Civil Engineering August 2021 | Vol 29 No 7

28 August 2021 Civil Engineering PROF I LE H ailing from Zimbabwe, Leonard (Pr Eng) started his career as a roads engineer in Harare after graduating from the University of Zimbabwe. He was fortunate to gain experience in a broad range of disciplines early on, including design and construction supervision of roads, bridges and high-rise buildings, before working on mu- nicipal and water services, and gaining further academic experience at universities in South Africa and the UK along the way. Leonard went on to train as an arbitrator through the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has arbitrated a number of construction disputes as well as appeared in court as an expert witness. He has extensive experience in the field of contract law, as well as the procurement laws and standards across several countries. He founded his own company, Interconsult Zimbabwe, which focuses on infrastructure design and project management. Despite his role as managing director, Leonard has continued to work on projects and kept up to date with the technical aspects of engineering. He currently serves as the Engineering Director of the Climate Resilient Infrastructure Development Facility and is Project Director of COWI A/S, a Danish company. EXPERIENCE IN THE SADC REGION Leonard’s extensive career has taken him to 12 African countries across the SADC region, including Zimbabwe, South Africa, Angola, Tanzania, Namibia, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It all started in 1996 with the Pungwe Water Project, which at the time was Zimbabwe’s largest water infrastructure project. It included 76 km of 800 mm diameter pipeline and a 4 km tunnel through a national park to deliver water to the City of Mutare. The project required no objection from Mozambique, and Leonard was involved in the consultations between the two countries, exposing him to his first trans-boundary negotiations. Leonard has since worked on a plethora of projects across the SADC region and found that the challenges from country to country are often the same. COMMON CHALLENGES One of the common threads that runs through the region is what Leonard terms “the big C” – corruption. However, he points out that what is often perceived as corruption has its roots in lack of capacity an capability. While true corruption is certainly a problem, he has often found that insufficient capacity or down- right incompetence translates into a corrupt act without the intention of being corrupt. Most countries have very good legal frameworks and policies; the problem lies in implementation. And while some countries have issues with red tape that make it very difficult to implement projects, this is not a big obstacle in most countries. He adds that there is an abundance of op- portunities to do clean business. “Some people will try to see if you are willing to do things the ‘wrong way’, but if you show that you are resolute on good governance, they will usually back off and business is handled very cleanly.” Another commonality is the region’s colonial history. “What I find is that many of us, whether it be professionals, government employees, officials or the general public, see things as either black or white – quite literally,” says Leonard. Trust often falls along racial lines and is paired with preconceived notions about race. “We all need each other. If we learn to trust each other we will solve 50% of our problems,” he stresses. “It is vital that we promote all-inclusive development. While not everyone has the same level of knowledge and experience, we must collaborate locally and with our foreign counterparts, share knowl- edge, contribute to the development of others, and create owner- ship. We need partnerships across borders and across race. The skills are there, and where there are gaps, we must help to develop them. Our profession is good in that we get paid in the process.” THE POLITICS OF IT ALL One of the most concerning problems for Leonard is the in- creasing influence of politics over technical decision making – a problem he believes is worsening across the region. “There is no mistaking that infrastructure development is political – but there is wrong and right politics,” says Leonard “Early in my career, professionals made decisions and politi- cians followed professional advice. Today, professionals seem to have given their authority to the politicians. The respect for the professional is being eroded away, and we as professionals are helping to erode our authority by giving politicians power that Lessons for the cross-boundary engineer Many of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states face similar challenges when it comes to infrastructure development, paired with their own unique complexities. Leonard Magara, a civil engineer with extensive SADC experience, spoke to Civil Engineering about working in the region. His main advice to engineers: stand up to key stakeholders and politicians and ensure that technical decisions are based on technical motivations and thus are made by technical people. Leonard Magara Pr Eng, founder of Interconsult Zimbabwe