By: Nomvula Ndlovu

Municipal engineers from all over South Africa assembled at the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) to share their expertise at the 78th IMESA conference on Wednesday.

Running with the theme “Balancing service delivery”, the conference was organised by the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa.

Bouke Spoelstra the Director of Vetasi, which was one of the exhibitors, said that the conference was a great platform for engineers to network.

“This is a great forum to grow and meet potential clients. Most importantly, all the key decision-makers have assembled here and it is easier to access information,” he said.

Spoelstra went to say that it is crucial for people in the sector to engage because that will lead towards progress in the country.

The exhibition also gave the engineers a chance to engage and exchange knowledge.

Barry Thompson from Ekurhuleni Municipality found the exhibition insightful.

“ As a person you can only know so much about your field. It is not easy to know all the latest innovations- this is a great forum for us to better ourselves. We get to meet with other municipality engineers and share ideas on we each progress,” he said.

During his address, Muziwakhe Zulu from the eThekwini Municipality said that engineers need to unite for success.

“As engineers we need to liase with the government. We are part of the problem instead of being part of the solution. We are the economy; we are the only sector that has the power to break the system. We need to work together to make major changes,” he said.