the way forward...

maybe its time to take a different approuch to this issue which is not only affected the electrical contractors but the public in general...costing people millions of rands in losses.

where do we start...

who is responsible for COC? (the person right at the top)
who designed the COC?
who enforces the COC and regulations?
how can we improve on the COC?



i beleive we need to start somewhere...i dont believe trying to palm the responsibilty onto a private company is the solution...i believe the DOL should employ the correctly skilled people.

a penality system for dodgy inspectors...1st offence a fine...2 d offence...temp. suspend license for a period of time and must attend refresher course on regulations...3 rd offence remove license completely for a period of at least 2 years and have to redo the entire process.

but in saying all this...the regulations needs to be improved...the COC requires a major revamp...and more specific for the different industries...domectic...commercial...industrial.


we need a public call centre setup by the DOL (if it is their responsibility) to assist with queries and problems...and better equipped training centres for the iinspectors with a call centre to assist the inspectors who might require assisitance.

major public awareness programs...most people dont even know that they are supose to keep the yellow copy of the COC...if you ask home owners for the origial COC they will tell you they have no idea what it looks like and that it must be lodged with the rest of their property documents...or with the attorney who transfered the property.

there are tooo many problems and issues with the COC at this point in time...and it is not going to help by dumping the responisbily onto the electrical contractors...the ECA...or the GEIA...the people resposible for this mess need to step up and sort out their fiasco they have created.

an electronic version of the COC should be made avaliable...everyone is concerned about the enviroment...come people why have we got a 6 page document which is duplicated and lines wasted

i also believe the test report and the certificate of compliance should be 2 completely seperate documents which on completion of the inspection report must be attached...recording all the information about the work carries out down to the repairs...the contractor and persons name and qualification who did the repairs..with 2 seperate colums...one to be filled in during the inspection report and the other ticked or the value recorded once rectified.


by the way safety inspectors on contruction sites should be better skilled in identifying safety issues in all fields not just checking safety boots and hard hats...i strongly believe using unskilled personel on construction sites is far more dangerous than a person not wearing safety boots...if that person wants to loose his toes or foot...it is his/her problem...but using unskilled personel not only endangers the lives of other construction works but staff who will be ocupying the building in the future.

come on people lets stop trying to point fingers at the electircal contractors...who may not be suitably trained due to lack of adequate training available...and rather see this massive problem for what it is...it is always easier to point fingers...i know i am as guilty as hell as you would have read in past threads.

phew brain overload for a sunday morning...time to go back to bed.