6
MODERN QUARRYING
October - November 2013
AROUND THE
INDUSTRY
Bell recognises top
supplier
Mark Wragg, branch manager of Bearing
Man’s Isando branch (left) and Arthur Gray,
branch manager Bearing Man’s Richards
Bay branch (right), are congratulated by Bell
Equipment CE Gary Bell, on being awarded
the prestigious Supplier of the Year status at
a gala function at Gallagher Estate.
Ketso Gordhan, CEO of
major cement supplier in
Southern Africa, PPC
Ltd, has called for the
creation of an infra-
structure negotiation
body similar to that
of the Convention for
a Democratic South
Africa (Codesa) as a
critical step to kick
start implementation
of much-needed infrastructure develop-
ment in South Africa.
“It is clear that infrastructure bottle-
necks by both the public and private sec-
tors need to be addressed, not through
agreeing to generic accords but rather
through implementable plans with
clear roles, responsibilities and dead-
lines. The methodology is simple. Before
1994 people wanted a democratic South
Africa. The National Party and the ANC
both raised issues that were preventing
them frommoving forward in this regard.
So, they put together a working group
on each of those issues and came back
with solutions. All the things that we see
today were compromises that emerged
from discussions and negotiations,”
Gordhan says.
Speaking at a recent International
Project Finance Association (IPFA) event
in Sandton, Gordhan was adamant that
negotiations between the national gov-
ernment and the private sector would
substantially increase the number of
infrastructure developments completed.
“Moves like this are where we can
make the most significant impact
on our global competitiveness
as a country. We continue to
score poorly in the World
Economic Forum’s Global
Competitive Index and
we have to come to
terms with the fact that
we cannot boost the com-
petitiveness of our economy,
boost sustainable infrastructure
growth and boost job creation by doing
more than agreeing to the ideals of a
plan,” he urges.
By getting the national government
and private sector together in one room,
Gordhan believes that many problems
currently facing the industry will be
solved. One of the biggest issues gov-
ernment has is that they believed they
overpaid on previous public-private part-
nerships (PPP).“Let’s use the prison exam-
ple. Government had a description of the
sort of prison it wanted to have; if you had
a look at the description it looked like a
5-star hotel. Instead of the private sector
coming back and saying that it is not very
functional, now we have something that
is way too expensive. It costs us around
R75 000/year for one prisoner, and a pen-
sioner gets R1 200/month. If you weigh
up those two things; here is a guy who
has done something wrong so we lock
him up; it just doesn’t sound right.”
Regarding previous sectors in the
PPP arena, Gordhan believes there are
three reasons why success has been
Denys Knoetze has been appointed divi-
sional manager at tyre protection specialist
OMSA Pewag. He brings strong industrial
instrumentation and engineering experi-
ence to the company, and believes there
are great market opportunities for the tyre
protection chains offered by OMSA Pewag.
“Every business is trying to reduce
overheads, so the challenge facing me is
to show the benefits of using tyre protec-
tion chains to industries like the mining
sector, and to highlight the synergy that
can be achieved for tyre manufacturers,”
Knoetze says.
experienced in the last 15 years. Firstly, it
was due to a strong political will to get the
job done. “If there is a strong political will
to get something done, the chances of suc-
cess are much higher. We saw that with the
Gautrain project; it was because the MEC,
Premier and the national government
really wanted the project to get done.”
Secondly, the existence of strong offi-
cials on projects is crucial. “They know
how to get the decisions through the vari-
ous mechanisms in government; how to
interact with the private sector; and how
to get the best advice to make things to
happen. A strong official makes a huge
difference,” he says.
“The third reason is the combination
of all of these and the existence of a very
simple transparent process with a clear
allocation of risk. “If all these things are
present, there will be no debates about
who should be doing what. Once you
have a clear-cut mechanism for dealing
with the project, the chances of success
improve immensely,” he adds.
It costs the taxpayer about
R75 000/year for the upkeep of
one prisoner, whereas a pensioner
receives about R1 200/month.
Call for infrastructure CODESA
New appointment at OMSA
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