached to the Stage 2 Certificated Engineer Qualification designed to achieve the exit-level competency to be achieved. Details of the Learnership, or other training programme, may be defined in unit standards, as a skills plan or in any other way, but must lead to summative assessment against this standard. Each certificated engineer, by the time of reaching the point of assessment against this standard, will have followed a programme of education, training and experience that may conform to an established pattern or may be distinctive. Each individual therefore develops an area of knowledge and expertise that, in addition to the common elements listed below, may be distinctive. This pattern of knowledge and expertise is termed the individual’s practice area. A practice area falls in a particular industry context, for example factories or mines.

It must be understood that the award of the professional designation, or professional title, such as Pr Cert Eng, is the product of the separate registration process. An applicant, irrespective of the route followed, must demonstrate competency against standards prescribed for the category of registration.

Invitation to attend the ICMEESA Annual General Meeting

Please be advised that the Annual General Meeting will take place on:
Date: 30 March 2007
Time: 18:00
Venue: Observatory