The Minister of Public Works, Thembelani Thulas Nxesi launched the National Contractor Development Programme (NCDP) in Durban last week. The NCDP sets the national framework for sustainable development of contractors, particularly targeting the emerging black, women and youth owned companies.

The NCDP aims to strive for increased transformation in targeted categories and grades, as well as to improve the cidb grading status of these contractors. Nxesi committed the Department of Public Works through provincial and national structures to sustainable contractor development and adopting the NCDP as their policy for contractor development.

The strategic objective is to ensure that contractor development objectives are included in government’s infrastructure procurement and rollout plans, and that the legacy of capital and maintenance infrastructure budget spend, must see emerging contractors receive work opportunities whilst simultaneously developing their technical and business skills.

Speaking at the launch Nxesi said that emerging contractors must also improve performance in terms of quality, employment practices and skills development. The minister said that sustainable enterprises not only perform better, they are competitive and are better employers who contribute to skills development and deliver value to clients.

The NCDP is a joint initiative of the cidb and the Department of Public Works to provide leadership and direction to infrastructure clients and stakeholders on implementation of sustainable and measurable development of emerging enterprises.