RECOMMENDED IDENTIFICATION OF WORK POLICY DOCUMENT FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT PROFESSIONS

The Built Environment Act of 2000 is the umbrella for a raft of Built Environment Professions statutes such as the:

• Architectural Profession Act of 2000
• Quantity Surveying Profession Act of 2000
• Property Valuers Profession Act of 2000
• Landscape Architectural Profession Act of 2000
• Engineering Profession Act of 2000
• Project and Construction Management Professions Act of 2000

The Council of the Built Environment Professions (CBE) has published a proposal with regard to the identification of Work for the Built Environment Professions (Draft 10 October 2009) in the form of Board Noticed No. 137 of 2009 published in the Government Gazette No. 32964 of 13 November 2009 for written comments and inputs.

The closing date for the submissions in the notice is 14 December 2009.

The CBE proposal sets out in detail seven stages to be followed with the introduction of the identification of Work for each of the Built Environment Professions.

Stages 1 and 2 whereby the respective Professional Councils, following consultation within their professions, have submitted recommendations to the CBE, in one form or another, appear to be completed and the Notice in detail sets the CBE policy (Stage 3) following receipt and analysis of the recommendations made by the Councils for the various Professions.

The main purpose of Work identification in South Africa is that it ensures that such Work is performed by competent persons who are appropriately registered with a Council for the Professions and who are accountable for their actions.  This is to be done in a manner that is:

• Consistent with Government’s competition policy
• Protects the health and safety of the public and workers
• Protects the environment
• Promotes sustainable development
• Offers consumers a measure of protection, and;
• provides recourse in relation to aspects pf professional conduct

In the final analyses the impact of what is seen as a form of work reservation for the Built Environment Profession may have a dramatic impact on the operational requirements of business enterprises and organs of the state responsible for the delivery and maintenance of buildings and infrastructure.

Interested readers may access the full text below.

Board Notice 137 of 2009 (PDF)

Pieter Rautenbach | Projects Facilitator