CONSTRUCTION Background Construction Indust ... - Durban

CONSTRUCTION
Background
Construction Industry has experienced an alarming increase in the number of people joining in and
registering construction companies with the hope of accessing procurement opportunities which were
promised during the world cup. Most of the people who
registered as construction companies have not even tendered
for such opportunities and those that tendered have not been
able to access opportunities because of various reasons. Some
of these reasons are also highlighted in the Construction
Research conducted by eThekwini Municipality in 2008, such as,
lack of both soft and technical skills, lack of business drive, non
compliance and lack of funds to start businesses.
The construction industry is divided into three major segments.
Construction of buildings contractors, or general contractors,
builds residential, industrial, commercial, and other buildings. Heavy and civil engineering construction
contractors build sewers, roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, and
other projects. Specialty trade contractors perform specialized
activities related to construction such as carpentry, painting,
plumbing, and electrical work.
Seeing that the first two categories of construction require
extensive institutional learning and that this categories are catered
for in all the programs that support contractors the Business
Support and Markets Units (BM&SU) decided to assist the third
category, which is, specialized trade contractors. Most of these
contractors are on CIDB Level one and struggle to upgrade to
CIDB Level two and above in order to benefit from the programs
that many Government Departments offer.
In addressing this challenge the BM&SU developed a development plan to assist these contractors to
access both soft and technical skills, facilitate compliance and linkages and probably assist in accessing
procurement opportunities by empowering them on how to tender, cost and price.
The program entails:
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Registering in the program (data base)
Workshop on compliance, procurement process
Needs analysis
Screening/assessment
Relevant intervention

Achievements
The program started in 2009 and so far this is what has been achieved:
• 120 SMMEs work shopped on compliance by SARS, CIDB, NHBRC and Databases
• 48 SMMEs trained on Tendering, costing and pricing, Project Management, Financial Management,
Marketing and Communication
• 48 SMMEs trained on Painting
• 30 SMMEs trained on Bricklaying
Future Plans
BS&MU plans to:
• Continue with the training as detailed above
• Facilitate compliance
• Facilitate access to finance with Financial Institutions that we have partnerships with.
• Negotiate linkages with Big Construction companies for sub contracting
• Encourage participation in government programs
Encourage SMMEs to seek opportunities from local communities.