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Engineering Leadership: the real stars in the South African Football World Cup.
by John Masters

This year Australia observes the Year of Engineering Leadership – recognising amongst others the extent to which leaders of the engineering team provide inspiring, sustainable and innovative solutions to society's challenges.

Development of our built environment and supporting infrastructure is made possible by the collective contribution of the country’s entire workforce. However, it is the ability of engineering leaders to enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task that can provide the most striking examples of meeting society’s challenges.

During a recent visit to South Africa I had the opportunity to witness this particular trait first hand. Discussions with old South African work colleagues and current business associates inevitably turned to the challenges that leading South African engineers face in mitigating long term infrastructure bottlenecks such as power shortages, while simultaneously meeting the demands imposed on South Africans to ensure that their country is presented as a world class venue for its hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Construction on a grand scale – for now
The South African media reports the usual rhetoric of South Africa’s political leaders and corporate executives, reassuring the nation and the world of South Africa’s readiness for the world’s premier international football tournament. However, it is only when negotiating the roads and highways of Johannesburg and Pretoria that one really gets a sense of the scale of construction underway, with crews working furiously to ensure that South Africa is ready by 11 June 2010 when the World Cup kicks off in Johannesburg with the opening match between South Africa and Mexico.

Two years ago South Africa wrestled with severe power shortages across the country, causing widespread load shedding and leading to production cuts in the mining industry – an industry which is so critical to the country’s growth. Although the immediate crises appear to be over, I thought that the power industry was a good place to seek comment from leading engineers about the role the engineering leadership plays in providing inspiring, sustainable and innovative solutions to South Africa’s challenges.

I spoke to leading engineers and allied professionals grappling with demands to meet short term goals to protect the country’s reputation as a worthy host of global sporting events. But perhaps more importantly, these leaders toil daily to provide for their country’s growth at a rate that can address many of its socio-economic challenges.

I met with individuals responsible for and often held accountable for delivering in key areas such as : national electricity supply reliability; electricity supply technology research; independent power providers using renewable energy sources; corporate and executive human resources strategy in a sector responsible for major infrastructure in the RSA, even Project Management to provide back-up electricity supply for World Cup stadiums.

Amongst the leaders of engineers in the electricity industry there is concern that too much focus has been applied to short term targets (i.e. making sure the lights stay on during the World Cup). Most of them felt that political and corporate leaders are slow to heed warnings (from engineering team leaders) that ongoing electricity supply reliability and sustained growth requires them to pay more attention to needs in terms of developing and retaining engineering skills that ensure the delivery of infrastructure goals remain possible.

After each meeting I was left with an overwhelming sense of the will among engineering team leaders to make things work out, but almost without exception there was doubt about whether ongoing support of engineering activity 'on the ground', even after the world cup, was likely.

Sprinting the Marathon?
One of the more salient points that arose from all the discussions is the fact that funds are currently being made abundantly available and engineers have been empowered to prop up the county’s image (mainly for the world cup), but that they feel a sense of resignation that meaningful support for engineering leaders and their teams will all but disappear after the World Cup.

Latent issues such as affirmative action, the brain drain, inexperienced management, corruption and BEE will once again encumber them. Engineering leaders expect this to be an anticlimax after the achievements in recent years made possible by the enhanced level of patriotism and anticipation generated by the country’s opportunity to host the world cup. The accomplishment of a common task has helped to enlist the aid and support of others – what happens when this support has served its purpose?

When this 'common task' no longer exists they fear of being overwhelmed by lack of motivation in their teams driven by a lack of funds and skills and diminished recognition of the vital role they play in addressing the country’s long term challenges.

In 1995, just one year after South Africa’s first democratic elections, South Africa successfully hosted the Rugby World Cup. Recently elected President Nelson Mandela was challenged with balancing black aspirations with white fears and he quickly recognised that if the Springboks could gain the support of non-white South Africans and succeed in the upcoming World Cup, the country would be unified and inspired.

Readers who have seen the recent film Invictus (a 2009 biographical drama film based on Nelson Mandela's life during the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman), will recall that President Mandela shared a poem called Invictus (by William Ernest Henley, 1849–1903) with the springbok rugby captain Francois Pienaar. This was part of Nelson Mandela’s effort to inspire the young rugby captain to surpass all expectations and make the Rugby World Cup final.

Cinema goers may be surprised (perhaps even disappointed) to learn that it was in fact the following speech delivered 100 years ago by the US president Theodore Roosevelt that Nelson Mandela shared with Pienaar: “The Man in the Arena”, given at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on 23 April 1910.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Fifteen years later the country's largest problems (including crime and unemployment) now occupy the minds of many South Africans. Nevertheless the 2010 Soccer World Cup is being seen by many as another water-shed event, only this time it is the performance off the field that is likely to contribute most to the country’s future. President Jacob Zuma take note: this time your men in the arena are the country’s engineering leadership.


Once the hype and excitement of the FIFA World Cup has come and gone the electricity supply industry remains just one area where successful engineering leadership can play a significant role in addressing some of the challenges that South Africa faces, with poverty and crime foremost of these. I will be asking the “Engineering Leaders” I met during my visit for their views and comments on the ability of engineering leaders to enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task – reflecting on the country’s success in presenting a world class venue for the World Cup, and looking ahead to providing for the country’s growth at a rate that can continue to raise the living standards of all South Africans. Their responses will be published on our web site as well as in the August issue of talent torque.