500 engineers face prosecution

Senior Business Reporter
A TOTAL of 1,265 engineers and technicians have registered with the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe as the council gears to prosecute about 500 who are yet to comply with the law.The Engineering Council of Zimbabwe (ECZ) is a regulatory body established through an Act of Parliament to ensure that practicing engineers and technicians in Zimbabwe are compliant with ethical standards of the profession.

“We have so far registered 665 local engineers and technicians and 600 Chinese and other foreign engineers and technicians practicing in the country.

“We still believe that there are about 500 who are yet to comply with law. Tomorrow, we’re publishing in The Herald a list of names of registered engineers and technicians. Those not on our list are not registered unless they have been omitted,” said Engineer Ben Rafemoyo, the ECZ CEO, in a telephone interview from Harare yesterday.

In January, ECZ said its main focus this year would be carrying out surveillance tours of engineers’ sites to inspect their registration status.

The registration is aimed at promoting ethical standards within the engineering profession.

“Both the employer and the employees operating outside the confines of the law will be prosecuted. We’re ready to prosecute them through our inspectorate and compliance department,” Eng Rafemoyo said.

Under the Engineering Council Act Chapter 27:22 and Statutory Instrument 161 of 2010, any person practicing engineering work or wishing to do the same in Zimbabwe is required to register with the council.

The Act empowers the engineering council to institute disciplinary measures on members that operate outside the ethical standards of the engineering profession.

The disciplinary action ranges from a fine, suspension and de-registration from ECZ.

A few months ago, officials from ECZ embarked on site tours checking if the engineers and technicians were registered with the regulatory body.

During the tours, the engineers and technicians on site were among others requested to produce their compliance certificates.
Before the economic meltdown, Zimbabwe had 3,000 registered engineers and technicians.

As a result of skills flight in recent years, the number of local and foreign engineers and technicians practicing in Zimbabwe went down prior to 2009.