Microsoft word - newsletter2009.doc

South African Federation of
Civil Engineering Contractors
NEWSLETTER
HEAD OFFICE
CONSTRUCTION CENTRE

Date: 22 May 2009
Ref. No. : 2009
Western Cape News

The CPUT, Department of Civil Engineering & Survey, awards for the 2008 academic year took place on
Wednesday evening and it was well worth attending – good networking opportunity. SAFCEC and its members
sponsored 9 out of 28 civil engineering awards – SAFCEC (1), Asla (1), Martin & East (2), Murray & Roberts
(1), Power (1) and PPC (3). SAICE and consultants sponsored the remainder of the awards (19). Can we do
more next year? We were referred to as “the big guns”.
We have our HR committee meeting on Tuesday with discussions on YOUTH IN CONSTRUCTION,
DIAMOND ACADEMY and the HEALTH & SAFETY POSITION taking place before the meeting.
Department of Labours’ public hearing in the Western Cape will take place on Wednesday 27th May 2009.
It’s a very important issue related to the review of the engineering sector South Africa and the extension of
application to include building and construction sectors under sectoral determination. If you want your voice
heard, please contact me to receive more details. It will make a difference if the industry is well represented at
the hearing.

Meetings in June: Council on 23rd and Western Cape Manco on 25th.

Some Financial Information
CIPRO
Due to the amendment of the Companies and Close Corporations Acts as well as the Companies and Close
Corporations' Administrative Regulations, notices in respect of registrations, deregistration, amendments,
company name change, restorations, liquidations and conversions will in future only be published on the
CIPRO website and not in the Government Gazette. All notices up to and including 12 March 2009, will be
included in the next Government Gazette. From 13 March 2009 onwards, all notices will be published on the
CIPRO website only and will remain available on the website for an indefinite period.
New Finance Minister
New Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has said the government is willing to debate economic policies like
inflation targeting. He said some role-players in South Africa like Cosatu have raised that question.
His approach - within the framework of the spirit the President is creating - is that they want to engage, talk,
debate, discuss and have all role-players involved.
He said that it was important to create an entrepreneurial spirit among young South Africans, and red tape is
hampering this and government needs to tackle this a lot more assertively.
Gordhan said he had a zero-tolerance approach to corruption. He warned that the country's tender system
required a careful look or even "perhaps an entire revamp". Within the next two weeks he hopes to talk to
Treasury and look at a review of the system to close those gaps that allow people to abuse the system. No
doubt: interesting times ahead.
Congratulations to Haw & Inglis who celebrate their 25th anniversary this year.
Go well during the last week in the merry month of May! KwaZulu Natal News
Manco and Branch Meetings: 25 and 27 May 2009
Members are reminded of these two meetings. Neville Gurry from Head Office will attend and be introduced to
the members. Neville will brief members on:
• Charter Code 9 signed by the Minister (what does this mean and how will it affect members)
Ethekwini 2009/1020 Budget Presentation
The Branch Chairman, Branch Manager and a few members attended this new initiative by the City on Monday
18 May 2009. It was informative and encouraging to note that civil engineering expenditure for infrastructure
and maintenance featured strongly in the R5,4 billion budget for 2009/10. Not such good news for major
projects – the budget will benefit CIDB8 and lower members for the next 2-3 years.
SAFCEC Golf and Sports Days: 26 and 27 June 2009
Golf entries are full and we are only able to accept further registrations onto a reserve list – sorry!
Sports Day entries have been circulated and hopefully the response will follow a similar trend as the Golf day.
Eastern Cape News

Branch Meeting: Final Reminder
The East Cape Branch Meeting is next Tuesday, 26th May 2009 to be held at the Royal Port Alfred Golf Club,
Port Alfred, starting time 08h30. We ask our members to make every effort to attend this meeting as it is one of
the few times when members can get together to discuss important issues relating to the Industry and our
Branch. As we informed you earlier in the month, Ted Thomas’ successor, Neville Gurry, will be attending this
meeting.
Liaison Meeting with DOT, Bhisho
This meeting did take place on Friday, 8th May in King Williams Town. Our members, who attended, felt that it
was a good exploratory meeting and it was agreed that meetings of this nature would take place on a regular
basis. Minutes of the meeting have been sent out to all the members for their information.
I tried to attend a private meeting of the P E Regional Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PERCCI) to inform
business members of the current status of the proposed Bus Rapid Transport system in the Port Elizabeth area.
The taxi owners/operators had other ideas and at the outset it was clear that they would not allow the meeting
to continue. Disruption of this nature at a private meeting, I believe, should not be tolerated. The authorities
concerned have been advised of the circumstances around this meeting and we hope that steps will be taken
and such an incident will not be repeated.
Ninham Shand/Africon Merger
I was fortunate enough, on behalf of our East Cape members, to be invited to an excellent cocktail party at the
Protea Marine Hotel in Port Elizabeth for the Port Elizabeth launch of the merger of these two consulting firms
with an Australian Consulting firm, Connell Wagner. An excellent video presentation gave one the indication of
the potential size and influence of this combined body. I, from personal experience, and talking to other
contractors, feel that the marrying of the two South African firms with markedly different business ethos will,
indeed, be a challenge.
Council Meeting
We are privileged to be able to host the next SAFCEC Council Meeting in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday, 23rd June
2009. The meeting will be followed by a dinner at the Kelway Hotel to which our members are invited.
Members will be advised of the details at a later date.
North Branch News

North Branch Meeting: Thursday 28 May 2009
Don’t miss an opportunity to witness SANRAL unmask facts and figures on the impending work on Gauteng
Freeway Improvement (GFIP) and other projects in the Northern region with the 2010 World Cup around the
corner.
Messer’s Ismail Essa & Alex van Niekerk of SANRAL will be presenting.
You will be given an opportunity to ask questions.
Date: Thursday 28 May 2009
Time: 17:30
Venue: SAFCEC Head Office
No. 12 Skeen Boulevard, Bedfordview
RSVP: [email protected] by Friday the 22nd of May 2009
SAFCEC Training

CMP (Construction Management Program) – Stellenbosch
The dates for the 2009 Construction Management Program have been announced (21st June – 18th July
2009). The full program and application forms are now available on the University’s website.
Bookings are coming in fast and furiously so to reserve your place on this prestigious program, please contact
Alett Slabbert, Institute for Transport Technology, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Stellenbosch,
Tel. +27 (0)21 808-4364, fax.+27 (0)21 808-4361, e-mail: [email protected] soonest.

WSP and ATR submissions – 30 June 2009
Please remember the final submission date for WSP and ATR is 30 June 2009 – No extensions will be
considered by CETA. The Deloitte online system is available and we have worked on it. Please alert us via e-
mail ([email protected]) if you experience any problems, we will try and assist and also follow with CETA.
The hard copy of the WSP/ATR 2009/2010 for companies that cannot have access to the online Deiloitte
WSP/ATR is available on our website or from SAFCEC (Christia or Martha).

WSP Agent funded by CETA
M-Powerment consulting services have been appointed as a WSP Agent and will receive funding from CETA to
assist all levy paying companies to submit their Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Reports
(ASP) for the year 2010 (1 April 2009 – 30 Mar 2010). Please contact M-Powerment on e-mail
[email protected] or Tel (031) 763 2633 should you require information or the forms.
Please remember that all stakeholders who submit their WSP and ATR, will be eligible to claim back 50% of
their mandatory (SDL levies) that they will pay from 1 April 2009 – 30 March 2010. (This is once the ATR and
WSP are approved by CETA.)

Youth in Construction
Youth in Construction is a careers exhibition for the construction industry an aimed at grade 8 – 12 learners and
first Year University or University of Technology learners. The objective is to show learners the variety of
exciting employment opportunities within our industry and empower them with the knowledge to enable them to
make a career choice. It is a joint initiative and the organizing committee includes CIDB, SAICE, GMBA and
SAFCEC.
The Youth in Construction Week in Gauteng will be held from 27 – 31 July 2009 at the Sci-Bono Discovery
Centre in Newtown. Youth in Construction will also be held in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.
For more information regarding sponsorship & exhibitions, please mail Christia ([email protected]). Our
intention are to showcase the total construction industry and therefore need all construction related professional
bodies and companies involved. Stands are limited and are going fast in all regions.
Please contact us as soon as possible should you want to be part of this great initiative.
CETA National Roadshow
“Mapping and advancing quality skills development in the construction sector
towards 2010 and beyond”

Mr. Petrus Maoko, CEO of the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA), is inviting all construction
companies and CETA stakeholders to attend stakeholder interaction sessions to be held in May and June
2009.
Don’t miss the opportunity to take advantage of initiatives in place to tackle the shortage of skills in the South
African Construction Industry.

New projects: Skills development initiatives, projects and programmes that CETA intends to roll out in 2009/10

NB: Contact the Regional Office that is closest to you to reserve a seat. Venues will be communicated through
the regional offices.
Enquires / RSVP
Contact:
Details:
SAFCEC Contractual Affairs

Irregular Tender Conditions
Further to our meeting with the CIDB it is important that all members let us know as soon as possible about
irregular conditions and who we have to contact to challenge.

Abnormal Contract Awards
As above we ask all members to advise us of any Abnormal Contract Awards as well as whom the offending
parties are so that we can challenge them from SAFCEC.
We would like to coordinate all from HO.
CIDB Register of Contractors – Date 20090521
All Contractors
Civil Engineering Contractors

Construction Contract Law/New Engineering Contract/FIDIC
Members are reminded that the following 2-day training courses are scheduled to take place in
Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. For further details, please contact the event organizer at (Tel) 011
447 7470; (Fax) 086 686 8425; e-mail [email protected] or visit their website at www.alusani.co.za.
Course Venue
Practical Use of the FIDIC International Suite
Other Construction Seminars
The following Construction Seminars are scheduled to be held during 2009. For further details, please visit
the BCA website at www.bca.co.za.

Seminar Title
Duration
Date & Cost per delegate
Validation
(inclusive of VAT)
Sunnyside Park Hotel,
Parktown
Protea Hotel,
Vineyard Hotel,
Cape Town
Riverside Hotel,
Photographic Competition
It’s that time of year again where we request your photographs and prized pictures
for the ANNUAL PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION. The closing date is at the
close of business on Friday the 19th of June and final adjudication is on the
23rd of July.
Everyone has an excellent chance to have one of your pride and joy projects
prancing on the calendar.
You have as good a chance as anybody else, if the photographs are of high enough quality. The adjudication is done by completely independent people – mostly journalists. No one project may feature more than once in the calendar; only if a joint venture partner submit a photograph that was deemed of high enough merit. No one company may feature more than once; only if a joint venture partner submit a photograph that was deemed of high enough merit. Photographs submitted must be of very high print quality. We will scan them in, at considerable cost, and not use your electronic versions, simply due to the fact that we received a huge variety of quality electronic renditions in the past, some of which were frankly unusable. We are looking forward to seeing your entries as you highlight your wonderful projects. Should you require further information or the rules of the competition, please contact Vanessa on tel (011) 409-0901 or [email protected]. This Week at SAFCEC ….

This was one of those “meeting season” weeks in SAFCEC. Not only did we have a national management
committee meeting, but the training, safety, enterprise development and contractual affairs committees met as
well. The human resource committee meeting was postponed until more progress has been made around the
negotiations.
The national Management Committee met on Tuesday and covered the usual subjects, but most importantly,
the financial statements up until April, the proposed budget (baseline) for 2009/10 and the first
results/conclusions of the strategic planning exercise. The latter came in two parts; a written document (with
estimates of the costs involved), and a presentation with more detail of the proposed programs. We cannot
really report more detail on the latter, suffice to say that exiting change is in the air. We will report back to
Council and Manco on a regular basis.
The wage negotiations took a breather until the beginning of June.
The Enterprise Development committee took place parallel to the Manco, so HPL could not attend the former.
HPL had to chair the Health and Safety committee meeting due to the chairman having been prevented from
attending due to circumstances out of his control. Many apologies were received as well, but we had the
privilege of having three people from FEMA attending. Amongst them was Guys McIntosh, who is their
statistical ‘guru’. We utilise most of the time to understand how we could provide useful benchmark data to the
members from the goldmine of FEMA information. We hope to have something soon that will become useful
over time in a ‘safety column’ in this Newsletter.
Unfortunately HPL had a parallel engagement when the Contractual Affairs meeting took place on Thursday,
so Neville Gurry reports on the deliberations elsewhere.
HPL and PB met with the consultant that will help with the implementation of the strategic exercise on
Thursday morning. This is a fascinating process and will result in a ‘new look and feel’ SAFCEC . Watch this
space!!
Pierre Blaauw and the two chairmen of the IMC are still ‘at it’ working hard to get the Transformation Charter
and Scorecard launched. You may now hold your “collective breaths” with us because this is imminent! Do you
realise this process started in 2002 when SAFCEC initiated a Black Economic Empowerment Committee .
under Dr Hylton Macdonald. I believe a massive salute is due to the whole construction sector coming together
to achieve this! Everyone, from the people involved in the beginning to the current IMC and its chairmen, Mike
Wylie and James Ngobeni. Thank you for your conviction that we must change.
I read the most profound statement made by Johann Sebastian Bach when asked how he managed to play
such wonderful music. His answer was ‘I allow the music to play me’!
Have a great week!
Workshop on the Update on the Companies Act
20 – 22 July 2009
Former President Kgalema Motlanthe signed the Companies Bill into law on the 21th April 2009. The Companies Act, No. 71 of 2008, was published in the Government Gazette, No. 32121 (Notice No.421) of 9 April 2009 and will be implemented in 2010. BUSA is hosting a three (3) day Workshop on the Companies Act. This Workshop will be facilitated by Mr. Tshepo Mongalo. Tshepo is the Associate Professor in the Commercial Law Department of the University of Cape Town and a Corporate Law Consultant at Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs. He is the former Project Manager for Company Law Reform within the Consumer and Corporate Regulation Division (CCRD) of the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti). As the Project Manager, Tshepo was responsible for managing the process of corporate law reform. The Workshop is scheduled to take place as detailed below: Date:
Members who are available to attend the meeting are requested to advise Ms. Salvation Andrease by e-mail on
[email protected] by no later than end of business on Monday, 08 June 2009.
Optimise your Organisation - Training People for
Greatness

Camino Consulting’s Training Schedule in Gauteng
June 2009
8-9
Planning, Scheduling & Resourcing – a key to effective management 18-19 Problem Solving and Decision Making
July 2009
6-7
Performance Coaching – getting results on-the-job 20-21 Personal Mastery – self-management and personal effectiveness
Venue
SAFCEC Training Room, 12 Skeen Boulevard, Bedfordview
For bookings or more information:
Please contact Sunita at 021 852 2958 or [email protected].
Society for Asphalt Technology Presents …

Developments with Warm Mix Asphalt in Southern Africa
Following recent trends in Europe and the USA, where environmental legislation is forcing asphalt producers to
develop more efficient ways of manufacturing asphalt as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the South
African Asphalt industry has taken up this challenge, lead by the WMA Interest Group, to develop local
expertise in the manufacture and construction of Warm Mix Asphalt.

The purpose of this workshop will be to update local practitioners in the status of Warm Mix Asphalt
Technology in Southern Africa and the way forward.

Date:
Gautrans Laboratory, Michael Brink Street, Pretoria For further information please contact Isabel Smit on Tel (012) 482 3880 or e-mail [email protected].

Source: http://www.sabita.co.za/members/documents/Newsletter2009.pdf