Engineers urged to regularise operations

Enforcement of the Act will result in the non-compliant parties having their licences revoked.
The council’s chief executive, Engineer Ben Rafemoyo, said a grace period that had been granted for engineers operating in the country to regularise their operations was coming to an end.

“We urge all engineers to regularise their status because the window is fast closing. Very soon the inspectorate will be enforcing the regulations,” he said.
He was speaking at a construction event in Harare recently. The council made similar threats in November last year when a grace period set by the Ministry of Public Works expired.
The Engineering Council (General) Regulations of 2010 were promulgated to fully operationalise the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe Act (Chapter 27:22) and lay down the procedures to be followed for one to practise engineering work in the country.

In terms of the Act, every engineer working for a firm that is registered under the council is required to pay an annual licensing fee to the council, failing which the defaulting party’s licence is revoked.
The regulations apply to both local and foreign engineers and firms intending to practise in Zimbabwe.

Engineering disciplines that are required to comply with the Act include: aeronautical, agricultural, architectural, civil, chemical, computer science and computing, electrical, and electronic, industrial and manufacturing, mechanical, metallurgical, mining, nanotechnology, naval and nuclear engineering.

Meanwhile, Eng Rafemoyo, a former chief executive of power utility Zesa Holdings, has attributed traffic congestion in the capital to poor planning.
“The congestion that we are experiencing is not reflective of the size of our traffic flow, and our engineers have a challenge to address this issue,” he said.