On Wednesday 16 November Prof Kevin Wall delivered the annual Snape Memorial Lecture at the Athenaeum in Claremont. His presentation, entitled “Work is more fun than fun is” was a reflection on his extensive career and an overriding sense that civil engineering is fun – and we need to protect the profession such that it remains fun for future generations.
Kevin had the opportunity to work across multiple civil engineering sectors, most notably in the City of Cape Town where he was involved in developing the precursor to the “Red Book” for human settlements while planning the development of the Cape Flats. This work then ultimately led him to join the CSIR where he lead research into human settlement planning. Kevin spoke briefly about the Infrastructure Report Card that he was involved in researching and which was published recently.
He noted that the environment in which Civil Engineers work in South Africa has changed. We have greater personal safety concerns, the cost of protecting infrastructure from crime and vandalism has increased substantially, our clients, though well-intentioned, are not necessarily well informed and are under immense political pressure, and supply chain management requirements overshadow engineering. He drew on case studies from South African history where engineers were required to respond to challenges fast and asked the audience if they believed we could deliver projects fast anymore – noting that regulatory and procurement requirements have stunted the ability of engineering professionals to respond.
Most importantly, however, he noted that we have lost trust in each other to act ethically and have lost faith in each other’s abilities. If we want to be a nation that is effective and can deliver better outcomes for our citizens then the respective stakeholders and role-players need to be able to trust each other to deliver on their respective mandates. What do we need to do to make engineering fun again such that the next generation can benefit from what is a most rewarding career.
We wish to thank Kevin for a most entertaining Snape Memorial Lecture, which even included a song recital and some Monty Python. If you missed the lecture and would like to view the recording of it please find the recording on our YouTube channel. Alternatively, you can link it from our website.
