SA's housing crisis requires full participation from public and private sector

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT : What has clearly emerged is that the government - be it at municipal, provincial or national level - cannot adequately, sustainably, and consistently fulfill its obligations to the citizens. Visions of a better, more inclusive future for all need to be elevated beyond political rhetoric, requiring an expertise that the government has demonstrated it cannot satisfactorily deliver on. The role of public-private partnerships and their significance in speeding up bureaucratic governmental processes has taken on more prominence as the pandemic has made the necessity for agile, flexible, timeous, outcomes-driven solutions imperative

Corobrik's R800m Kwastina factory to enter full production by end March

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT : The commitment made by Corobrik at the South African Investment Conference at Sandton in 2019 has paid off handsomely, with its new Kwastina factory in Driefontein entering full production by the end of March. The R800 million investment in the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility has gone hand in hand with a further R200 million earmarked to expand Corobrik's concrete operations in KwaZulu-Natal. "Kwastina produces clay face bricks, while the concrete operation is targeted at the plaster brick and block market," explains CEO Nick Booth. Kwastina (`Home of the Brick') is fully automated, from mixing the raw materials to the end product. Capable of producing 100 million bricks a year, the new factory will easily be able to meet larger-volume orders. In a first for the South African market, Kwastina will also have the flexibility to produce small quantities of bespoke products for the architectural segment

Construction industry to remain in recovery despite forecasted growth

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT : The construction industry is expected to grow by 6.2% this year, but will remain in a recovery phase after experiencing a near recession that was exacerbated by Covid-19 and the associated hard lockdown. This will have a positive impact on employment, while contributing to improved sentiment towards the economy, said GVK-Siya Zama CFO John de Sousa. Contributing towards this forecast has been improved sentiment in the market, largely due to the government's recent emphasis on growing public-private partnerships and increasing infrastructure spend. However this does not guarantee a "immediate recovery" in the domestic construction market as the Covid-19 pandemic starts to ease or in response to government's positive news for the industry, GVK-Siya Zama CFO John de Sousa said

Construction industry holds key role in economic recovery

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT : While the South African GDP has seen some growth in the last four quarters, the construction industry remains key to expediting the recovery and creating jobs, according to CFO of privately-owned construction company, GVK-Siya Zama, John de Sousa. De Sousa has been at GVK-Siya Zama for more than two decades, playing a pivotal role in the growth of the business and says that, over the past five years, the company has seen annual turnover grow 20% year on year, despite the global pandemic. This was achieved while many of GVK-Siya Zama's competitors, including several listed companies, went out of business in some of the most treacherous conditions the economy has ever faced

5G set to be a construction industry game changer

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT : The Covid-19 pandemic has fast-tracked the construction industry's digital transformation, and more and more companies are leveraging cutting-edge technology to improve their on-site operations. But as digital technology becomes increasingly integral to the construction process, so too does high-speed, reliable internet connectivity, says Databuild CEO Morag Evans. "In fact, in today's digital landscape, it's critical. A construction site is a hive of activity at any given time, with numerous teams working together to deliver the required project timeously and within budget

Minister updates progress at Cameroon's Nachtigal project

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT : Civil engineering works at the 420MW Nachtigal project are over halfway complete, Cameroon's Minister of Water and Energy, Gaston Eloundou Essomba, updated during a recent site visit. The Minister told reporters that the 52% of the civil work has been completed, with 48.2% of first electromechanical lot and 99.8% of the transmission line also complete. The project was initially expected to be complete at the end of 2023, but due to delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Nachtigal Hydro Power Company (NHPC) has now been tasked with starting operations of the first machine in July 2023, with final commissioning in July 2024