South African infrastructure condition - an opinion survey for the SAICE Infrastructure Report Card

Abstract

The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) Infrastructure Report Cards of 2006, 2011 and 2017 reported that much of the South African infrastructure is in a poor condition. To augment the recent 2017 Report Card, a survey was, for the first time, conducted amongst SAICE members to obtain their opinion on the condition of infrastructure (in terms of a grading), the trend of the condition over time, as well as the reasons for the individual's grading. The 669 respondents indicated that, apart from a few exceptions such as national airports and the Gautrain, much of the infrastructure is in a poor state, which is very similar to the results obtained from the SAICE Report Card process. The results were also analysed per province and indicated that, in the opinion of respondents, specific provinces in particular are struggling with poor infrastructure. The main reasons given for the poor infrastructure were a lack of maintenance, lack of institutional capability, lack of sufficient funding and over-loading of infrastructure. Keywords: infrastructure condition, SAICE Infrastructure Report Card, Infrastructure grading system

Transformational leadership influences on work engagement and turnover intention in an engineering organisation

“…Naresh Pather, president of Consulting Engineer South Africa (CESA), corroborated this by saying that it was concerning that a considerable number of engineers are leaving the industry to seek employment opportunities in more fulfilling economic parts of the globe in related industries (Cokayne, 2019). A survey which Rust et al (2021) conducted revealed that among 1367 SAICE members, 932 (68%) indicated that they are willing to continue to be a part of the country's labour force. However, aspects such as over-politicisation of infrastructure, a lack of training and development and career paths, underremuneration, corruption and poor leadership prevent them from remaining in the labour force.…”

Analysis and Comparison of the Infrastructure Report Cards as a Decision Making Tool for Sustainable Development

“…For instance, their outcomes have been utilized to promote assessments of airport asset surfaces [28], new measurement systems for bridge evaluation [29] or water distribution networks [30], risk analyses for water infrastructure failure [31], and prioritization methods for subway investments based on functional failure impacts [32]. Other publications have focused on how an evaluation has been conducted [33], opinions about IRCs themselves [34], or comparisons related to policy actions and their resulting outcomes [35].…”