Electricity + Control May 2017

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LIGHT + CURRENT
Alliance Partners at CONNECT
Schneider Electric celebrated the winners of the CONNECT Alliance
Partner Conference at a glitzy awards ceremony held at the Riverside
SunHotel inVanderbijlpark, SouthAfrica.The awards are a commemora-
tion and a recognition of companies within Schneider Electric’s network
of Alliance Partners who continue to excel in being system integrators
through implementing Schneider Electric’s industry solutions.
“It is important that we celebrate and honour our dedicated partners
who continue to innovate and grow their portfolio’s to provide excellent
services that help our industrial and infrastructure customers meet
their technical and business goals,” says Marc RamsayVice President -
Industry Business Unit, Schneider Electric. He adds that this is a crucial
part of celebrating local partners and this forms an integral aspect of
Schneider Electric’sAlliance Partner program. Local ExcellenceAwards
for 2016 presented during the Connect conference, Gala Dinner:
• PlantStruxure Partner of the Year 2016 – Control Software Solutions
• Best Migration Project of the Year 2016– EME-PCBs
• PlantStruxure PES Partner of the Year 2016 – Artiflex
• Business Development Award 2016 – Devcotech
• Most Certified PlantStruxure Engineers Award 2016 - Control
Software Solutions
Schneider Electric’s Alliance Partner Program enables partners the
opportunity to collaborate, gain insight into what is new in terms of
Schneider Electric’s innovative solutions and products.This allows the
partners to leverage on Schneider’s best in class industry solutions
to grow their own portfolios and build their businesses to become
leading industry system integrators.
Enquiries: LebohangThokoane.
Email
Joe Von Aulock - SI Channel manager, Eric Leger-Country President
of Schneider Electric. Holding the award for PlantStruxure Partner of
the Year 2016 – Control Software Solutions (Pieter Venter).(Second
from right) Marc Ramsay – VP Industry Business. Anthony Pickering,
Zone VP Industry Africa & Caribbean Rest of the World Operations
Schneider Electric.
Engineers speak out on SA’s cabinet reshuffle!
Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA),
representing a member base of over 500
companies which employ over 23 000 peo-
ple in various capacities, is dismayed by the
current cabinet reshuffle. As an industry we
pride ourselves on excellence in the delivery
of infrastructure projects.
The current cabinet reshuffle, which we
accept as being the prerogative of the
President regrettably not only runs the risk of
exacerbating the already troubled economic
situation we find ourselves in, but also sends
out a disturbing message on rewarding
mediocrity and punishing excellence. The
latter is counter-intuitive to the culture we
seek to establish among young engineering
professionals who will be responsible for
ensuring the wellbeing of our infrastructure
for generations to come.
CESA further would like to reiterate that
the country cannot afford this question-
able reshuffle based on the need for more
‘effectiveness and efficiency’ according to
the President, when this flies in the face of
dispensing of the very performance needed
to achieve this objective. As engineers we
believe that a better approach would have
been to dispense of the non-performers and
bring on board more performers.
The industry is already experiencing dif-
ficulty amidst corruption, appointment of
consulting engineering firms that have little
or no track record of delivery and even mafia
style criminal activity halting construction
activity.The latter not only puts lives at risk
but also affects job security in a sector where
limited employment opportunities currently
exist due to the already low levels of capital
investment in infrastructure.
The junk status downgrade investment
rating by Standard & Poor’s, a leading
global credit rating agency, which ema-
nated mostly from the politi-
cal uncertainty confirmed by
this ill-timed reshuffle, limits
investor confidence further
and will not only hamper
economic growth, but will
further limit our ability to
create more jobs. Skilled en-
gineering practitioners from
various technical disciplines
are currently being retrenched
at a time when this has been
identified as at least six out
of the ten most scarce skills
in the country.
The jury of course is al-
ways out on whether new
appointees will be future star performers and
whether some Ministers would have learnt
from their past shortcomings. As an industry
committed to the success and wellbeing of
our country, in support of initiatives towards
constructive and sustainable economic
transformation, we offer our support to
partner with those ministries entrusted with
infrastructure delivery.
Enquiries: Dennis Ndaba.Tel. +27 (0) 11 463
2022 or email
CESA Chief Executive Officer - Chris Campbell.
39 May ‘17 Electricity+Control