Civil Engineering nOVEMBER 2021 | Vol 29 No 10

Civil Engineering November 2021 7 Pile Integrity Tester (PIT) • Reveals potential shaft or pile defects such as major cracks, necking, soil inclusions or voids • Can be used to determine unknown pile lengths • Optional PIT-Professional reporting software allows advanced modeling and analysis • Available in three (cabled or wireless) versions: velocity only, force and velocity, or two velocity channels To learn more about PIT, visit www.pile.com. prioritise the leadership of all South Africans. The key to success is the converging of political agendas to human agendas and social compacts to unify methodologies to achieve goals. This will build trust between society, business, and government. The disconnects between government, civil society and business must be harmonised in our sustainability approach. Simply put, we have the knowledge to fix our circumstances aligned to our plans. The methodologies to implement plans aligned to the targets of SDG 11, 9 and 4 are already in place. We have the technology, skills and most importantly a subconscious compact that we can still make a positive difference. We have spent much time crafting such plans, renaming plans and even more time talking about plans. Our current disconnects prevent us from actioning plans with success and we will be the only ones responsible for success or failure. I support the notion that transformation requirements have increased in complexity. In this context, transformation means alignment of regulations, policies, methodologies and tasks directly to the targets of SDG 11, 9 and 4 for meaningful impact. At present, there is only partial alignment in need of significant work. There are new and existing dimensions of transformation that need work. Knowledge and education dimensions are key to transformation. Other dimensions include effective leadership and associated behaviours, institutional arrangements, diversity, and inclusivity, among others. The elephant in the room is that not all of us tasked with working on such dimensions have the requisite knowledge and appreciation of these concepts. In a time-constrained recovery scenario, we risk perpetuating unsustainability by doing what we have always done. A key enabler is to create a hard focus on quality knowledge and education. If we don’t move faster we will have a diminishing window of effectiveness. By this, I mean that we risk a future scenario in which emotional responses will drive all choices and decision making in a state of chaos. It will be too late to apply cognitive thinking when individual survival becomes the domi- nant driver of actions. Access to affordable quality education will be our Achilles’ heel in the medium to long term. I say so because to implement a transformed development agenda also means that we need the future capacity to carry forward our nation-building efforts. Our economic reconstruction and recovery project is multi- generational and academic transformation has to be prioritised and transformed now to meet future-fit capacity needs. I assume that we as engineers share the sentiment of wanting to make a positive difference to ourselves and our country. We may also find it absurd that we cannot do as much as we’d like to help when we are needed the most. I sincerely hope that sanity prevails soon and in good time for us to be effective. Vishaal Lutchman SAICE CEO vishaal@saice.org.za