Construction expo sets sights on SA economy
MIDRAND – This year's 7th annual African Construction and Totally Concrete Expo featured talks about boosting the economy through skills and education.
Lekula continued, “Once the house is completed, the individual could be employed to use the acquired skills to make the pavers for the road infrastructure that the new houses will require. Going forward, entrepreneurial individuals could leverage their new skills to create micro-enterprises serving the township.”
Speaking on behalf of the government, MEC for Infrastructure Development and Property Management Tasneem Motara said that their responsibility was to respond to the socio-economic challenges of joblessness, high numbers of unskilled citizens and delivering on state-of-the-art world-class public infrastructure.
She added that it requires a balancing act second to none, where they can heavily rely on outdated methods of building infrastructure, making the transition from old to new, while taking our people along.
“These require bold solutions, like increased capital investment, strategic partnerships in delivery value chain, as well as medium to long-term project pipeline.”
Rob Jeffrey, who is an economic risk consultant, said that a lot of factors contribute to the construction sector being weak. Unless something gets done about the manufacturing and mining industries, the country will not be able to be a force in the world again.
“You can talk about the Fourth Industrial Revolution and other things, everybody says education must be upskilled, but all we will do is get everybody upskilled but no one will get a job.
“What we need is higher growth. How can one make a worthwhile living on a 2.1 per cent profit margin? No wonder so many companies have gone under. The construction sector is just a mirror image of what is happening in the economy.
“Don’t think you will do something in the construction industry if you don’t do something about the economy.”
