Moneyweb reports that SA’s troubled construction industry has been given a glimmer of hope, with state-owned enterprises (SOEs) Transnet, Eskom, the Airports Company of SA (Acsa) and the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) advertising multiple multi-billion rand construction projects.  

Louwtjie Nel, chair of listed construction and engineering group WBHO, confirmed this on Tuesday and said:  “The re-emergence of large scale public infrastructure projects could result in an improvement in the local construction environment over the medium term.”  However, Nel added that the capacity of the industry as a whole had been severely reduced with the spate of corporate failures and exits from the construction market, resulting in minimal training within the sector and a significant emigration of skills.  Nel noted that progress had been made by government in restoring good governance within SOEs and that future opportunities existed for well-run mid-tier and emerging construction businesses to grow and fill the gap.  But Nel said unrest and disruptions from communities, business forums and taxi associations were a concern and had become commonplace and increasingly violent, threatening the safety of the group’s people and impacting productivity.

• Read the full original of the above report by Roy Cokayne at Moneyweb

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