As South Africa marks Transport Month, the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (IMESA) is calling for urgent reform in how infrastructure decisions are made. The organisation says that many ongoing failures in transport and public infrastructure are rooted in one critical issue: engineers are being excluded from procurement and planning decisions.
“At municipal level, tender evaluation committees and bid adjudication committees – which are responsible for awarding billions of rands in infrastructure contracts – are still dominated by non-technical officials,” IMESA asserts. This has become a systemic issue that the institute has repeatedly sounded the alarm on.
“We now need urgent intervention because tenders are routinely being awarded to contractors who do not have the technical capacity to deliver. Often, decisions are based on the lowest price, not on whether the bidder can actually build what’s needed,” says IMESA president Geoff Tooley.
He notes that the 2023/24 Auditor-General report confirmed the scale of the crisis. “Municipal infrastructure projects across the country are plagued by delays, cost overruns and quality issues. In nearly every case, these problems can be traced back to poor contractor selection and a lack of proper technical due diligence – the very areas where engineers are trained to advise.”
One example that has once again been in the spotlight is the Modderfontein bridge in Gauteng, which has been in disrepair since 2021, causing massive traffic congestion. A contractor was reportedly paid in full by the Johannesburg Roads Agency, but only 50% of the work was completed. A new contractor has now been appointed.
Transport Month was first launched in October 2005 to raise awareness of the important role of transport in the economy. Transport infrastructure is more than just roads and bridges, IMESA stresses. “It is the backbone of local economies, enabling the movement of goods, people and services. Infrastructure supports daily life, promotes economic activity and connects communities. But to ensure that it is safe, dependable and lasting, engineers must be involved from the outset and through all phases, including planning and procurement.”
The current situation, where they are being sidelined, puts professional engineers in an impossible position, Tooley says. Under the Engineering Profession Act (46 of 2000), engineers registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) are legally required to uphold standards that protect the public. This includes rejecting work that is unsafe, improperly scoped or risks infrastructure failure. When engineers are not part of procurement decisions – or worse, when their expert input is ignored – it creates an ethical and legal conflict.
“Municipal engineers’ standard role includes a detailed evaluation of whether the proposed budget matches real-world construction costs and whether the bidder has a track record for the kind of work being tendered,” he explains. “These assessments are submitted as part of the engineer’s report to the bid evaluation committee. But currently, engineers’ recommendations are often ignored, especially when we advise that a tender be declined. That’s not just bad practice, it’s reckless, and it wastes public money. This pattern must end.”
This Transport Month, IMESA is urging all municipalities and national departments to ensure that registered engineers are included in all tender evaluation and bid adjudication committees. The institute also calls for technical recommendations by engineers to not only be heard but also followed. “The law already gives engineers a mandate. It’s time municipal procurement processes recognised it in practice.
“When engineers are involved early, infrastructure projects are more likely to be delivered on time, on budget and with long-term sustainability. That translates into better service delivery, safer communities and greater economic resilience. The current approach is not working. If South Africa is serious about delivering infrastructure that lasts, engineers need to be at the decision-making table from day one. Anything less is a risk we simply cannot afford,” Tooley concludes.
