28 Design: Dear Mr Plumber
<< Continued from page 27 to list engineers and technologists as competent in fire engineering as well as building water services. We are also preparing a programme of CPD courses and lectures for the registration and re-registration of these engineers and technologists through SAICE and ECSA, and these persons are being provided with an official ECSA letter to confirm their competence.
All of this will be in vain if‘ anybody’ can be allowed to transgress the NBR and carry out work for which they are not competent.
The work of the plumber is protected; the question is, why is the work of the engineer not protected by simply following the legal requirements?
Looking ahead The future is‘ smart’ buildings and for‘ smart’ buildings we need‘ smart’ engineers. Where are they going to come from if we don’ t educate them at university or technical university and if we don’ t mentor, train, and register them?
SAICE now has two new divisions, one for fire engineering and the other, which was established some time ago, for building water services.
Membership of these divisions is open for both civil and mechanical engineers and technologists, because both of these disciplines of engineering practice in these fields.
What we do and allow now will determine the future, and it will affect the industry, the economy, the education system( from student to professional registration), and the future of the building industry.
An‘ old’ group of people are sitting around the committee tables and working groups; they are passing on and slowly disappearing one-by-one. We must invest in the future and the new generation, otherwise we will lose our pool of knowledge. We must protect the future of our engineers and technologists.
The previous generations were able to spend many hours for free at the tables of the SABS( I don’ t know how they managed), but the new generation is under severe time pressures that they can ill afford. The SABS will have to reconsider this situation— or just forfeit this valuable pool of expertise and knowledge. Nothing is free anymore. You have the right to disagree with me, but the fact is that we have to protect the future. PA