Programme director
Acting Superintendent-General Mr Salie
Group Five delegation
Everite delegation
Government officials
Recipients of the awards
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is indeed a great honour for me to grace this occasion, which marks the realisation of a vision shared by the marginalised people of South Africa through the Freedom Charter 55 years ago that the people shall share in this country’s wealth. This occasion further represents the achievement of one of the key priorities of the ANC led government in this new term of creating decent work opportunities for our people.
Today, we can join the nation and the people of the world in celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of former President Nelson Mandela from prison, which brought, amongst others, economic justice for all. Before I proceed with my address, let me first take this opportunity to commend the Transport and Freight Operations section of the Department of Transport together with our social partners Group Five and Everite for this good initiative.
The emerging contractor development programme represents a microcosm of the broader empowerment, development and training programme of government, which is informed by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Act, Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Act, Preferential Procurement Policy Framework (PPPF) Act and Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
The provision of an effective and efficient transportation system is regarded as a catalyst to promote and facilitate socio-economic growth and development. Government has identified investment in infrastructure development as a strategic solution in order to mitigate the impact of the current global economic crisis. However, the current shortage of technical skills in the country remains a challenge for the medium to long term.
The expected growth in infrastructure provision creates an opportunity for the emergence of competent market entrants from the previously marginalised groups of our society to transform the transport infrastructure construction and maintenance industry. This requires a strategic intervention in the form of short term innovative solutions to ensure that our infrastructure is maintained and expanded to respond to the backlogs and increased demands for mobility by people and goods in the province.
The department has developed a clear policy in this regard in order to ensure that we create an enabling environment for the development of emerging contractors through a coordinated and systematic approach with a particular focus on women, rural poor, the unemployed, and the youth, who have often stood at the sidelines of economic activity. Fundamentally, we want to constantly strive towards making sure that more people are employed in decent jobs and are able to start and run their sustainable small businesses.
The 83 people, who will be receiving certificates today, have participated in two different projects, which cost us a total of R29,2 million. In this amount, R23 million was spent on the empowerment, development and training of 68 emerging contractors, who replaced the old and cold shacks used in our road construction camps with new park homes, which are now suitable accommodation for our workers in the Amathole and Chris Hani districts.
Construction is underway in the OR Tambo and Alfred Nzo districts and people are getting skills in assembling of the units, plumbing, painting and electricity installation. Three main contractors emerged from this programme for construction units, painting and glass fitting, and another one for plumbing. I am impressed by the maximum participation of young people in this programme as we have 100 percent youth and 30 percent women.
It is gratifying to note that the contractor for painting and glass fitting is wholly owned by a woman. Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi! This clearly demonstrates our commitment to the emancipation of women. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the re-launch of the ANC Women’s League, we are obliged to continuously provide platform to ensure that the objectives of gender equality remain at the centre of our struggle for democracy, equality and prosperity for all.
We have further spent R6,2 million in the construction of a temporary prefabricated building using advanced technology adjacent to the existing terminal building of the Mthatha Airport in order to allow the airport to continue operating during the renovation of the permanent terminal building.
The project employed 15 young people from the local communities who were trained on site in plumbing and electricity installation. I am happy to announce that the Mthatha Airport temporary building is now complete and we are ready to relocate all the services! This temporary facility will play a pivotal role in the historic introduction of the Airlink service on the route between Mthatha and Port Elizabeth every Friday as from 26 February 2010.
The construction of this temporary structure forms part of phase one of the Mthatha Airport upgrade, which is currently underway at a total cost of R56 million. In order to ensure sustainable development of emerging contractors, we have created an Innovation and Empowerment programme with clear guidelines and protocol. As we speak, 30 emerging contractors have been selected and trained at a cost of R4, 85 million to be part of this programme and their geographic spread is five per district.
In terms of Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) grading, they vary from grade one to grade four. About 60 percent is grade one, 20 percent is grade two, 10 percent is grade three and 10 percent is grade four while 70 percent are women and 40 percent youth. They have all been trained in business management, contract management, tendering and quoting and construction industry.
In the new financial year, we intend to incubate these 30 emerging contractors for a period of two to three years where we will empower them in technical skills and award them contracts that will move them up the CIDB grading and give them practical experience.
Before I conclude my address, I would like to congratulate all the nine employees of my department, who will be receiving certificates after completing the introductory project management course. The skills that you have acquired through this programme will enable you to help us build a department that is responsive to the needs of the people and make this department “The Best” in the province.
In conclusion, we believe that through skills development, we can be able to sustain our good service delivery record and be a shining example to other government departments. In fact, skills development is one of our provincial government’s strategic priorities, which we are all expected to respond to.
We hope that through the skills that you have all acquired, you will help us to build a province and a country that, after all the work is done, look at it with hope and encouragement.
Once more, I would like to congratulate all the recipients of the awards.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Roads and Transport, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
12 February 2010
