South Africa: Small road contractors to benefit from SANRAL and SAFCEC co-operation

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Small road contractors in South Africa are set to benefit from a co-operation between the South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) and the South African Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC).

The two entities signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that is geared towards the exploration of options and solutions that will enable mentorship, development, capacity building, and training of small road contractors, giving them the skills and knowledge needed to execute road construction and maintenance projects.

The roles of SAFCEC and SANRAL

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On the one hand, according to the MOU, SAFCEC will improve the knowledge and skills of small contractors through training, the provision of mentors to guide, develop, and prepare them to be able to tender on projects, covering technical competence, finance, human resources, contractual matters, and legislation. Successfully completing this program, will mean that the small contractor understands how to position their entity to attain a competitive edge, is able to submit the best scoring yet profitable tenders, can determine and assess risk, and has improved strategic, technical, and entrepreneurial skills.

On the other hand, SANRAL is seeking to promote fair competition, facilitate access to developmental opportunities, and build lasting relationships that will see small contractors benefit from direct development support.

Economic recovery

“Now, more than ever, we have to get this right. As SANRAL responds to the President’s call for infrastructure development to drive our country’s economic recovery post-COVID-19, it is imperative that we widen the net of economic inclusion in the road construction industry.

The success of our economic recovery initiatives will depend on capacitating as many contributors as possible to meaningfully participate in building this country’s infrastructure. We are ready and excited about playing our part. Together we will build South Africa, through better roads,” said Ismail Essa, SANRAL’s Transformation Head..