23 May 2022

The Architects Registration Council should be given powers to inspect, interdict and shut down offices of illegally practising companies, says  the council’s registrar Mr Mmilili Kenneth.

“The council currently operates like a toothless bulldog. We don’t have powers to access construction sites to ensure compliance with quality standards,”  he lamented  during public consultation on the review of the Architects Registration Act in Lobatse recently.

 Mr Kenneth said in its current form, the act did not give the council the necessary powers.

 The new act should be specific on the scope and quality of work to be undertaken by architectural professionals, he said.

In addition, Mr Kenneth said the act should be aligned with other related pieces of legislation  regulating government building and housing programmes such as the Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) scheme.

He also said the new act should have stiff penalties for professionals who did shoddy work.

“Sometimes we have projects like roads and buildings constructed and within a short period they start cracking,” he said adding that no action was ever taken against such companies.

Mr Kenneth explained that the review was aimed at developing a new legislation  that would address complaints of poor quality  projects, cost overruns and project completion delays among other things.

Reviewing of the act was also prompted by queries about steep fees and shortage of architects.

Mr Kenneth said the consultation process for reviewing the act started last October.

“We are now in the process of consulting with members of the public so that when we make the bill it would address the concerns of the public,” he said.

He said the council had engaged institutions offering architects programmes to ensure that qualifications were of the required standard adding that a task force was now in place to review all  architects qualifications.

“We are proposing to add a category of graduates where we would register fresh graduates and take them through the process of mentorship where we would monitor them. After two years we would register them. It would address the complaints that we are not registering fresh graduates,” said Mr Kenneth.

He advised people to use  services of qualified architects to improve the quality of their buildings.

The meeting was attended by the town leadership as well as government department and Ward Development Committee representatives. Ends