This article has been supplied and will be available for a limited time only on this website. Water outages, ageing power infrastructure, potholed roads and failing municipal systems have become a daily reality for citizens across South Africa. Behind the headlines, however, is a less-told story: engineers working across the country to design, repair and sustain the functioning infrastructure that keeps services running. This work is now being recognised with the announcement of the finalists for the CESA Aon Engineering Excellence Awards 2026.
“Too often, engineers are only brought into decisions about South Africa's infrastructure landscape once something has already gone wrong, for example, when a building falls down, or the water stops running,” says Chris Campbell, CEO of Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA). "These awards are a chance to recognise the value that engineers bring to the infrastructure ecosystem in South Africa and beyond: the technical judgement, innovation, planning and problem-solving that keeps infrastructure working, long before and long after the ribbon is cut. Our finalists are proof that consulting engineers are not bystanders in South Africa's infrastructure story, we are indispensable partners in delivering it."
