Welcome to the Council for the Built Environment (CBE)
The Council for the Built Environment (CBE) was established as a statutory body by Parliament (Act 43 of 2000) to provide leadership to, and ensure good governance of the professions, while serving as a two-way channel for coordinated input, into the restructuring and development process, between the professions and Government.
To ensure, through a cooperative process of quality assurance, that persons wishing to enter the
profession are educated and trained according to widely accepted standards, so as to be able to
render a professional service for the benefit of the public and the country as a whole
ECSA sees itself in partnership with the State and the engineering profession to promote a high level of
education and training of practitioners in the engineering profession so as to facilitate full recognition of
professionalism in the engineering profession, both locally and abroad. It enjoys full autonomy although
it is accountable to the State, the profession and the public for the fair and transparent administration of
its business in the pursuit of its goals.
However, in pursuing this goal, ECSA has an implied responsibility to ensure that the interests of the
profession (the practitioners) are also promoted. The interest of the public and the country can only be
served properly if a profession is healthy and strong. For this reason ECSA promotes the well-being of
the voluntary societies who are active in engineering. Since the societies are the instruments through
which the interests of the practitioners are served, a good balance between "public interests" (ECSA)
and "own interests" (Societies) should be maintained.
Setting and auditing of academic standards for purposes of registration through a process of
accreditation of engineering programmes at universities and technikons
Setting and auditing of professional development standards through the provision of guidelines
which set out ECSA's post-qualification requirements for registration in the four professional
categories of registration, namely Professional Engineer, Professional Engineering Technologist
,Professional Certificated Engineer and Professional Engineering Technician as
well as for Specified Categories, such as Registered lift inspectors
Prescribing requirements for Continuing Professional Development and determining the period
within which registered persons must apply for renewal of their registrations
Prescribing a Code of Conduct and Codes of Practice, and enforcing such conduct through an
Investigating Committee and a Disciplinary Tribunal
Identification of work of an engineering nature that should be reserved for registered persons by
the CBE, after consultation with the Competition Board
Advising the CBE and Minister of Public Works on matters relating to the engineering profession
and cognate matters
Recognition of professional associations, such as engineering associations, institutes,
institutions and societies
Publication of a guideline tariff of fees for consulting work, in consultation with government, the
profession and industry
To ensure, through a cooperative process of quality assurance, that persons wishing to enter the
profession are educated and trained according to widely accepted standards, so as to be able to
render a professional service for the benefit of the public and the country as a whole 
