Public Works confirms SA's ability to deliver 2010 projects

Ahead of its budget debate Wednesday, the Department of Public Works confirmed South Africa had the skills and capacity to deliver infrastructure required for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

While the country did have the requisite skills, work would be done to train prospective entrants into the construction industry to increase the actual number of companies involved in the sector, Public Works Minister Thoko Didiza told reporters in Parliament.

"Yes, as a country we do have that capacity to deliver on 2010.

"In terms of the number [of companies involved in the sector] we don't have that many here. It is mainly the large established companies in the sector, your Murray and Roberts and your Grinaker LTA," said the minister.

"We are looking at what we can do to get those smaller players who are interested in joining the industry to do so."

This, explained the minister, may entail providing training to emerging companies.

These would include companies with little experience or whose previous projects were building schools or government housing, which is clearly not on the same scale as building a stadium or related infrastructure for a 2010 project.

Such companies could work easily as sub contractors, said Minister Didiza, but would require support to become contractors in their own right.

South Africa will host the 2010 FIFA World Cup games at ten stadia in nine cities, in what is billed to be a truly African World Cup, and the best FIFA World Cup ever.

There will be five new stadia, and five existing stadia will be refurbished and upgraded for the world's most popular sporting event.

Three existing stadia in South Africa's major metropolis, Gauteng, will be upgraded. These are FNB stadium, Ellis Park in Johannesburg and Tshwane's Loftus Versfeld.

The Royal Bafokeng stadium in North West will be upgraded, as will Vodacom Park in Mangaung (Bloemfontein) in Free State province.

The five new stadia are Greenpoint in the Western Cape; the Peter Mokaba sports complex in Polokwane, Limpopo; a new venue at Mbombela in Mpumalanga; an arena in the Nelson Mandela Metro in the Eastern Cape and Kings Park stadium in the eThekwini Metro.

Addressing Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Finance earlier this month, the head of the 2010 unit in the National Treasury also expressed the view that more diversity was needed in the local construction industry.

Malcolm Simpson said the local industry was dominated by "only six or seven large contractors" and that as a result, it lacked a competitive edge.

Briefing the committee on National Treasury's funding of the ten stadia, Mr Simpson indicated that opening the country's market to foreign construction companies "to come and do this work" could be doubly beneficial.

This would be through creating competition and diversifying the skills base.

Of particular concern to the Treasury was the shortage of skills - particularly technical skills such as those provided by civil engineers and a variety of artisans - and project management skills. Manuel.

At Wednesday's briefing in Cape Town, Minister Didiza indicated that foreign companies were indeed listed on the Registry of Contractors, a project of the department and its unit, the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).

The Registry, which the department and its clients compile as a database of service providers, lists contractors after assessing their previous projects; skills base and capacity amongst others.

These companies are then graded from nine for an emerging contractor, to grade one for an established entity.

Foreign companies she said, were assessed by the same rigorous standards.

In order to grade and assess foreign companies, CIDB officials would also travel to inspect the companies' previous projects abroad as well as projects undertaken in South Africa with local partners.