Only four structural engineers cover entire province as KZN struggles to attract qualified professionals

KwaZulu-Natal is struggling to attract structural engineers putting the province in a precarious position during devastating disasters.

Complicating the grim picture is that the coastal province over the years has been prone to floods leaving a trail of deaths and infrastructural damage. Recently, the department of public works and infrastructure advertised several vacancies calling for structural engineers, but none of the applicants met the required qualifications nor experience. The department resorted to withdrawing the adverts. 

Dr Vish Govender, the newly elected head of department for public works and infrastructure described the situation as dire. 

“The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Public Works and Infrastructure continues to face a significant shortage of qualified structural engineers, which remains a critical constraint on our ability to effectively deliver and maintain public infrastructure across the province. Structural engineering is a scarce and highly specialised skill in South Africa, and this scarcity is particularly pronounced within the public sector, where we are competing with the private sector on remuneration, career growth, and project exposure, ” Govender told the Mail & Guardian. 

He stated while the department had increased the number of structural engineers from one to four, it was inadequate to respond to infrastructural demands. 

“When the current administration assumed office, the department had only one structural engineer serving the entire province. This posed substantial risks in terms of project oversight, designing and approvals, infrastructure assessments, and response to structural failures. Since then, we have made deliberate efforts to strengthen this capacity, and we have successfully recruited three additional engineers, bringing the total to four,” he said. 

Govender explained while the department had undertaken recruitment, including the advertisement of vacant engineering posts, the efforts have not yielded the desired results. “We have struggled to attract suitably qualified and experienced candidates. This is largely due to the broader industry shortage, as well as challenges related to attracting engineering professionals.”

The department was now banking on expanding internship and candidacy programmes to develop internal capacity, and enhancing mentorship structures to support professional registration among other initiatives. 

The severe shortage of engineers in the country was also noted by Vishal Haripersad, president of Consulting Engineers South Africa (Cesa). 

According to Haripersad, South Africa has a deficit of at least 60 000 engineering professionals, an untenable situation for a country that has invested in excess of R1 trillion in infrastructure. 

“South Africa has one engineer for every 3 000 people, compared with about one engineer for every 300 people in a developed country. By our estimates, we are currently short of around 60 000 professionals,” he said.

Contributing to the already dire situation was a number of qualified engineers who have exited the public sector and left the country for developed nations.