22 OPINION PIECE
The plumbing industry’ s split personality
By
Richard Bailie
I am a plumber through and through. It was the first thing I did seriously after matriculating, and barring a few short detours into project management, timeshare sales and the obligatory period of unemployment and disillusionment, I have been practising plumbing ever since. One could say it’ s all I know, and it forms the core of my identity as a professional.
I love this industry, but like anything we allow our hearts to love, it can also be the thing that hurts you the most.
When I entered the trade, it wasn’ t by design. I was looking for temporary work between finishing matric in 1990 and my SADF call-up in June 1991. A family friend introduced me to a plumbing company, and within two weeks I was offered a formal apprenticeship – and an exemption from the army. The rest, as they say, is history.
My training, in hindsight, was almost entirely individualistic. Every qualified plumber I worked under had their own methods, their own priorities, their own interpretation of‘ how things are done’. I absorbed what made sense and discarded what didn’ t. Of course, we all know now that after doing one ' s trade test and qualifying, you are as green as green gets, and you really are just a reflection of the quality of personnel responsible for your training. I was lucky – I had some good ones. inevitably, a professional body must sit front and centre.
As a side note and based on realworld data( ourworldindata. org), did you know that lack of access to sanitation accounts for almost 6 % of South Africa’ s deaths annually? That’ s hovering around 30 000 deaths a year caused by lack of sanitation, clean drinking water and hand washing facilities. Tell me again plumbing is not important.
About a decade ago, the PIRB achieved a major milestone: it became compulsory for geysers, heat pumps and thermal solar systems to be issued with a Certificate of Compliance( CoC), as these installations pose the most immediate risk to life and property, and the goal was to expand the CoC requirement across all facets of plumbing.
Wait! You mean plumbers need to be accountable now? Shock! Horror!
Yes – just like everyone else.
Supplied by Richard Bailie
What strikes me now, looking back, is that I don’ t recall being exposed to a single SANS standard during my apprenticeship. It was never impressed on me the importance of knowing and applying these standards. It was totally absent. Thankfully, that has changed. Today, young plumbers leave college already aware of what standards are, why they exist and the role they play – even if they don’ t yet fully grasp them. That awareness alone is one of the most positive shifts I’ ve seen in my 30-plus years in the trade.
I was also privileged to witness the formation and growth of the PIRB, our first and only professional body for plumbers. From the moment I became aware of it, I knew I wanted to be involved. I reached out, became an auditor, and had a front-row seat to its development.
Here’ s the difficult truth: the entire purpose of a professional body is to maintain professionalism, and some people do not like being held to professional standards. But if we advocate for removing oversight from plumbing, then do we extend that thinking to every other profession? Should engineers work without regulation? Should teachers, mechanics, doctors, electricians or gas installers operate with no accountability frameworks?
If the answer is,‘ No, that’ s different’, then I genuinely need to understand those supposed differences. Is plumbing somehow less important? What is the worst-case scenario of bad plumbing? A drip under a basin?
No. Let’ s acknowledge reality here – negligent plumbing can be absolutely catastrophic. From the contamination of drinking water, structural damage, floods and loss of human life – then surely,
Yet, many resisted the idea, and through circumstances that I believe were unfortunate the CoC requirement was eventually withdrawn. This piece is not about unpacking that moment; only to acknowledge that it remains, for me, deeply disappointing.
The result is that the industry has, in some ways, taken several steps backwards. How did this happen? Again, not the purpose of this article – but it should baffle any reasonable thinker.
So where to from here?
Despite all of this, I sense an awakening on the ground. A real need for compliance is taking root. Clients are more aware and increasingly reach out to PIRB and IOPSA for guidance long before disaster strikes. And plumbers themselves are now more conscious of the importance of adhering to standards. Clear communication, proper documentation, CPA and OHS awareness – these are becoming the norm rather than the exception.
This can only bode well for the industry going forward.
It seems to me( or rather, I have a sense of it) that this positive incremental movement has far more heft and impetus than the noise of the few who prefer the shadows of non-accountability. For society to function, proper plumbing is required. And proper plumbing does not happen by accident.
There is hope – real hope – and in many ways the industry has never looked brighter. PA
www. plumbingafrica. co. za @ plumbingonline @ plumbingonline @ PlumbingAfricaOnline February 2026 Volume 31 I Number 12