Plumbing Africa accompanied IOPSA compliance officer Khethiwe (Kate) Shabangu to verify the CoC on two installations in September, at Nahoon Street and Orange Street, both in Brackendowns, Alberton.

By Eamonn Ryan | All images by Eamonn Ryan

Shabangu is part of the Compliance Audit office at IOPSA established last year. Following an intensive three-month period of training at IOPSA with technical manager Steve van Zyl, she took up her current post as compliance auditor. This training covered SANS 10252 part 1 and SANS 10254 in depth.

“Every week we get a number of audits to perform. We inform the plumbing company that their CoC (certificate of compliance) has been randomly selected for an audit. Either the company itself, or ourselves, will then make an appointment to visit the client’s premises to inspect the job, typically a geyser.”

She performs the inspection in the roof, takes photos of the installation and makes her report. “If it is a ‘fail’, the plumber can fix the error then and there, or alternatively come back within five working days to correct it. Sometimes, I attend the site alone without the plumber, but the process remains the same,” says Shabangu.

Handling of such installation errors is an almost daily event, she explains. “But when you inspect and correct the same plumber over and over, they get better. It is an educational process.”

The kinds of errors are:

• lack of holderbat support for the geyser’s pipe works;
• the timber support for the geyser is not the required standard;
• the upsizing of the pipe is sometimes wrong;
• the pipes discharge outside not in a safe area; or
• the system is not balanced.

Many installations are insurance claims, and Shabangu explains that common justifications for the errors are that the insurance company would not pay for the additional work, or the required quality of timber. “However, a licensed plumber is required to do the job the right way. The moment an individual plumber signs a CoC, he/she becomes liable for the installation. They are signing off that it is correct and to the standards – if it is not for whatever reason, they become liable. On the CoC they can note non-compliance.”

This means that if a plumber goes out to simply install an element, but finds that the earlier geyser installation was non-compliant, the plumber is required to go the client and so inform him and offer to make it compliant at his cost, or notify him that he (the plumber) will be noting the geyser as non-compliant – and have the client sign it. “Still, whatever work the plumber does at that time has to be compliant – he can’t do something wrong and simply note it as non-compliant,” she says.

If a plumber does not make good the work within five working days, he may be reported to the PIRB for disciplinary action.

The system is continuously being modified to be more efficient, as it is an administratively laborious process to select CoCs for inspection, distribute them among the various compliance officers and set up appointments. IOPSA recently tweaked the system to make it more responsive through tailored systems for each officer’s region. It works faster and is more productive.

Another modification is to expand the range of installations that the compliance officers inspect, something which is conditional upon training. “For now, we are assigned to only inspect geysers, but we will gradually add to this with inspections of solar heating and heat pumps as we qualify on each new function, for homes and commercial properties.” This will become exponentially more complex, she says, as inspections may start to interfere with business activities, especially in the case of restaurants where a plumber may have to do additional work.

Both site inspections were simple geyser replacement installations, and neither job fully complied to the relevant standard, particularly with regard to support for the pipes.

Plumbing Africa, Shabangu and Churchill Plumbing met outside the house in Nahoon Street at 10:00 and all descended on Mrs Lyann van Greunen, who occupies a garden cottage on the property and had recently had her geyser replaced as an insurance claim. “I’ll be checking that they’ve installed the geyser according to the relevant standard, which is SANS 10252 Part 1 and SANS 10254,” said Shabangu.

Following the inspection, Shabangu reported: “What I found was a 150ℓ geyser only supported by two 114mm X 38mm timber supports, whereas the standard requires 114mm X 50mm – although IOPSA allows a minimum of 114mm X 38mm provided a third one is added, so I asked them to put in an extra support, which they have done. There was also a ploy cop pipe which only had one holderbat supporting it and had started slumping, so I had them put in another holderbat.”

Sipho Motha, a plumber employed by Churchill Plumbing, says, “The purpose of the audit is to make sure the installation is done correctly, and I’m happy to have any mistakes corrected, as I was not aware of the new requirements under the standard. The law is changing daily – and now I know what to do.”

Motha then ceremoniously handed over the Certificate of Compliance. Shabagu says the experience of the first inspection, whereby the plumber was unaware of the change in standard, is quite common. IOPSA hosts training sessions (Toolbox Talk, every Monday) and a webinar watched via the internet every Thursday, which any plumber can attend or view. A link is sent to the plumber who registers for the training. These relate to various aspects of the technical side where plumbers are known to be struggling, or may be unaware of changes in standards,” she says.

The next visit to Orange Street was literally three to four minutes away, as Shabangu explains that she groups her visits by neighbourhood as far as possible to minimise travel and time wastage. However, typical of the logistical challenges faced in this job – because she could not be certain how long the first inspection would take, she was now more than half an hour early, and could not proceed until the next plumbing contractor, Plumbing Johannesburg, would arrive at 11:00.

“If the plumbers were not attending, I could simply proceed in and inspect alone, but in this instance, they are joining me. I would typically use this spare time to write up my report on the last visit.” What is also typical, she explains, is that though an appointment is confirmed with the homeowner, the process is reliant on their goodwill and they often can’t make it or change their mind. Most people are at work and are reluctant to have their housekeepers open up for strangers in their absence.

“Sometimes, they’re at home but say they don’t feel comfortable. Initially, when I would call to make an appointment, people would be reluctant since an inspection was something new and they’d never experienced it before (the law changed about four years ago, and SANS 10254 changed in 2017). Now, it is becoming easier to arrange as insurance companies are required to get licensed plumbers to do the job and issue CoCs – which is how insurance claims get inspected. It is still a spot check, whereby we choose 5% of installations – so it is more frequent than it used to be.” Today, we were lucky, and the house was opened – even with a journalist tagging along and taking photos.

The plumber on the second job was Plumbing Johannesburg, who could not attend but sent a team. “Most plumbers would want a team to be there and repair any defect, as they do not want to have to come again.”

Educating plumbing business owners has been a part of the job. Shabangu says one particular business owner commonly refused to make right any defects, even after accepting the fault. This stubbornness resulted in him being reported to PIRB, even after which he continued to refuse. The matter was resolved when one of his staff members took over responsibility for making good on any variances from standard. However, these teething problems with the compliance system are now a thing of the past, she says.

“We [compliance officers] carry the standards with us in case plumbers wish to argue the point. They will argue they have been installing geysers for 50 years and know what they’re doing. But they accept it if we explain that it is the law that has changed, that it is for the safety of their clients, and that nobody is questioning their work.”

Shabangu also works on Saturdays, as many homeowners cannot get away during the week and this is the only time available. Dogs are the constant challenge of home visits, with some homes having as many as five. The home on Orange Street sure enough had a pitbull that would reportedly attack any stranger on sight but was safely locked away.

Claitos Sithole, a qualified plumber with Plumbing Johannesburg, explained that he was from a different team to that which had done the initial installation.

This job was complicated by the attachment of a heat pump which had not worked for some weeks and required the use of the geyser element to provide hot water. Representing the homeowner, Jonathan Lotter, was his mother, Elizabeth Lotter. Including technicians for the heat pump, there had been several visits.

Remedial work was well underway by the time the compliance officer and journalist left the premises an hour later. “They are currently replacing the pressure control valve (at their expense) which is currently making a sound when you open the tap at the basin,” said Shabangu, “And they are putting in more support for the pipes.” The plumber had determined the reason why the heat pump was not working and had taken photos of the problem for Mrs Lotter to refer the matter back to the insurance company.

“It was an insurance claim, so the plumber came for the geyser replacement not the heat pump. The insurance company has been made aware of the problem with the heat pump and is supposed to send someone to fix that [provided it is an insurable loss],” adds Shabangu. PA