After a five year period of restructuring construction when it cut its labour force from some 16,000 to 10,000, construction company Group Five is now ready to expand its labour force by 40% over the next two years, CEO Mike Lomas told a media briefing.

"We have a focused strategy on how we manage the future. Part of that strategy is to make sure that not all our eggs are in one basket, so we are diversified both geographically, with 35% of construction revenue outside South Africa, and across sectors, with construction only making up 70% of our revenue in the future from 79% in 2002.

"Even within construction we are looking for greater diversity with buildings revenue shrinking to the 50% level of total construction from 67% last year. Our labour recruitment will be concentrated in the roads and engineering divisions in construction, but part of our philosophy is to get the right person for the right job," Lomas said.

Boosting fixed investment is one of the main policy planks of the South African government and fixed capital formation as a percentage of gross domestic product is expected to rise back to the 20% level seen in the 1980s before it collapsed to the 15% level in the late 1990s.