Construction sector battles to cement a charter deal

the views of government, trade unions and established construction companies on black economic empowerment remain widely divergent, with less than four months to go before the public works minister expects to see a draft transformation charter.

a draft scorecard released at a construction transformation indaba in pretoria yesterday showed that government and unions favoured recognition of empowerment based on ownership more so than any other issue.

big construction companies, on the other hand, want to be recognised more for their efforts in black skills development and procurement than for ownership transfer.

public works minister stella sigcau made it clear at the indaba that she would not wait much longer for transformation in the sector, which was widely seen as lagging behind other strategic sectors such as the financial and mining industries.

“it would be criminal to let the status quo continue and have the economic benefits of this industry accruing to and enjoyed by just a few advantaged individuals and groups,” she said.

the minister also warned that transformation efforts would have failed if they did not involve every aspect of the construction value chain, including supply.

but suppliers had not been drawn into the process successfully, said james ngobeni, co-chair of the committee leading the empowerment charter process.

he said several suppliers had not participated in the process as they had chosen to subscribe to principles of the existing mining charter, rather than the construction charter. mining formed part of the activities of building material suppliers such as brick and cement manufacturers.

ngobeni said another challenge that had to be tackled in the charter process was the lack of financing for emerging contractors.

he said that until there was a mechanism to give emerging companies access to funding, “nothing will be achieved”.

the focus of the charter would be to attract empowerment partners that would add value as opposed to “the people with the fat cheques”, ngobeni said.

he said that the construction sector charter would be different to other charters.

“our fear had been that if we did it the same, we might find a footballer or a scientist buying a stake ... getting income out of that but not adding value,” he said.

a proposal of giving workers a 10% stake in construction companies had been mooted.

ngobeni was confident that there would not be an outcry by unions over the charter once it was finalised, as had been the case with other charters.

he said labour groupings such as the national union of metalworkers and building construction and allied workers union had made a significant contribution to the process.

stakeholders hope to achieve greater convergence on the scorecard goals at the indaba, which ends today.

sigcau said she had been impressed with the progress made to date, despite her initial skepticism.

“i am now confident that come august 1, 2005, the country shall have a draft construction sector charter,” she said.