Gundo Maswime reflects on the reaction of the Construction industry to the formation of CASA and he also tells us why he believes the state needs to create a statutory single statutory pivot for the construction sector to hasten the resolution of all the problems facing the SA Construction industry.
The Construction Alliance South Africa (CASA) was launched on the 21st of January 2021, as an umbrella body for voluntary, statutory and professional organisations in the built environment. A few media houses later reported the tiff between Mr John Mathews of the newly formed CASA and Mr Webster Mfebe of the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC). A day or so later, Aubrey Tshalata of the National African Federation of the Building Industry (NAFBI) entered the fray, also claiming calculated exclusion. CASA swiftly and emphatically rebutted the “indictments” against it.
The South African corporate sector is mistrusted because it has successfully resisted transformation using shear sagacity, collusion, fronting and exploitation of policy gaps for profit. South African corporate has always been a step ahead of the government before and after 1994. On the 14th September 1984, this powerful corporate started discussing transitional arrangements with the ANC in Exile 5years before the National party government got around to do it. Each time corporate South Africa makes a move, everyone scrambles to ensure that they are not outsmarted again under the veil of pseudo patriotism and an insinuation of a monopoly on skills and ethics. The reaction of SAFCEC and others to CASA leading the transformation of the construction sector is the kind of panic that ensues when turkeys volunteer to organise Christmas lunch because there is bound to be a catch somewhere.
The growth and transformation of the construction industry in South Africa has not hit the sweet spot that was envisaged by the White Paper on ‘Creating an Enabling Environment for Reconstruction and Development in the Construction Industry’ almost 30 years ago. The diagnosis of why this did not happen as expected depends on who the task of diagnosing is given to within the industry. And so, it becomes unsettling for some in the industry to have John Mathews become the mouth piece of the industry. CASA knows this, hence the deliberate appointment a Mofokeng to be the deputy chairperson and explicit mentioned of his name in the inaugural speech. CASA is acutely aware that the understanding of the challenges of the construction sector is as subjective as it is contradictory and would thus make sure the chairperson is given the title of “chairperson and spokesperson” to ensure that only John and no one else can open the gate.
The South African construction sector today has white owned companies complaining about Black Economic Empowerment policies and black owned companies complaining about lack of transformation in the sector. The 2020 B-BBEE Commission report on trends shows an overall decline in black economic empowerment across all measured elements despite substantial legislative and regulatory framework to ensure economic empowerment. There are many level 1 BEE companies that are 100% white owned (and busy getting “empowered”) and many level 3 and above companies that are 100% black owned. The B in BEE doesn’t always mean black, it also means providing training, corporate social responsibility and fronting.
Even worse, the material supply sectors within the construction sector has hardly transformed. To find a quarry owned by a black South African is as difficult as finding an Indian policeman in Louis Trichardt. The real players in the construction sector are the ones that wait for a contractor to approach them with a letter saying “congratulations on your appointment for the construction of this and that”in such and such municipality. They then give this emerging contractor the cement and aggregate from their quarry, the precast units from their factory, the bitumen from their plant and the yellow plant from their fleet. At the end of the project, the contractor’s profit affords him pointed shoes while the material supplier’s profit affords him another quarry. When the banks see how well the material supplier is doing, they offer him funding for a 3rd quarry and a second plant. Meanwhile the state is celebrating the number of tenders that were given to blacks.
This vivid reality is the reason why, many “black this” and “black that” organisations have been formed in the sector and why there are always apprehensions about who gets the ear of a government that lacks the fortitude to make bold policies and let the constitutional court decide what to do with its ideological stance. The need for transformation today is a product of the actions of previous governments that were bold in sinful exploitation. Why can’t this one be bold in redress and justice?
On a kinder tone, there are other crucial issues that impinge on the optimization of the development of industry beyond transformation that an organisation like CASA can and should take up with the state. Some of these are undoubtedly core issues that will decide the fate of the industry. They include inadequacies in procurement policies, conflict between legislative framework and engineering science in the sector, professionalisation of the industry, lax conflict resolution framework resulting in minor disputes taking years in public courts and constant collapse and abandonment of construction projects.
The state needs to create a statutory single statutory pivot for the construction sector to hasten the resolution of all these problems. This pivot can take the form of an office of the engineer general in the mould of the auditor general. It can house an office of the built environment Ombud moulded along the lines of the health Ombud to protect the public from negligent actions of built environment professionals in the employ of the state and private sector. This can also be a chapter 9 institution that deals with infrastructure justice and conflict resolution within the sector. This will be the single ear that listens and acts on the divergent inputs that the sector constantly present as solutions while they know they are just protecting their profits. This office can be funded by a levy from material suppliers within the construction sector.
This intervention will solve fronting, corruption, disputes that results in project stoppages, subcontracting, collusion and poor workmanship issues. It will provide the minimum competencies for public servants and engineering consultants within the built environment to professionalize the sector and stop pastors, teachers and medical doctors from running engineering concerns. It will standardise the operation of the sector and resolve the conflict between engineering science and certain aspects of the built environment policy framework that militate against the optimisation of the sector as a flywheel for rapid economic recovery. It will solve the real issues that Webster Mfebe and John Mathews cannot sit around the table and resolve.
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