Emerging contractors trained, in no particular order – Philani Mthethwa, Nqobile Mkhabela, Sebenzile Manqele, Alice Tusi, Thandiwe Sibiya, Bruce Mbuyazi, Rosemary Smith, Rosanne Williamson and Thandiwe Mlaba, with the RBIDZs Pumi Motsoahae and Mzwandile Madlanga
The Richards Bay IDZ recently awarded competence certificates to nine emerging contractors that have undergone a three weeks training sponsored by the RBIDZ. The training was provided by Zama Training focusing on the requirements for New Construction Regulations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, quality management system and general project and contract management.
To enhance productivity and quality from its emerging contractors, the RBIDZ had set a commitment that amongst other supplier and enterprise development initiatives; it would provide relevant accredited training towards emerging contractors and workshops that would help the contractors to align their Health and Safety plans with the New Construction Regulation. The excited recipients appreciated the opportunity and were very happy that the workshop was facilitated on the New Construction Regulations, “it was such an informative and eye-opening training and the knowledge gained will really assist us moving forward” said Ms Rosemary Smith – who spoke on behalf of the recipients.
The RBIDZ CEO, Pumi Motsoahae, said “Interacting with contractors has revealed that there are a number of challenges faced by emerging contractors including lack of awareness on certain legal compliance requirements and capacity on certain aspects in delivering on contract, which end up putting the emerging contractor on a back foot in terms of, project estimation, project management, contractual terms and conditions not being understood, compliance and alignment to the New Construction Regulations and a conspicuous lack of quality management systems”. Therefore, “support in the form of training and development of the emerging contractors is one of the initiatives that the RBIDZ seeks to entrench in the development of local emerging contractors,” he added.
The training covered tendering and estimation, implementing construction site management procedures, quality principles in construction management and compilation of quality management systems amongst other things. Most of the contractors that received training have either done some work or are currently doing some work for the RBIDZ. Majority of the recipients were women and youth contractors. Most of them are Exempted Micro Enterprises (EMEs) and a few are Qualifying Small Enterprises (QSE) in terms of the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) and the range of grade designation in terms of CIDB is 1 to 4. At least about 34% of the capital spend has benefited these categories of contractors, Black Women Owned (BWO) and Black Youth Owned Enterprises being also making the list of targeted enterprises in terms of RBIDZ Contract Participation goals (CPGs).
The training was aimed at turning around challenges that continue to limit the capacity of contractors either when completing their bid documents or when they are actually executing projects for the RBIDZ.