BEE deal widens Bigen Africa's scope

pretoria - bigen africa's improved credentials after a black economic empowerment (bee) deal placed it in a position to tender for work it previously could not, francois swart, the engineering consulting group's chief executive, has said.

in october the company merged with black-owned intatakusa consulting, while pan-african capital holdings acquired a 30 percent equity stake. pan-african capital is headed by wiseman nkuhlu, a former economic adviser to the president and headed the secretariat for the new partnership for africa's development.

swart said the merger had resulted in about 60 employees from intatakusa joining bigen in october. they had now been integrated in the firm.

"finding these partners has enabled us to add real value and align ourselves even more closely with our vision for south africa and the african continent," he said at the official opening of bigen's new r54 million headquarters at the innovation hub in pretoria.


nkuhlu, the chairman of bigen's board, said the partnership would allow the company to play a role in the 2010 soccer world cup.

the tournament gave an opportunity to focus on providing social and economic infrastructure.

bigen africa could contribute to long-term development benefits for the country's citizens, nkuhlu added.

speaking at the function, finance minister trevor manuel pointed out that the human development report released by the un development programme last year was devoted to water.

this was a challenge and opportunity to bigen africa with its experience in projects such as the moretele and temba-roodeplaat water schemes and its years of experience with municipalities in managing this scarce resource.