Before delivering her presentation on the role and function of civil engineering contractors, skills transfer and transformation, executive director of Master Builder South Africa (MBSA), Tumi Dlamini, provided delegates at the 2012 Public Private Infrastructure Forum with a state of the building industry address – highlighting the high levels of mistrust between industry and the public sector.

While procurement challenges and non-payment issues are prevalent, Dlamini said one of the major challenges facing the industry is the numerous professional bodies operating in isolation. “The construction sector is a highly fragmented industry. We are silo bound stakeholders and this needs to change,” she reiterated.

According to Dlamini, there is no doubt that South Africa has the capacity to deliver on world-class infrastructure projects. As a nation, we proved ourselves during the 2010 World Cup. “It has been done before,” she said. “Various factors have changed the face of the building industry, in particular, globalisation. New technologies are evolving and we must work together to adapt.”

Part of MBSA’s proposed solutions for the construction industry includes procurement models that are standardised and respond to developmental needs of emerging contractors and to BBBEE.

Other solutions include planning teams at government level led by technical experts, joint venture partnerships between established and emerging contractors, capacity building initiatives, learning from past projects, and industry integrity. “The private sector and public sector has to stop blaming infrastructure issues on each other. As an industry, trust and integrity is vital,” Dlamini added.

Infrastructure News editor