Sector pushes for transformation amid contraction

While government is planning transformational megaprojects to benefit the construction sector, data from sources, such as Statistics South Africa, show that “the sector has been in a permanent state of contracting for some time”, says construction company Motheo Construction Group nonexecutive director Gregory Mofokeng.

There have also been “unending job losses” in the sector because projects are not being timeously awarded and, consequently, companies are either going into business rescue or shutting down.

In addition to the significant job losses in the construction sector, skilled professionals are moving to other sectors and are leaving South Africa to settle in other countries with better employment opportunities and a sustainable construction sector.

The low level of infrastructure investment locally has resulted in South Africa’s construction sector being unsustainable in terms of retaining skilled employees and ensuring economic growth.

Mofokeng explains that job losses and skills retention can be addressed in the sector only if more projects are awarded to companies and if the process of awarding projects is fast-tracked.

He explains that, once project opportunities are available, companies can focus on the skills required, ensuring that employees have work as well as training them to gain the skills required.

However, Mofokeng notes that companies also need to change their perspective regarding the upskilling of employees, from training for their needs in-house to training for the sector.

He elaborates that the industry must commit to creating a conducive environment to provide training, especially for the youth, so that they have the necessary skills to become “meaningful players in the industry”.

There needs to be a focus on providing an opportunity for the youth to gain experience on site and in office settings.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic has further aggravated the challenges in the construction sector.

The lockdown resulted in much of industry activity being halted, adding more pressure on companies that needed to pay employees, despite there being no work.

Even after the sector restarted, companies had to deal with higher operating costs, owing to the provisions made for health and safety measures that had to be in place.

Legislative Endeavours

Motheo is a member of various industry associations, including the Black Business Council in the Built Environment, or the BBCBE, and South African Women in Construction, or SAWIC.

Through its memberships, Motheo aims to influence policy by working closely with associations to ensure that policy changes create a positive and conducive environment for the sector to thrive in, says Mofokeng.

Being a majority women-owned company, Motheo stands to benefit from the realisation of the policy direction from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s that 40% of public procurement be set aside for women-owned businesses.

“It’s critical to Motheo to ensure that companies that are owned, managed and directed by women are given a leg up so that we [can] compete with the companies that are owned and led by men in this sector,” explains Mofokeng.

He stresses the need to transform the industry to reflect the demographics of South Africa. The sector must also ensure that the entire value chain, ranging from contractors to manufacturers and suppliers, reflects the country’s demographics, he adds.

“We can do more in ensuring that we empower more women and black people to not play a peripheral role in the industry, but rather own assets, control the means of production and run significant companies that are operating in this sector.”

To create such empowerment, government must move towards ensuring that only empowered companies and transformed companies are given an opportunity to do work for government, explains Mofokeng.

The industry also needs to ensure that industry code targets are reviewed to allow for higher ownership targets.

To ensure that the codes and relevant empowerment legislation are adhered to, the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Commission needs to be strengthened so that more noncompliance cases can be brought to the forefront and effectively addressed, including the arrest and conviction of transgressors, concludes Mofokeng.