History
History Of The Formation Of The Chamber And The Engineering Profession In South Africa.
To place the formation of The Chamber of Engineering Technology and its relationship to the Engineering Council of South Africa in perspective, one has to understand a little of the history of the engineering profession in South Africa.
History.
This is summarised below.
The first "liaison groups" of professional people were probably the "guilds" established by the masons over a thousand years ago. The masons, being proud of their building skills, protected their members, set rules of conduct and penalties for offenders and generally kept the tricks of their trade secret from non-members.
The next step was the formation of Institutes or Institutions, being the "Learned Societies". These were and are formalised banding together of persons of similar interests, often belonging to a particular discipline (Civil, Mechanical, etc.). They determine their own entry requirements, levels of education, training and may also set examinations for aspirant members.
South Africa followed the British model and some South African Institutes are over one hundred years old (Mechanical, Mining and Metallurgy). Up to 1968, Institutes were arbiters in disputes and their standards were accepted by employers as the measurement of qualifications.
In 1968 the Professional Engineers Act was implemented. This provided statutory recognition and registration for engineers in South Africa. Members of the engineering profession who did not hold an acceptable four year university degree and three years of acceptable high level engineering experience were excluded. In the interests of public safety, regulations were introduced requiring that certain work could be performed only by registered Professional Engineers (e.g.; Consulting). Institutional membership now became a secondary consideration. The scene now also changed with the parallel developments of the statutory branch and the voluntary branch of the engineering profession.
In 1976 the Federation of Societies of Professional Engineers (FSPE) through the Institution of Certificated and Electrical Engineers (ICMEE), invited all engineering technician bodies together to discuss amendments to the Professional Engineers Act. This resulted in the formation of the Interim Committee for Registration of Engineering Technicians (ICRET). By 1978 the amendments to the Act were published. The first Board of Control for Engineering Technicians (BOCET) was established on 14 November 1983.
In 1980 ICRET called a meeting to establish a permanent voluntary organisation to represent technicians. The Affiliation of Societies Representing Engineering Technicians (ASRET), a federal type body, was formed by unanimous vote of twenty societies.
Somewhat later the engineering Technologists followed the same path and the first Board of Control for Engineering Technologists (BOCNOL) was formed with the voluntary association being the South African Association of Registrable Engineering Technologists (SAARET).
The last category to apply for a Board of Control was the Certificated Engineers and, after some delays caused by other categories wishing to be included, held its first meeting on 18 November 1987.
At this stage there were more than 24 voluntary groupings of engineering persons and four statutory bodies, being the South African Council for Professional Engineers (SACPE), BOCET, BOCNOL and the Board of Control for Certificated Engineers. Around 1984 the then Minister of Technology, Danie Steyn had already expressed his concern that Engineering, unlike the medical profession, legal profession and business community, had no visible means of communication with the Government.
At another meeting of all the role players, including ASRET, a committee was formed to shape up an umbrella engineering organisation. Technicians and Technologists were accepted as equal members along with Engineers on this Interim Committee. After some four years the voluntary umbrella body the South African Engineering Association (Suid Afrikaanse Vereniging van Ingenieurswese) (SAVI) was agreed to. Sadly, only Professional Engineer Institutes were recognised and the only representation Technicians had was via ASRET.
The fragmented statutory position ended in 1990. S A Council for Professional Engineers and the various Control Boards were replaced on 13 July 1990 by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) which covered engineers, technicians, technologists and certificated engineers (The Engineering Professions Act 46 of 2000).
This has been replaced by act. no. 46 of 2000, Engineering Professions act. which became administratively effective on 28 August 2001.
Upon the formation of SAVI, its structure was such that it and ASRET became incompatible in that both were federal bodies i.e.; not a body of individual members. In order to remain a member of SAVI, ASRET changed to the Association of South African Registered Engineering Technicians (ASARET) which consisted of individual members.
Sadly the engineering groups, after protracted debate, could not bring themselves to support SAVI further and it effectively became defunct in 2000 and lives on in name only.
In 1993 it became apparent that ASARET was not doing enough for Engineering Technicians because of a lack of funds, motivation and an old fashioned exclusive and restrictive constitution. A radical break with the past and old structure was proposed and agreed to by its members. ASARET and the Institute for Engineering Technology (IVIT) amalgamated to form The Chamber of Engineering Technology late in 1994.
Thus the Chamber of Engineering Technology in its various forms and under some previous names has been active since 1984.
