Darrell van Rooy believes it is not enough to point fingers at the parties who are now known as the 'construction mafia', we need to consider historical factors that led them to these actions.
My view on the root cause for the “construction mafia” differs from the popular view and that’s because I’m more concerned about the historical factors that contributed to us being where we are today.
Very often even if we have a feasible solution to a problem, it may not work because we see it as a solution to the problem, where the problem may be caused by something else and we fail to address the cause.
As an example somebody may have a bad lifestyle that resulted in health challenges and simply starting a gym routine won’t fully address the causes. You can build muscle, but the body may still be neglected through bad lifestyle choices. I’ll ponder that one when braaiing a good steak after a three hour bicycle ride.
Back to the construction mafia.
Firstly is it any good just pointing fingers at the parties who have now taken the steps and formed the construction mafia?
While they may be the visible element we are seeing in action, what caused them to step into the actions that they are now perpetrating?
To ignore the root cause and just focus on them is like throwing water at smoke while the fire continues to rage. The only thing that throwing water at smoke does is expose ignorance and a lack of understanding of the situation.
Before we look at a way forward I feel we need to look back in order to identify possible points that have led to the construction mafia being formed and running in the way that they have. I address these with a number of questions and provide my input.
What is the root cause of the various individuals taking this step to form the mafia?
Something like this does not in my opinion simply fall out of the sky one day. It is more often than not the result of many years of years of frustration and disappointment and despair that leads to this type of action. We know that the Bible says Hope deferred makes the heart sick.
How about decades of hope that have never materialized?
If we were to be brutally honest this is being seen more and is prevalent in many facets and factors of our society today. This is by no means an isolated example. We need to be honest and sober in our evaluation and assessment of the situation.
For me the root cause is attributed to and tied up in failed expectations. Not to go around a political tree, but over the past decades many promises were made at election time to garner votes, but how many of those promises came to fruition? Promises of jobs, housing, proper services for communities, and many more in the endless list.
Is it the result of decades of political promises with zero fruit being shown?
I know of many projects that have been sold to local communities via politically connected individuals who tried to sweeten the deal within those communities. Often the promises made were of guaranteed work and contracts and revenue, but the person who wrote the cheque did not have the authority to distribute the cash within the communities. When we as contractors arrive on the scene to produce the work and the project, irate community members hold the contractors liable to fulfill the promises made to community members.
Unfortunately many times promises are made to the community long before the project has been awarded. Ultimately the one who has the responsibility to fulfill those promises is the contractor, and he had no part in those discussions. The contractor will in most instances arrive on the project with the mindset of producing the work to put money on the table and have zero idea as to the cheques that were written to the community that he is now expected to fulfill.
Is it a direct result of an empowerment spend that is promoted by those in government without any real concept of reality?
This is a gripe of mine that could keep me going for days on end.
Why do we promote a spend percentage on each project but not focus on empowerment? This is not empowering people but opens a door for contractors who want to grow, put food on the table and contribute to the growing of our nation to be used to meet a target for a client to spend on a report. This leaves very little tangible benefit to the contractor or the community he represents. With a bit of savvy and financial gymnastics contractors can report a spend on a SMME and BBBEE contractor that by far exceeds the value of work actually done by that subcontractor. It’s done to survive and avoid penalties for noncompliance but does not improve the intended recipients, in this case the subcontractor at all.
I honestly feel that people are tired of being part of a spending percentage that does not provide much in terms of opportunities for growth and development.
Is empowerment not among other things arming people with knowledge and skills in order for them to grow and be sustainable?
I am a firm believer that we need to empower our people. For this reason I present a practical course in construction management that has been prepared with among others SMME contractors in mind. This is an avenue to transfer skills that provide a firm foundation for the contractor to grow. It’s the old saying about giving somebody a fish versus teaching them to fish.
Territorial Thinking
I know that this is a matter of frustration to contractors, clients and communities alike. With every contract the project as a whole is expected to uplift the community within a set radius. Very little in terms of importing skills from beyond that radius or boundary will be entertained.
Look at it this way. Start Project A. Invest in training local SMME contractors. Get a good relationship with several of those contractors and see them grow. They get over the learning curve and are set to launch. Project A is completed and that contractor with his teams is primed to grow and take on more work. But, alas the project is completed and now that contractor gets left behind because he is marked as belonging to a certain territory and will not be accepted beyond those boundaries.
Move onto Project B with the same situation.
We need a bigger picture thinking. We need to think as nation builders, and not focus on a small territory. If the company has the skills to build, they can build the people within the territory, uplift the people and move on while growing. How did the bigger players in the industry grow? They were successful within a certain area and then were allowed to spread their wings and fly into other areas. We cannot see contractors grow and expand if they are expected to remain within a geographic mould in terms of area.
At the current trend each project starts from below zero as skills built up in other areas cannot be brought onto the project.
Conclusion
At the end of the day we need to realize that if the construction mafia are people who want to be able to meet the needs of their families (food, clothing, shelter) they have been frustrated by years of delayed promises and unfulfilled expectations. The parties involved who have so wonderfully contributed to the raising of expectations and failure to deliver need to get their hands dirty and get into the trenches to fix the mess they so wonderfully orchestrated.
I know that it may not be what people want to hear, but I for one am tired of the construction mafia being made out to be the contractor’s problem when the contractor just wants to put bread on the table, same like the members of the construction mafia. The contractor did not create the problem, but is seen by many communities as the problem. Get to the cause of the problem and tackle it there, otherwise look entertaining while throwing water at smoke as the fire continues to rage.Darrell van Rooy is a Senior Construction Professional
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