SANRAL, SAWIC ENGAGE ON ADVANCING INTERESTS OF WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION

The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited
(Sanral) recently hosted a roundtable discussion in Port Elizabeth with the
South African Women in Construction (SAWIC) to discuss how the roads agency can
further advance interests of women in the construction industry.

The engagement was attended by
SAWIC’s president Kile Mteto, SAWIC Eastern Cape Chapter chairperson Phumeza
Kate, accompanied by a group of SAWIC members that recently completed a
training programme with Sanral.

The group of 40 SAWIC women, who received their certificates during the
session, undertook a two-week accredited training programme in construction
management organised by Sanral Southern Region SMME unit coordinator Vanda
Nqunqa, to empower them to better manage their construction businesses.

Sanral’s stakeholder relations
coordinator for the Southern Region Welekazi Ndika said that this was the first
step towards a long and mutually beneficial relationship. She outlined
construction projects to be undertaken by Sanral in the province in the next
three financial years where women-owned businesses can look forward to
participate.

“It is very critical that
Sanral’s procurement and supply chain policies are transformation friendly to
ensure that our transformation objectives are fulfilled. Our focus should no
longer be only on the 30% subcontracting to SMMEs. We should push for 51% black
ownership in JVs on our projects,” urged Ndika.

Sanral’s empowerment partners; Bell Equipment, Barloworld Equipment, Pilot
Crushtec and Purple Sunshine outlined the services the group can benefit from,
as well as their partnership with Sanral that allows emerging contractors
access to plant, equipment and mentorship.

Advising SAWIC members, Pamela Bukashe of tar manufacturing company Purple
Sunshine said, “98% of Eastern Cape roads are gravel, so you are in the right
space.”

Sanral’s community development specialist Dr Mongezi Noah urged SAWIC members to not only focus on Sanral’s construction projects. “Our transformation policy applies to all our sub-sectors which are maintenance, operations, ICT, legal, non-core services, finance and audit, human capital, property and marketing and communications,” said Noah. SAWIC president Kile Mteto said: “What is Sanral going to do to ensure that the investment made through this training yields results? We would appreciate Sanral ringfencing a budget to place the persons trained into an incubator system in order to see real growth in the next few years. The training should be intentional to yield results. My proposal is that Sanral should apply to National Treasury to enable ringfencing of work for targeted enterprises, particularly women in the sector,” said Mteto.

Mteto advised the certificate recipients that “having knowledge is one thing, but applying the knowledge is where the empowerment is.”https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/640/191910.html