As South Africa works to strengthen the skills and capacity needed to deliver and maintain the infrastructure on which communities and the economy depend, some of the most important work to strengthen the engineering pipeline happens quietly inside consulting engineering firms.

For Makhaotse, Narasimulu and Associates (MNA), developing that pipeline has been a deliberate focus for more than two decades and it has now earned the firm national recognition, having been named Mentoring Company of the Year at this year’s Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) Aon Engineering Excellence Awards.

This award recognises its sustained commitment to structured mentorship, professional development and the growth of future engineering leaders. What makes this particularly significant is the scale at which this investment is being made. As a relatively small consulting engineering practice, within the South African consulting engineering landscape, MNA has built a structured mentorship and professional development programme that has produced measurable results.

Over the past 10 years, MNA has supported 17 Professional Registrations and 33 Candidate Registrations. These registrations represent a substantial percentage of the total number of technical staff within the organisation. In the last two years alone, the organisation recorded three new professional registrations, 14 internal promotions and five Associate-level appointments, with further registration submissions currently progressing through the programme.

“Our approach to mentorship is founded on the belief that the success of a consulting engineering firm is measured not only by the infrastructure it delivers, but also by the growth and advancement of its people,” says Sagren Narasimulu, Managing Director of MNA. “This recognition reflects the commitment of our mentors, mentees and leadership team to building a stronger, more capable and more inclusive engineering profession.”

Mentorship as the bottomline

MNA’s mentorship efforts combines structured one-on-one mentorship aligned with Engineering Council of South Africa ECSA competency requirements, peer-based mentorship, continuous professional development tracking and career development plans linked to the organisation’s grading and succession framework.

Experienced professionals provide technical guidance, design reviews, project exposure, leadership coaching and professional development, while senior mentors provide technical oversight and engineering governance within MNA’s various divisions which include Transportation, Water and Sanitation, Buildings and Integrated Systems Engineering.

Karushka Moses, Associate and registered ECSA Professional Engineer at MNA, has experienced that progression herself, moving from Senior Engineer to Associate while broadening her responsibilities in technical leadership, innovation, process improvement and organisational development.

“Speaking from experience, I can attest that our mentors do more than transfer technical knowledge,” says Moses. “To me, mentorship is about recognising the potential in others before they themselves do and investing in nurturing that until they realise their full potential.”

This philosophy has also been extended through the M&N Enginuity Academy, which was established by MNA in 2025. The Academy was established to formalise MNAs history of mentoring and guiding engineering graduates towards professional registration to provide a documented outcomes-based training environment. What sets MNAs training environment apart is that it focuses on both theoretical and practical training in the technical space, but also focuses on soft skills development, exposure to financial management, entrepreneurial skills development, workplace exposure, mentorship and competency-based assessment.

“Our leadership team recognises that mentorship, learnership, training and development are investments into the future of the profession and the development of the country,” says Moses. “By creating structured opportunities for people to learn, contribute and lead, we are helping to build a sustainable pipeline of engineering professionals who can make a meaningful contribution to South Africa’s infrastructure future.”

MNA’s enhanced Mentorship Policy, which kicked off in April this year, further strengthens governance, accountability, mentor capability development, monitoring and outcomes-based measurement.

Considering the scale of MNA’s organisation in relation to many larger consulting engineering practices throughout the country, this achievement and recognition is that much more  significant.

“Smaller and growing firms can play a meaningful role in building the profession by creating pathways for young engineers, transferring institutional knowledge and deliberately developing people into the professionals and leaders who will contribute to the sustainability of South Africa’s infrastructure sector.

MNA is honoured to have been bestowed this honour at the CESA Aon Awards and we want to also recognise all consulting engineering firms, and employers in the engineering industry who continue to invest in the mentorship and development of our countries young engineers. These efforts will strengthen the country’s engineering capacity in the years to come and ensure that a pipeline of responsible and capable engineers continues to be produced to meet the needs of our continuously developing nation,” Narasimulu concludes.