July 13, 2004

By Lynda Loxton

Cape Town - The R13 billion repair and maintenance backlog for state-owned buildings would be awarded on the basis of an open public tender, with about 60 percent earmarked for firms with a strong black empowerment element, public works minister Stella Sigcau said yesterday.

She said in a written reply to a question tabled in parliament that contracts would cover a variety of disciplines, including structural work, civil engineering infrastructure, and mechanical and electrical engineering.

Funding for all the projects still had to be negotiated with the treasury, she said.

Black economic empowerment participation would be applied "in accordance with the relevant procurement policies [of the state] and should ensure an estimated income of approximately 60 percent of the R13 billion to affirmative business enterprises", Sigcau said.

"The appointment of affirmative service providers should form a minimum of 50 percent of the professionals appointed to manage design, documentation and contract supervision."

Industry spokespeople said that despite frequent reports of not enough black building and engineering professionals being trained, the industry expected to be able to fulfil the affirmative action requirements, especially if it could lure back professionals who had left the industry.

In a written reply to another question, public enterprises minister Alec Erwin said that about 2 434km of Spoornet railway lines had been closed because they were no longer viable to repair and maintain.

"The cost of maintenance for unused lines is very high and would be fruitless expenditure," he said.

But Spoornet was examining alterative uses for these unused lines, mainly by opening them to other operators which wanted to use them for community-based tourism and job creation projects.

A test case for the lease of three closed railway lines to interested parties was now before the Transnet board.

Erwin said that because of the deregulation of the transport industry, Spoornet's market share and traffic volumes had fallen steadily over the past 10 years.

This had initiated a "market-driven strategy to become more customer oriented and at the same time align cost structures to become more price competitive and market oriented", he said.

The depopulation of rural areas had, at the same time, resulted in the degradation or closure of many regional and short branch lines throughout the country.

Some had been reclassified as light density and were being leased or concessioned for business opportunities such as tourism. Others had been reclassified as closed lines, and these were being sold.