The Institution of Certificated Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, South Africa

Obed Nkweni Letsholo, was born 21st June 1957 in Rustenburg. He matriculated from Rauwane Sepeng High in 1979. Obed started working in 1980 at Rustenburg Platinum mines as a learner official survey. In 1982 he changed to learner official engineering. Obed completed his National Higher Diploma electrical (T4) at Vaal Triangle in 1986, after which he worked as junior engineer in Rustenburg. He completed his GCC in 1991.
Obed worked in different shafts at Rustenburg, and Atok mine in Pietersburg, as a junior engineer. He left Rustenburg mines, then part of JCI, and went to Eskom where he worked as a Marketing Engineer (1993), for the pulp and paper and mining sector, for Industrialek.
In 1995, He joined Joel mine as a section engineer in the plant, and in 1996 was seconded to projects for the plant upgrade. When the plant was commissioned in 1998, Obed moved to Tshepong mine as the shaft and services engineer.
In 2000, Obed was promoted to engineering manager at Tau Lekoa, Anglogold in Orkney. In October 2002, he was transferred to metallurgy as Tailings and Land Manager responsible for environment and tailings deposition. In May 2003 he transferred to engineering metallurgy as an engineering manager.
In 2005, Obed joined Read, Swatman & Voigt (RSV) as discipline projects engineer and worked on the Lebowa projects (Anglo Platinum) in Atok.
In 2006, Obed was promoted to Project manager on the Anglo Platinum project – Turffontein Decline Cluster and 2007 joined Kopano JV (TWP + RSV) on the Pre-feasibility study and Feasibility study as project manager, for Frank UG2. Currently busy with Feasibility for Siphumelele mine’s (RPM) Pre-Feasibility of the Merensky decline deepening.
His interests are road running (marathons, but has never run comrades) and golf (hacker). He enjoys playing chess and listening to classical music.
Obed had been an active member of ICMEESA for many years in the Klerksdorp Branch, where he was Branch Chairman in 2002 and 2003.
Obed married in 1983 and has three children. The two girls Jarmaine and Quincy are both university students. His son, Claude, is a chip off the old block, desiring to be an electrical engineer. They are all sports enthusiasts with Claude having represented North West in hockey.
We wish Obed a successful year as president.

Presidents review of 2009 - Mr Jack Cunnington.

n accordance with clause 4.03 of the Constitution, the Council has pleasure in presenting the Ninety-Ninth Annual Report and Financial Statement for the year ended 31 December 2009

The past year once again has been a busy year for all. I am grateful for the way individuals managed their time and kept to commitments over and above their work load and daily tasks. The members of EXCO and Council still managed to put a tremendous amount of time and energy into the operational matters of the Institution.
This Annual report serves to provide a brief summary of some of the actions taken during the year. The extent of the matters attended to are not necessarily limited to what is reflected in the report.

Activities of the Institution during the year are as follows:

ECSA was again approached, in a form of a presentation to the acting CEO and registration manager of ECSA, earlier in the year about the difficulty experienced by members to be accepted as Professional Certificated Engineers by the Registration Committee. This issue has not been resolved as yet and continues to enjoy attention from Council. The main problem of this issue is the fact that the requirement for registration is a legal appointment and many firms insisting on Pr Registration before making an appointment. Secondly, there are many Certificated Engineers who are very capable and knowledgeable, who do not work in the environment where an appointment is necessary, and as such cannot become registered as a result.
The matter was escalated to the ECSA council which has requested the newly appointed CEO to investigate and resolve, as membership of ECSA and especially registration of professionals are regarded as of utmost importance by the ECSA council.
There continues to be an increase in membership applications. This resulted in a growth of 95 new members, which is good for the Institution.
The Gauteng (Central), Klerksdorp and Rustenburg branches of the Institution remain dormant as attempts to revive these branches have failed. Mr Lambert has now taken over as chairman for the Central branch, we wish him well in his endeavour.
Communication. Four newsletters have been produced and distributed, together with the Western Cape Bulletin, to all members during the year. Still a concern is communication due to the high number of members whose email addresses we either do not have or that are outdated.
Our webmaster has set up a communication Blog and has slowly taken off.
Bursaries. The Institution has 2 bursars registered of which one has now graduated and awarded the BSc Eng Degree. We are currently seeking additional candidates who would fit our profile.
Continued Professional Development (CPD). There have been a number of courses validated for CPD points. This area continues to be an opportunity for the Institution to provide useful input to members. All locally presented talks and events could be registered with ECSA as they happen.
Branches. The activity of the branches has once again been very disappointing. The active branches at present are Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Western Cape. For some reason the other branches are not operating and there has been nobody willing to take up the reins and put activities together for members. This is a concern to the Institution as we should be offering our members some activity to assist with CPD point accumulation.
I attended the ECSA President’s Forum meeting and Vaughan Townsend the AMRE AGM on my behalf.
Various members have attended portfolio meetings as noted under the section Council Representatives in this report, throughout the year. Thank you for your continued support and efforts.
Eight members’ names have been put forward to ECSA as nominations to serve on committees there. No result has been forthcoming as yet.
A position paper on the final proposal towards a new model for the Certificated Engineer has been submitted by ECSA on 20 November 2009. We are awaiting the outcome from the relevant stakeholders.

The financial status of ICMEESA has remained positive and is going from strength to strength. The audited and certified annual financial report, which is included in this annual report, shows that the financial expenditure is well controlled and a concerted effort has again gone into the recovery of subscriptions. Well done to Robbie Holmwood and Fiona Revolta on controlling the finances so well.

The annual year end function was held on the 24th October 2009 at the Boston BBQ, situated in the Gold Reef City Casino in Johannesburg where a buffet lunch was enjoyed by all who attended.

Thank you to Fiona and those members of EXCO who have supported me during my year as President and for those who have attended functions on my behalf. It has been an honour and a pleasure for me to serve this esteemed Institution as President.

Congratulations to the newly elected Council and EXCO as well as the President for 2010, Obed Letsholo, and Vice Presidents who are making themselves available for the coming year. Your efforts and contributions do not pass unnoticed.

Finally, thank you to all our members. We always look forward to communicating with you and I would like to encourage Improved communication as that is one of the problems other Institutions l are also experiencing.
May the Institution continue to represent its members in the best way possible.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen

Welcome to New members 2010

ICMEESA welcomes the following new members for 2010. We trust that your membership with result in a long and meaningful relationship.

Surname Initials Title Branch MemGrade Surname Initials Title Branch MemGrade

Angelo H I K Mr Gauteng Member Forbes I W Mr Kwazulu Member

Chapman N A Mr Eastcape Member Mashiane D S Mr Freestate Member

Playdon B W Mr Westcape Member Read G Mr Kwazulu Associate

Mhlongo J Mr Gauteng Student Muswere A Mr Gauteng Student

Nieuwoudt J Mr Eastcape Student Rivas P N Mr Gauteng Student

Presidential address: Engineers and SA as a Developing Country - Mr Obed Letsholo.

How are professions and professional education programmes responding to the needs and challenges of a transforming South Africa?

Hopes for a successful South African democracy depend on the production of competent professionals.
Professionals who have a globally competitive
- Knowledge
- Skills
- Prepared to stay in the country
Expansion in the country of billions on infrastructure for FIFA world cup 2010 upgrade of power stations.
Airports.
Harbour upgrade.
In some of these projects the desired quality is not obtained due to the lack of expertise which has been lost over time.
The boom was here and recession took over in 2008. How well can we recover?

There has been a proliferation of projects which are ongoing in spite of us facing a serious shortage of professionals. In the years gone by, the professionals left for greener pastures, or, could not work in the ANC lead government. The recession has had some constraints on the system, where companies had to restructure their operations to survive. In the process, individual jobs are affected and the people state of mind changes.
Engineers leave the industry (factory and mining) and join the financial sector. To make matters worse, in 2008, difficulty to properly expedite projects was highlighted by the exercise done by Renette du Toit and Joan Roodt. Their research revealed that SA has 473 engineers per million citizens, while Japan, when they were hosting the 2002 world cup, had 3306 engineers to a million citizens. Similar comparisons with other developing countries, such as Chile and Malaysia have respectively, 1460 and 1843 engineers per million citizens.

Labour Market
The lack of engineering capacity hampers SA development. For the past five years there has been a decline in the labour market, especially engineering.
Some of the drivers impacting on the labour market are things like:

Reduction in agriculture and mining sectors on the GDP.
Reduction in demand for agricultural and mining engineers and an increase in demand on the engineers with manufacturing and services related technologies.
The other factor that distorts the statistic is the tendency for engineers to leave direct employment in the industry and become self employed contractors or consultants, with many of these emigrating.
The other issue is the fact that the final year national diploma students, that do not hold bursaries from companies have extreme difficulty in finding the opportunity to obtain their necessary experiential training and could not graduate.

Employment of Engineering Professionals
A study was conducted in 2005 and the results from this show how the growth have been in the different sectors as shown below. (See Graphic)
The statistics are a clear indication that we are short of engineers in practice, or our growth is very low. But we do have engineers in the finance sector. It then becomes a controversial topic as to the genuine shortage of engineering skills. The industry is growing, the practicing engineers are ageing, and with the entire projects boom, the skills resources are critical. So what is our replacement strategy, or, succession planning? Some of the major players in the industry, mining and factories, have reduced or stopped training which has exacerbated the difficulty for academically qualified students to be taken and given experiential training.
What could be done to harness the knowledge out there from retired engineers? I know that ECSA and SAIEE are helping local governments awarding bursaries for technicians. It is a challenge for all of us and as the Certificated Engineers we have to contribute through our bursary fund.

Engineering professionals working as managers
In the Mail & Guardian (April 2008), Professor E Smit (as Director of University of Stellenbosch) was quoted “It is often found that engineering professionals become managers. The opportunities to occupy leadership positions”. The engineers are more suited than others to adapt to the highly pressurised environment of banks. The growth of engineering professionals in finance is 18.71%.

Why would engineers leave the industry? Combination of factors to name a few:-

Adaptability of engineering skills;
Insufficient incentives;
Lack of opportunities;
Insufficient career path;
Under utilization of engineers could contribute to frustration in a technical environment.

Conclusion
I think it depends on us as the institution to be involved in bridging the gap by doing these:-

Bursary scheme;
Mentorship;
Experiential training;

Employers can also be involved by:-

Dual career path;
Flexibility mainly to allow for women;
Recruitment of retired engineering professionals;
Creation of an employer brand (attract human capital, unique human resource value proposition – differentiation)
Adoption of a talent management approach.

Harry Truman (USA President, 1884-1972) said, “Progress occurs when Courageous Skilful Leaders seize the Opportunity to Change things for the better”.
The Institute of Certificated Mechanical and Electrical Engineers needs to take the lead, be courageous and seize this opportunity and have an influence in the South African school’s curriculum and tertiary institutions.

Thanks
Obed Letsholo (President).