Commercial property investors in South Africa have experienced double-digit capital and income growth since 2002, driven by yield compression and a rapid rise in market rentals.

The Melrose Arch Piazza construction site was voted one of the safest places to work in Gauteng, winning six safety awards from the Master Builders Association

At the annual Gauteng Regional Master Builders Association Safety Awards, Amdec Property Development, a company noted for its construction safety records, won first prize for being the ‘Most Proactive Client’ while the Melrose Arch Piazza Scheme won the safety award in the ‘R500-million plus’ category while Murray and Robert’s site agent Miguel Teixeira was voted the ‘Best Site Agent’ and Murray and Roberts sub contractor Bronsair (Pty) Limited won the ‘Best Sub Contractor’ award. Their safety officer on Melrose Arch Piazza, Paul Smit, was placed third in the Best Safety Officer category.

Other parts of the Melrose Arch precinct were also honoured - the Melrose Arch hotel which also forms a later phase of the Piazza Scheme won the ‘R200-million to R500-million’ category.

Adriaan La Grange, Amdec project manager notes he is proud of the company’s safety record on development projects throughout South Africa: “Our safety record at this site an excellent lost time injury frequency rate of 3.09. This is very good considering we have about 2 500 workers on site at any given time and are facing certain challenges like building close to public areas.”

Amdec has over 20 years of industry experience and a current development portfolio in excess of R4,5 billion ranking it as one of the country’s biggest private property developers.

Amdec is currently responsible for the development of, amongst others, Melrose Arch and is also undertaking the refurbishment of the landmark Consolidated Building in the Johannesburg CBD. In the Cape it is developing the new Virgin Active in Steenberg as well as extending and refurbishing Westlake Lifestyle Village. The luxury retirement lifestyle village Evergreen Muizenberg is another of Amdec’s Cape Projects. In the Eastern Cape, it is undertaking the development of the new mixed-use suburb of Parsonsvlei.

Amdec always has specific and stringent requirements for safety, explains La Grange. “For Amdec, any development is also about the process – it’s not only the outcome but how it is achieved. We believe Melrose Arch Piazza to be one of the most high profile and exciting developments in Africa right now and are committed to get everything right.”

Rui Santos, director of Murray and Roberts, puts it simply: a safe site is a happy and productive site. “This is vital to achieve good production levels and to build quality developments,” says Santos who is positive about the high standards of safety which have been achieved on the site. M&R has always had a proactive safety and unitary culture with commitment from top management which reflects it’s corporate priority.

“We are always aiming to up the standards. Amdec is a particularly proactive client and they take a daily interest in the safety of the site. We work together with an independent safety consultant and have in place a number of safety initiatives for the workers,” notes Santos.

Safety initiatives on the Melrose Arch Piazza site include:
Stop. Think.
This is a system of sign language that ensures clear communication between workers which is effective regardless of language barriers and noise on the site. This is an outreach campaign by M&R to all employees to improve safety awareness and to strive for zero harm in the workplace.

Induction
Prior to any staff member or subcontractor staff member coming on site, they are trained in all aspects of the safety and the rules of the site. In addition to creating the foundation for safety, this also creates a platform for skills transfer, creating a ripple effect and providing hands-on experience in working safety.

Daily ‘Toolbox Talks’
These morning meetings are interactive exchanges between the foreman and team on site. Issues discussed include debriefing the previous day’s work, planning the tasks to be carried out that day and the associated safety elements, as well as discussing the potential risk each activity entails. This also provides an opportunity for all staff to communicate any potential risks which they may have noticed. These forums allow appropriate information and lessons to be shared across the site.

Auditing of subcontractors
Subcontractors are stringently audited before they start on site and these audits are continually revalued during while the subcontractor is undertaking their tasks on site. Contractors are involved in site meetings, audits and incident investigations and are required to report regularly on their safety performance.

Daily risk report
Here potential risks are identified, communicated and addressed immediately to ensure prevention. Near misses are reported daily and investigated as if the event occurred to ensure incidents are not repeated.

High-visibility bibs
This is a Melrose Arch Piazza site specific requirement. They are worn by everyone on site and are a proud statement of the commitment to safety.

Safety incentives
Staff members are given monetary rewards for reporting risks or working safe. Each person is encouraged to take ownership of safety and answer ‘me’ to the questions ‘who is responsible for safety on site?

Safety Training
M&R’s aim is to maintain the highest occupational health and safety standards and safety training plays a major role in an industry where shortage of skills is a huge challenge. Benefits of quality training are reaped by having low accidents and incident rates. The process of managing safety is driven through a continuous improvement cycle so that zero harm is achieved and maintained.

The Cape Town headquarters of the Fidentia group are to go under the hammer on October 8.

There is nothing like a bit of success to get chief executives deciding that they would like to speak to the press, after all.

Roger Jardine, who made history in 1994 when he became South Africa’s youngest director-general at 29, became chief executive of construction group Aveng two months ago, when its share price had tanked to R50 and things weren’t looking great. He gave his secretary firm instructions not to allow the media, or certainly this newspaper, anywhere near him.

Fast forward to Monday last week. The share price had recovered almost R20 and Jardine was basking in the glow of a strong set of results and a bursting order book.

Now, about that interview, asked his publicist.

Which for me raised an old question. How much are good results down to the chief executive and how much merely a matter of the company being in the right industry at the right time?

“Somebody once said you must never mistake luck for genius,” responds Jardine with a dry chuckle.

The question could be asked of any listed company with operating subsidiaries, he says.

“It depends on what goes on at the centre, generally elevated from the day-to-day operations.”

But if there’s a world cup round the corner, stadiums to be built and contracts lining up to be signed?

CEOs would soon be in big trouble if they just signed willy-nilly, he says.

“Things like managing risk are more carefully scrutinised than they would be if you were just chasing the next contract.

“There are a number of areas where head offices play a constructive role.”

Risk management is one of the most important.

“If that flies out of the window, all sorts of things can go wrong.

“When we are about to put in bids on major contracts we look at contract risk, execution risk, political risk.”

Execution risk?

“If you take on a big job, can you do it? Will you be able to deliver on what you promised?”

The biggest potential constraining factor for Aveng, “given the amount of work in the pipeline”, is capacity, he agrees.

“You have to make sure you have the people to do the job, and, if you don’t have them, where are you going to get them from?”

It is no secret that the construction industry is short of engineers, and Aveng is no exception.

“There is a shortage of skills,” says Jardine. “But there’s a package of measures you can put in place to make sure you attract and retain people.”

Offering new challenges to your engineers and other specialists is essential.

“When you win a big mandate, people are attracted to that. You attract people from elsewhere. That’s why it’s important for companies to win big, prestigious contracts.”

On this score, Aveng is doing well.

“Our order book is currently sitting at 123% of this year’s revenue,” he says, although the only projects he can name off the top of his head are Soccer City, the Port Elizabeth stadium and the new Heineken brewery on the East Rand.

Of course, his competitors are also getting big, prestigious contracts to entice a limited pool of bright engineers and keep them happy.

“That’s why you have to be on top of the game when it comes to winning the war for talent,” says Jardine.

Keeping the contracts coming is just one of the battles.

“We need to give people a sense of belonging, and to be proud of working for Aveng.

“We spend a lot of resources on testing the mood of our people, and investing in them through training and development (R30-million in the past year).

“In addition, you need to make sure that people are feeling properly compensated for their investment in the business,” says Jardine.

For qualified artisans, engineers, surveyors, project managers — you name it — South Africa should be their oyster right now.

But schools and universities are not producing the required skilled people.

Fifteen years into the new South Africa and Jardine’s skilled workforce is still overwhelmingly white. And that is not, as the employment equity commission would have it, because of racist recruitment policies.

Like its competitors, Aveng invests big money and resources, at schools, universities and through in-house training programmes, to identify, nurture and develop black skills. Nothing less than the sustainability of the industry depends on it, says Jardine.

But the skills are still not much in evidence.

As the former director-general of the Department of Science and Technology, Jardine knows better than most why not.

“We don’t have a culture of science and technology in society at large,” he says.

“We have to look at promoting a culture of science where, from a very young age, children can aspire to be great scientists one day.”

Where are the science museums, he asks? Where are the libraries to provide access to the kind of reading that might fire young minds?

How much money is going into our research institutions?

“There’s a whole chain of things that we need to pay attention to.”

Jardine, 43, grew up in the decidedly unintellectual environment of Riverlea township, south of Johannesburg, and became a physicist.

“The way I decided that I was going to be a physicist one day was that when I was at high school I opened the Sunday Times and there was an article about a black physicist. That was the first inkling I had of, hey, wait a minute, physics is open to me. I think role models are very important for young people in pursuing these careers.”

After matriculating at Woodmead school, in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, Jardine went to the university of the Witwatersrand for a year and then won a scholarship to study in the US. He got his BSc and MSc in radiological physics but practised only “very briefly” at a medical centre for cancer patients before returning to South Africa in 1992 to work at ANC headquarters and become a civil servant.

A waste of scarce resources or what, I ask?

“There was debate when I came home that some in the ANC felt I was wasting my education. But I felt very strongly that I wanted to be part of rebuilding South Africa. I was very passionate about being part of those who were preparing for the democratic stage of our country.”

After leaving government, he ran Kagiso Media and Kagiso Trust Investments for eight years. When the chairman, Eric Molobi, died Jardine moved on.

“I was very close to him, he was a mentor to me. His death caused me to think about my own path in life and I thought I needed a change.”

Aveng approached him.

“I liked the idea that it was infrastructure at the interface between where you develop people and where you develop the economy as a whole.”

Engineers are a politically conservative bunch, so how was the culture shock, I ask?

Don’t talk to him about culture shock, he says. He went straight from Shell House to the former national department of education. Aveng was a cinch.

“One of the good things about engineers or people in this industry is that they’re very straight talkers,” he says. “That is something I took notice of, but I find it refreshing.”

His first celebratory lunch with one of his teams was at a pub.

“It wasn’t in a fancy restaurant somewhere. I think that’s refreshing.”

The Construction Transformation Charter Group announces that the Construction Industry Charter was submitted to the Department of Trade and Industry with the full endorsement of Minister Thoko Didiza.

Co-Chairman of the Integrated Management Committee, Mr Mike Wylie, said:

“This is a big step forward on the road to transformation of our industry and we would like to thank you all for the four years of commitment to this process.

“We would especially like to thank Minister Thoko Didiza for her guidance, advice and support.

“However, we believe this is only the end of the beginning of a journey into the future that will see our industry delivering the infrastructure to South Africa and transforming into an entity of which all of us, our Government and South Africa, can be proud.”

A R549-million contract to build Heineken’s first brewery in South Africa has been awarded to Grinaker-LTA, part of the JSE-listed Aveng Group.

The construction firm’s building and civil engineering business units are undertaking this project in a 50 / 50 joint venture, explains contracts director Richard Amm.

The 70 000 m2 brewery in Randvaal, South East of Johannesburg, will comprise production buildings and cool cellars, as well as a bottling and distribution warehouse for Heineken SupplyCo (Pty) Ltd, the brewing and distribution company for beer brand Amstel. A fast-track construction programme will see the building works completed in June 2009, Amm says. “The programme is very tight as process contractors are required to be given access to each building and sections of each building on sectional completion dates.”

The buildings at the brewery are generally concrete, structural steel and brick structures, with steel roof sheeting on all buildings.  Some 30 000 m3 of concrete will be used in the project, together with 3 500 tons of structural steel and two million bricks.

Amm notes that Grinaker-LTA will be using local labour wherever possible, and a community liaison officer will be employed to help source workers from the surrounding areas.

The R21-billion Rio Tinto Alcan aluminium smelter, which was scheduled to break ground at Coega in the second half of this year, could be delayed by as much as four years due to the area‘s current power shortages.

Over the past five years or so the development and rejuvenation successes of South Africa’s inner cities have been hotly debated. After Trevor Manuel’s 2002 announcement of the creation of Urban Development Zones, various cities started trying to clean up their act

National oil company PetroSA is planning a new crude oil refinery at Coega, near Port Elizabeth

The days of the historical gentlemen’s club will be remembered when the old Union Club building in Bree Street, Johannesburg, comes up for auction later this month.