Cape Town - Construction businesses have decried the exploitation of the civil construction industry by unqualified, unskilled and “greedy” contractors who leave shoddy infrastructure projects in their wake.
Industry player Petronella Phakula’s petition is gaining traction on the petitions page change.org.
In October, the SA National Roads Agency said there were 25 million potholes in the country’s road network, largely owing to poor performance and maintenance.
Phakula said the civil construction environment was littered with exploitation by “unqualified, unskilled and greedy” contractors.
“This petition is directed at the taxpayer who wants to see improvements in their societies, the general citizen who wants to see actual improvements and have their needs met, and the civil engineering consultants who are tired of dealing with contractors that have zero knowledge of the work they are doing,” Phakula’s petition said.
The petition, which was started on Friday, has since attracted more than 9 700 signatures in one day. Phakula undertook to take the petition to Parliament once obtaining enough signatures.
Eastern Cape Black Contractors Forum Sikhumbule Mqombothi said he agreed that a number of contractors provided substandard work, but added that it happened for a number of reasons, including gaps in regulations and pricing.
He said competition among contractors was so intense that the prices of today were still equal to 2010 ones, while the cost of bread and mortgage rates had almost doubled since then.
He said this was to the contractors’ detriment.
“In most instances, the employer will identify the financial risk communicated to the employer by the government… but they will affirm the offer, and the problems will start when they get to to site,” Mqombothi said.
“The second possibility is collusion between the contractors and the engineer, where one of the two reduce the scope of work, or the engineer allows the contractors to do shoddy work.”
He said there were discussions to better regulate the industry, including the publication of rates for digging and concrete, in the same way that engineers and architects were managed.