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Construction World December 2024 cover webON THE COVER: Building the company around its customers is what has allowed construction materials leader AfriSam to stand the test of time, with the market – and broader society – benefiting in ways that are often invisible to them.

Products like cement, for instance, are often commoditised in the eyes of both large and small customers, to the extent that buyers often consider only the ‘price on the bag’. This is why AfriSam has made a concerted effort to add value that customers might not even be aware of, according to Richard Tomes, AfriSam Sales and Marketing Executive.

Best Projects 2024’s winners

The winners of Construction World’s Best Projects awards for 2024 were announced at an event held in Johannesburg in November. These awards have, for 23 years, recognised excellence in the built environment in South Africa. The competition attracted 84 entries, the most yet, and the winners represent the whole spectrum in the construction industry – from big to small players.

Best Projects 2024s winners

The judges were Uwe Putlitz – a retired professional architect and professional construction project manager; Hanlie Turner - a retired business development manager in the cement and concrete environment; Musa Shangase – immediate past president of Master Builders South Africa and Lufuno Ratsiku – president of the SACPCMP.

AfriSam was the main sponsor (and has been from the start of these awards), CHRYSO Southern Africa the gold, a.b.e.® Saint-Gobain the silver and Baker Baynes the bronze sponsor. They were joined by Sika and the South African Council for Project & Construction Management Professions (SACPCMP) as associate sponsors.

Best Projects 2024s winners 1

The December issue is the highlight on the magazine’s annual publishing calendar. It features all the winners of Best Projects, a competition that was started in 2002 and which has grown it stature, significance and one that reflects the status quo of the construction industry.  You will be inspired by the innovation, ingenuity and resilience of the South African construction industry on the following 88 pages.

Even though the competition had 84 entries in 2024 which is a record for the awards, mammoth projects are absent. Such projects benefit the industry across the entire supply chain and  for the duration that it is under construction,  they play a significant role in the performance of the construction industry – a major contributor to the country’s GDP.

Private Public Partnerships (PPPs) have been hailed as a way to change the fortunes of the South African construction industry – an industry that has been flatlining for almost a decade, but kept ticking over by the private sector and sporadic infrastructure projects.

Upcoming PPP amendment have sparked optimism among infrastructure developers. PPP legislation and tenders are notoriously prohibitive in terms of cost, time, effort and their erratic nature.

The construction and infrastructure development sector are now eagerly awaiting amendments to Treasury Regulation 16. These amendments will streamline and support more PPPs (I am writing this before the amendments are made public – which should be before the beginning of December).

The reforms, which were outlined in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) will strengthen planning, appraisal, contracting, financing, monitoring and evaluation. The result will be the faster delivery of infrastructure that supports economic growth, the expansion of access to basic services and boosting job creation.

The amendments will address the challenges that have hampered PPPs such as the bottlenecks in implementation, how PPPs are structured and will hopefully address the interests of both the public and private sectors.

In the draft amendment to Treasury Regulation 16 which was gazetted for public comment in February this year, was the launch of a PPP Advisory Unit to provide expert guidance that will assist in driving projects through the inception, preparation, evaluation, and approval phases.

National Treasury proposed establishing two distinct pathways for PPPs – one for high-value projects, and another, simpler pathway for projects below R2-billion. This will create new opportunities for developers to bring creative solutions to the table in terms of ongoing infrastructure challenges such as for water, electricity and roads.

 

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD AND READ THIS ISSUE IN PDF FORMAT.

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CONTACT

Editor
Wilhelm du Plessis
Email: constr@crown.co.za
Phone: 082 890 4872

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Erna Oosthuizen
Email: ernao@crown.co.za
Phone: 082 578 5630


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