T Didiza: KwaZulu-Natal Construction Contact Centre launch

4 August 2007

Deputy Minister, Ntopile Kganyago
Members of the Executive Council, the Provincial Legislature and National
Parliament
All the executive mayors and councillors present
The CEO and members of the Construction Industry Development Board
Senior government management and leadership
Leaders of the construction industry and its stakeholders
Distinguished guests

Today's launch takes place at the juncture of two important national
occasions in the celebratory calendar of our country. I am referring to
National Construction Week and South African Women's Day.

I am pleased to announce that this year, our National Construction Week will
commence on 6 August with stakeholder activities throughout the month of August
aimed at attracting young people into this industry that is at the heart of the
South African economy. This year's theme "Accelerating transformation of the
construction industry" has particular relevance to today's launch.

Next week, on 9 August, we will celebrate South African Women's Day and we
will mark the progress made to transform the role of women in society and in
all sectors of our economy. We pay tribute to the women of KwaZulu-Natal and
around the country, who are taking their place in the South African
Construction Industry, as contractors, professionals and as skilled workers.
Your growth in this industry is an important milestone on our journey of
transformation.

Today we celebrate another milestone on that journey, as we launch the
KwaZulu-Natal Construction Contact Centre (CCC), a centre that will consolidate
the commitment of public and private sector stakeholders to the tasks of
developing our industry and our combined capability to deliver the
infrastructure needed for South Africa's economic growth.

Growth, a challenge to all stakeholders

The construction industry is a key to South Africa's Accelerated and Shared
Growth Initiative (AsgiSA). We are well on track to achieving the goals of
halving unemployment, and achieving a growth rate of six percent by 2014. The
construction industry is leading this exciting decade of growth and
development.

Construction growth is driven by probably the largest public investment in
infrastructure our country has ever seen. Specifically, in order to create the
infrastructure for growth and development, government is increasing public
sector capital budgets at an unprecedented rate of 10 to 15 percent per
annum.

With overall growth rates of more than 10% per annum, the construction
industry is likely to treble its output in 10 years. Cement and other materials
manufacturers are also expanding their production capacity to meet this rising
demand.

This growth path creates immense opportunity for large, small and micro
enterprises, for employment and skills development and for empowerment. It also
presents all stakeholders with challenges that require new responses and an
intensified effort to grow our delivery capacity, our skills and our small
medium enterprises (SMEs) business sector. The centre we are launching today is
one such response.

Together with the Construction Contact Centre's being established in Bisho,
Cape Town and Pretoria, the KwaZulu-Natal "triple C" provides a hub for
stakeholder partnerships to address the challenges of growth so that we can
together unlock the full potential of our industry.

Role of government

Ladies and gentlemen, anticipating this growth trajectory, government has
worked closely with the private sector to establish a vision and framework for
construction industry growth and transformation. During the course of last
year, the Inter-governmental Forum of Public Works, including national and
provincial departments, reviewed the progress made and the challenges ahead and
agreed on the need for intensified action at provincial and local level.

Today's launch therefore represents a new level of partnership by Public
Works at national and provincial level, and the Construction Industry
Development Board (CIDB). It also represents the commitment of government to
expand partnership with stakeholders in delivering a holistic development
service to contractors, clients and the industry at large.

At today's launch, I wish to extend special thanks to the MEC for Public
Works, Ms Lydia Johnson for her leadership role. Supported by Premier Dr
Sibusiso Ndebele and the MEC for Transport, Mr Bheki Cele, her drive and
support made it possible for the KwaZulu-Natal "triple C" to open its doors
last month.

On behalf of us all I wish to congratulate her, her staff and the CIDB for
the hard work and co-operation that has brought this centre into existence. We
will build on the experience of stakeholders in this province, the Eastern
Cape, Gauteng and the Western Cape as we roll out similar contact centres
across the country.

Purpose of the centre and the National Contractor Development Programme
(NCDP)

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to share with you our vision for the
KwaZulu-Natal 'triple C'. In the first instance, the CCC will provide an
improved and accessible registration service to more than 7 000 contractors
registered in this province. We will continue to refine the register of
contractors as a development and targeting instrument and later this year I
will promulgate amended regulations to further streamline and simplify the
registration process.

The CCC will also provide improved access to advice and training for
contractors, the consulting professions and public sector clients, including
local government. Such training will cover issues of procurement, project and
construction management and enterprise development. Equipped with training
facilities and state of the art technology, the CCC will also enable linkage to
expertise and business-to-business linkage both locally and around the
country.

A range of practical industry guidelines and development tools are already
available at the CCC and it our vision that these will be further extended as
more of you come on board as partners, expanding the value offered by the
triple C.

Perhaps, most importantly, the CCC provides a hub of support, and learning
as we finalise plans for roll-out of the National Contractor Development
Programme (NCDP). The NCDP will build on the platform of the register of
contractors that now clearly shows our capacity and empowerment gaps. It will
also build on the commitments of the Construction Charter, mobilising the
contribution of the private sector to black economic empowerment.

Finally, the NCDP will build on the experience of contractor development
programmes around the country to consolidate best practice for sustainable
enterprise development. I am referring to programmes such as your 'overarching'
provincial Masakhe Emerging Contractor Development Programme, Vukuzakhe and the
Vukuphile Contractor Learnership Programme, enabling more than 700 small
contractors to qualify through accredited learnerships and to exit at Grade, 3,
4 or 5. The programme is scaling up to achieve 1 500 learnerships over the next
two years and the Independent Development Trust will intensify its focus on
women contractors.

Recognising the fact that thousands of new entrants have already registered
as Grade 1 contractors, we are determined to expand our effort to grow these
new entrants into the mainstream of construction.

Ladies and gentlemen, I invite all stakeholders to assist in finalising
provincial plans and targets for implementation of the National Contractor
Development Programme. In particular we need to set some challenging targets
that address the goals of the NCDP, namely:

* to grow South Africa's contracting capacity, moving smaller contractors up
the registration grades
* to address empowerment gaps revealed by the register
* to promote enterprise sustainability and consolidation, enabling sustained
employment and skills development
* to raise the performance of contractors, to deliver better value to clients
and society in terms of quality, safety, health and conditions of
employment.

Together with Public Works, the CIDB is ready to assist in developing
provincial targets and plans that mobilise the efforts of all stakeholders to
grow and transform the construction industry.

The important role of stakeholders

Ladies and gentlemen, the slogan "partners for development" aptly captures
the underlying vision of the, CCC, which can only realise their full
development potential with the active contribution of all stakeholders. This is
your Construction Contact Centre and you must shape its growth and
relevance.

It is indeed pleasing that a number of leading stakeholders have formally
expressed commitment to offer services at the CCC. In the first instance these
include industry associations, such as the South African Institution of Civil
Engineers, the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors, the
Master Builders Association, National African Federated Chambers of Commerce
(NAFCOC) Construction, and the Electrical Contractors Association.

Critical stakeholder commitments also include the financial services sector,
notably Absa, Standard Bank Ithala and Nurcha, which are offering existing and
tailored products and training in areas like cash flow management. Materials
suppliers such as Plascon, Dulux, Holcim and Lafarge, have also expressed
commitment, offering various technical manuals and training packages.

PPC Cement and Nurcha are also collaborating with the CIDB to develop the
Complete Contractors Project Management Handbook. Another valuable contributor
is Bell Equipment, supporting the "triple C" and exploring ways to create
affordable access by small contractors to plant and equipment.

One of the biggest challenges facing the SME sector is access to affordable
finance. We therefore call on the financial institutions to review the national
register of contractors and to see if they can structure financial packages
that are appropriate to the registration grades and categories.

Another immense challenge facing small contractors is access to training.
Together with the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) we must
pioneer a response to the fact that that nearly 90% of registered contractors
fall outside the skills funding environment. This applies to contractors in
Grade 6 and below, who are not required to pay the skills levy and therefore do
not qualify for CETA funding.

But the issue of training is not merely a challenge to government and the
CETA. Materials suppliers, large contractors, financial institutions and,
indeed, all stakeholders have a direct interest in developing the entire supply
chain of the industry. Again, it is pleasing to note that some of the larger
construction companies have agreed to extend their in-house training programmes
to registered SME contractors in order to grow the industry's overall
capacity.

Conclusion

These and other commitments are a welcome indication of the response by
stakeholders to the challenge of growth and transformation. They are also an
indication that the KwaZulu-Natal Construction Contact Centre has begun its
work.

Ladies and gentlemen, in this Women's Month of August, we take some pride in
noting that the KwaZulu-Natal Centre is led and staffed by women, and that it
has been constructed by Sotobe Projects, a Grade 3 construction company owned
and managed by a woman, Ms Ziningi Sibiya.

In conclusion ladies and gentlemen,

Today's launch is a beginning, not an end. Today we are launching much more
than just another centre. I believe we are creating the platform for provincial
and national co-operation to develop the construction industry that is a
critical to South Africa's growth and our goal of a better life for all.

Today we are launching the commitment of all stakeholders to join hands in
this great task.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Public Works
4 August 2007