The Civil Engineering Contractor March 2019 | Page 35

PROFILE
involved from tendering to completion.
“The pinnacle on this project was seeing
the difference it made in people’s lives
after completion,” he recalls.
In 2015, he received his professional
registration from the Engineering
Council of South Africa (ECSA).
“Receiving it summed up many years
of hard work. At last, I could take
responsibility for the work I produced
as a fully fledged professional,” he
says. He is open to growth and is
looking at other aspects that form
part of his profession. He has a
master’s in project management from
the University of Pretoria.
Looking at the industry, he laments
that practitioners do not own and
protect the industry in the way that is
seen in other industries. “We need to
take a page from lawyers and doctors
and find a way to safeguard the highly
specialised work we do. If we do not,
then things will carry on and get worse,”
he advises. According to Sidinile, the
past three years have been bleak for the
industry. “The economic downturn has
hit our industry hard. SMEC is surviving
the times by continuing to deliver good
quality work and by delivering projects
in a smarter way. Things are steadily
improving now, though. As we see more
work being awarded, we hope that this
continues, because if the engineering
industry is ticking, this means that
service delivery is taking place and the
lives of people are improving.”
He believes that the change that
technology brings gives engineers
a more efficient way of delivering
projects. “We have just embarked on
an exciting journey as SMEC, where
we have built virtual rooms. In these
rooms, one can virtually enter a model
and be in the world that has been
designed by our team of designers.
This is a visually powerful tool that can
be used to show a client what the final
product will look like. The technology
is also useful for detailed inspections
to ensure that the designs are correct.
What could happen in the future is
that a lot of design operations may
be automated, but I think the human
touch will always be required in the
work that we do.”
To young and upcoming engineers,
he advises that they should also discover
their ‘why’ and use that to fuel their
passion. “Welcome to the real world of
civil engineering — you know nothing.
You will be surprised what you can learn
from a site labourer who doesn’t even
have a matric certificate. So be willing
to learn. Once you start working,
quickly find out what your ‘why’ is:
Why do you do what you do? This
‘why’ is different for most professionals.
With my work being based mostly in
the municipal space, my ‘why’ is the
difference I know that my work makes
to civil society at large. Find out what
yours is, because that is what will drive
you in the occasional hard times you
will face in your career.” nn