Mawande Jack
A programme to produce hundreds of new professional engineers to be deployed in all of the province’s municipalities has been unveiled.
The programme is a joint venture between the national Treasury and the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality. It entails a cash injection of R6m to train unemployed graduates who will be brought in to assist the crop of engineers within municipalities with an infrastructural development programmes.
Nelson Mandela Bay municipal spokesperson Kupido Baron said the Treasury was funding the programme through its infrastructure skills delivery grant.
The move takes place as the Eastern Cape, and South Africa in general, were facing a massive shortage of skilled and experienced engineers.
National Treasury senior economist Lizeka Gwabeni said there were fewer than 1000 qualified engineers in the country and only 371 of them were in the municipalities.
Nelson Mandela Bay executive mayor Zanoxolo Wayile said the programme would help in overcoming skills scarcity of engineering skills. “We commit to work with other municipalities to resolve the infrastructure backlog we have.”
mawandej@thenewage.co.za
Article source: http://www.thenewage.co.za/40134-1016-53-The_engineers_are_coming
