Issued by: Department of Public Works Republic of SA
5 February 2002
Pretoria - The Minister of Public Works, Ms Stella Sigcau urged the construction industry to help improve the delivery capacity management in the public sector.
She was addressing the 6th meeting of the South African Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) in Pretoria on Tuesday 05 February 2002.
Expressing the concern of government, Minister said: "While there appears to be an increased allocation of public sector funds to infrastructure, this allocation was not necessarily matched by actual expenditure".
According to her, the anomaly signified some serious bottlenecks in the public sector delivery processes and was a concern to government.
The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) was officially launched by the Deputy President, Mr Jacob Zuma in April 2001 following a legislative process that was spearheaded and championed by the Department of Public Works.
Chief among the CIDB's tasks would be the promotion of growth, development and transformation of the R37 - billion per annum construction industry in a bid to make the latter competitive and relevant to reconstruction, development and economic growth.
The public sector was the biggest client of the construction industry, consuming more than half of its annual output.
Public Works will fund the operation of the CIDB for just under R20 million for its first three years of existence.
Government's drive to transform the industry has led to the reform of the procurement processes for infrastructure development, giving more opportunities to both the emerging sectors and the previously disadvantaged enterprises.
Consequently initiatives such as the R600 million Strategic Projects Initiatives and the R142 million Strategic Empowerment Programme have paved way for the deliberate empowerment of blacks and women contractors respectively.
In addition to its other activities the Board was expected to champion health and safety issues in the industry, including forging partnerships in combating the HIV/Aids pandemic.
The Department was investing R10 million in the provision of infrastructure related to HIV/Aids.
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