By Geoff Tooley, president of the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (IMESA), who attended the recent International Federation of Municipal Engineering (IFME) World Congress in Helsinki, Finland, on behalf of IMESA. While South Africa’s infrastructure crisis is dominating headlines and conversations around the country, in the global municipal engineering community, South Africa is holding its own as a world class champion of infrastructure excellence. This was underscored at the 2026 International Federation of Municipal Engineering (IFME) World Congress, which was held under the theme “Future Liveable Cities”. South Africa stood front and centre alongside our IFME counterparts.