The Joint Structural Division in South Africa

One of the major challenges facing the new South Africa is that of providing shelter for its burgeoning urban population. Current estimates of housing needs vary considerably because of the differences in assumptions on which they are based. One of the most authoritative commissions in recent years, the de Loor Commission, concluded that the existing housing backlog is 1 299 000 units and the number of shelters to be put up for new family formations amounts to 198 000 units p.a. Thus in order to provide for new family formation and to eradicate the existing backlog over 10 years, approximately 300 000 units have to be provided p.a. R.B. Watermeyer

Ron Watermeyer, the incoming chairman of the Joint Structural Division of the Institution of Structural Engineers and the South African Institution of Civil Engineers, graduated in civil engineering from the University of the Wit-watersrand in 1978.

The findings of an investigation into the lateral-torsional buckling strength of hot-rolled stainless steel beams are reported. The stainless steel beams under consideration were hot-rolled from a modified AISI type 409 stainless steel designated 3CR12, a corrosion-resisting steel. P.J. Bredenkamp, H. Barnard, G.J. Van den Berg and P. Van der Merwe