FREE DAILY EMAIL

Date : 10/10/2005
Source: Department of Public Works
Title: S Sigcau: Construction Conference


Minister of Public Works, Ms Stella Sigcau (MP), delivers a keynote address at the Construction Conference at Sun City

The Director-General of Public Works and Programme Director, Mr James Maseko The MECs present here today
The chairpersons of the Construction
Transformation Charter Group, Mr James Ngobeni and Mr Mike Wylie
Representatives of the Construction Industry and Labour
Senior Government Officials
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

1 Introduction

We are here today as construction sector stakeholders celebrating our industry and the hard work that has gone into developing the draft Construction Charter. It is exactly a year ago that I launched the process to develop the Charter. I understand it has been a very intense and involved process. Your commitment to this process and to the transformation and empowerment in the construction sector has not gone unnoticed. You must take pride in what you have achieved. I am confident that the kind of commitment and passion you have demonstrated goes a long way and I am sure I can always count on this in the years to come.

This is a very special occasion because it is very rare that one gets to address a huge contingency of sector stakeholders congregated all in one room. This gives me comfort in that it shows the commitment of the stakeholders to unifying this diverse sector and to sharing a common vision for the development, transformation, and growth of the construction sector.

This is a very exciting time for the construction sector. It is exciting because, after such a long time the sector is showing concrete prospects for prosperity. The industry is currently doing much better now than in the past. We are experiencing and expecting a boom in this sector within the next five years. The conditions are right, market forces are on our side, the onus is now upon us to rise up to the challenge and meet the delivery requirements. We, as an industry, can not fail the South African economy.

It is therefore very appropriate that the theme for this conference centres around the celebration of construction opportunities, growth and development. We must make sure that the benefits of these opportunities trickle down and are enjoyed by the wider society. If that does not happen, we as a sector would have failed South Africa.

2 The Construction Charter

2.1 Enterprise Development

We must make sure that we develop our capacity so that we are able to meet the challenges of these opportunities and prosper. I am, therefore, glad that there has been a conscious effort by the stakeholders through the Charter to promote enterprise development. These construction projects will all be kick-started at the same time. If we do not groom our emerging contractors and capacitate them to be able to participate in these projects, we will find ourselves in a situation where foreign companies are benefiting from opportunities offered by the South African construction sector. It is therefore very important that enterprise development is not done in a manner that promotes fronting as we would be shooting ourselves in the foot.

2.2 Skills Development

Human capital is one of the resources we have to nurture and develop as a sector. The previous Status Quo reports of the sector and recent research studies that have been conducted, have clearly shown that the sector has a huge skills challenge. We therefore cannot start talking about transformation, empowerment and prosperity in the sector without consciously addressing the issue of skills development. The Charter advocates and emphasises the importance of skills development through training, mentorship, learnerships and bursaries. We now have an opportunity as a sector to invest in human capital and the future of the construction sector.

In the past, we have not complied to the full with skills development legislation. This is one of the reasons we find ourselves in the situation that we are presently in. I therefore sincerely hope that when we set ourselves these targets for skills development, we shall not merely go through the motions, but be really serious about what we have to do to enhance the skills base in the sector.

2.3 Labour Issues

Sectors in the South African economy have struggled to adequately deal with labour issues. Our sector is not an exception. We,

SPONSORED BY

Advanced