Working in South Africa

[MattOC]

Does anyone here have any information on working as an electrician in South Africa? Do they follow the same regulations as in the UK?
Appreciate any assisitance
Matt

 

[Marvo]

SA electricians work to SANS0142 which is a different set of rules. We also have no part pee regs either.

 

[MattOC]

Many thanks for replying Marvo! Do you still have the 'Wiremans License' in SA? I have been trying to find a website regarding South African electrical regulations without success - do you know of any?

Thanks again
Matt

 

[Marvo]

Yep we still have the wiremans license. For up to date info you should probably speak to the ECB (Electrical Contracting Board SA), I don't know their email addy but their website is Home - Electrical Contracting Board of South Africa if you were registered as an electrician they can handle your registration renewal via their online system. Problem is that as of the 2009 EIR (Electrical Installation Regs) meant that the ECB was no longer mandated to handle contractor yearly registrations, it then fell to the DOL (Dept of Labour) officially but the DOL hasn't started its registration scheme so the ECB is the only option. But.... and it's a big but...if the DOL starts its registration scheme you'll need to register again with them by law even if you've renewed your registration with the ECB......so you get you pants unbuckled and you pay twice. Confused????......you will be I can assure you

Have a look at The Forum SA it's got an electrical forum with some semi-up-to-date info even though it's primarily a general business forum. (Apologies to Phil et al for advertising another forum here, if it's a prob pls delete the link) There's also the Home | GEIA - The Gauteng Electrical Inspection Authority website which is Gauteng province Elec Inspection Authority site, you may (or may not) find some info thereas well.

Good luck, you'r gonna need it.

Edit, the board just did some funky parsing stunt with the links and their naming but they're all good still I think.

 

[MattOC]

Thanks again! Confusing indeed. I did find the TFSA site and registered there. I will also look into the 2 others and see what I can find.

Cheers

 

[Rohan]

Hey guys, I too am very interested in working as an electrician in South Africa. Does anyone have any info on visa's ? and do you know how similar SA electrical installations are to UK Installations?
Cheers.
Rohan

 

[Marvo]

Hey guys, I too am very interested in working as an electrician in South Africa. Does anyone have any info on visa's ?

Requirements change every other day. I would contact a local travel agent, those guys are usually up to date with their info, alternatively check with a local polytechnic or university, they should have a travel center for students that can give you info.

and do you know how similar SA electrical installations are to UK Installations?
Cheers.
Rohan

No ring circuits, no PAT testing, no part p......it's different in some respects but similar in others, all stuff an experienced electrician would get the hang of pretty quickly.

 

[meego]

here in sa you do as u like, the country has just about been completly destroyed

 

[i=p/u]

by the true africans???

 

[skatingsparks]

Hi there
I'm in South africa and I went through the process of coming here because of a Soth African girl. The country is Amazing, awesome, fantastic, great life. The process of getting here is the, by far, most miserable, unproductive, frustrating, expensive experience of my life. Don't do it. The bull**** and incomitent people you will have to deal with during the process is just to frustrating for words. The standards of electrical work and training of electricians in the UK are way above the SA standards but they mess you around so much. The wages are crap unless you work for your self and getting your own business up and running is practically impossible unless you have some way of getting South African residency. If you want to do it I'll tell you how but seriously go somewhere where they will appreciate a well trained electrician like the one that come from the UK.
[email protected]
Consider yourself warned, you gotta want it bad. I arrived in that country with £25000 to start a new life and was down to £4.50 the day my wireman licence came through.

 

[Marvo]

here in sa you do as u like,

Speak for yourself.

the country has just about been completly destroyed

By people doing just as they like possibly?

Hi Skating Sparks,
Congrats on getting your wiremans license. I agree to emigrate here without a sponsor or a job offer would be a tedious and time consuming process. The same goes for most countries though. There are plenty of opportunities here in SA though, I get the impression we're not as badly hit by the recession as Europe (yet).

 

[skatingsparks]

Don't get me wrong I love South Africa, would rather be here than in England for sure and yes there are lots of opportunities, I have ideas everyday of things to do BUT the beaurocracy involved in making those oportunities happens is insane! The ammount of idiots you have to deal with just to perform a simple task is so time consuming. Example will be spending my 3rd day at traffic registration office tomorrow just to get a "traffic regestration number". When I first got here it took nearly 3 month to open a bank account. Have been trying to get VAT regestered for 8 months now, took 6 month to take a name of my CK documents for my business. Like i said i love it here but any joy you may get from an idea is always lost by the time it comes round. I wanted to get a bakkie, still trying but because its taken so long with paper work from cipro, banks, my own accountant etc... its not going to be "YAY! got my bakkie Woo hoo!" its going to be "bloody hell, about time." One thing I have learned you try and do things the proper correct way, you ain'ty going to get anywhere youy have to do things the South African to make anything happen. It just seems to be the mind set of the country.

 

[Marvo]

The bureaucracy is terrible and their inefficiency is an eye-opener. On the other side of the coin it might take a few months to sort out your vehicle paperwork but the chance of being stopped if you just drive the vehicle anyway is almost zero in most areas. The rules and regulations are first world but the enforcement is third world. I wouldn't sweat the small stuff like the vehicle roadworthyness, drivers license, VAT registration and the company paperwork too much. I would suggest the only rules you need take seriously around here are the electrical regs.

 

[skatingsparks]

Its hard to do everything by the book here. you explan to someone that there metal roof and gutters are not bonded they just look at you and say, well the are lights on the sockets work and the geyser is still hot. They don't care if its compliant and they don't seem to be to bothered about the safety side of things either. There is always someone willing to undercut you when it comes to the domestic work. Thats why i try and avoid it. at least with commercial(shop fitting etc) they want it done properly, still as cheap as possible but properly to the regs. Very very rairly will i sign of something i didn't wire from start to finish myself. What I find ironic about coming here is that I'm here on a skills quota visa, they let in a number people a year with skills that south africa is screeeeeeming out for yet when you get here because of affirmative action your bottom of the list for even getting an interview for a job. I applied for over 350 jobs in 2009, one interview. Out of the 120 or so people who went for the job I was the only one with anything close to the qualifications they were looking for. Come from the UK running projects worth 40million pound to connecting geyser controllers for less than £5 an hour. Something very wrong with this place. Still T.I.A.

 

[malcolmsanford]

Its hard to do everything by the book here. you explan to someone that there metal roof and gutters are not bonded they just look at you and say, well the are lights on the sockets work and the geyser is still hot. They don't care if its compliant and they don't seem to be to bothered about the safety side of things either. There is always someone willing to undercut you when it comes to the domestic work. Thats why i try and avoid it. at least with commercial(shop fitting etc) they want it done properly, still as cheap as possible but properly to the regs. Very very rairly will i sign of something i didn't wire from start to finish myself. What I find ironic about coming here is that I'm here on a skills quota visa, they let in a number people a year with skills that south africa is screeeeeeming out for yet when you get here because of affirmative action your bottom of the list for even getting an interview for a job. I applied for over 350 jobs in 2009, one interview. Out of the 120 or so people who went for the job I was the only one with anything close to the qualifications they were looking for. Come from the UK running projects worth 40million pound to connecting geyser controllers for less than £5 an hour. Something very wrong with this place. Still T.I.A.

I know you guys work to different Regs over there, but why are you bonding metal roof and gutters are they deemed to be an extraneous conductive parts.