THE South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) met with the Dordrecht business fraternity recently to discuss the economic benefits and job opportunities presented by a special maintenance project on the N6 national road to the Eastern Cape town.
SANRAL convened the session as part of its ongoing stakeholder engagement endeavours, which seek to include and consult those who are directly affected by the agency’s projects.
“At SANRAL we always ensure that we start with a social facilitation process on our projects. This means that we first consult communities who are affected by our projects before we begin with construction,” said Welekazi Ndika, SANRAL’s stakeholder coordinator for the Southern Region.
“Working with the municipality, we do this to ensure that we get the community’s buy-in and make our targeted stakeholders, like business representatives, understand what the project will entail, as well as how they will benefit from it.”
Valued at R253 million, the project will start in November 2021 and is expected to be completed over 30 months.
SANRAL has allocated the first three months before construction begins to what is called the mobilisation period. This is a period in which the appointed contractor on the project will interact with the community and set up contract participation goals (CPGs), which is the minimum amount allocated to the development of small-, medium- and micro enterprises (SMMEs).
“Guided by our transformation policy, at SANRAL we always ensure that there is transparency and equal opportunities for local community members on our projects. We have also spelled this out in our D1000 Document. This is a document which guides the maximum participation of women, youth, people with disabilities and military veterans, to mention but a few, on our projects,” said Thandile Makwabe, SANRAL’s transformation officer for the Southern Region.
“The D1000 Document is also there to ensure that local SMMEs participate as suppliers on projects, such as rendering security services on our project sites. All of this is done to ensure that local resources and local community members benefit from SANRAL projects.
“We also ensure that the appointed main contractor on the project will adhere to the CPGs that we have set for our projects. In the N6 to Dordrecht special maintenance project, the CPG target we have stipulated is 30% and we have made it clear to the main contractor that this must be achieved.”
Accordingly, the CPG on the N6 to Dordrecht project is R75.9 million, which is 30% of the total project value. About 6% of the project has also been earmarked to create job opportunities for local community members.
About 200 job opportunities will be created for skilled and semi-skilled workers during the construction phase. Skills development and other training endeavours will also be offered to those working on site.
