Lack of access to finance, poor business management and a dearth of skills are some of the challenges women face in the construction sector, Minister of Public Works Thoko Didiza said on Monday.
Didiza was addressing the start of a two-day conference aimed at levelling the playing field for women in the construction sector, which annually contributes about R60-billion to the country’s gross domestic product.
”You already start to lose [money] before you gain,” said Didiza to murmurs of approval, explaining how women sometimes spent much-needed capital to draw up proper business plans.
She said another challenge women face is being able to deliver projects in record time, failing to address contingency measures in the event of arbitrary occurrences, such as poor weather.
Didiza encouraged participants to seize the day as the country experiences an upward trend in the construction sector.
”The construction industry is critical to reconstruction and development,” said Didiza.
Last month government and the sector committed themselves to an empowerment charter that, among others, aims to bring more women into the industry.
Marius Fransman, provincial minister for public works for the Western Cape, said about R112-million had been set aside for targeted disbursement to women in construction businesses.
He said his department wants 25% of all road-maintenance contracts, worth R60 million, to be awarded to women, with at least 10% of road construction contracts (R40-million) also earmarked.
In a bid to address skills shortages, Fransman said his ministry will award 250 bursaries to female students over the next three years to ameliorate shortages of engineers, architects and other construction-related professionals in the region.
He said government particularly wanted to increase the monetary value women in the industry have access to, which at a superficial level looks rosy enough.
Using two-year old figures, Fransman said R600-million was available in the roads-infrastructure programme. There were 145 companies registered of which about 42 were partly or wholly owned by women.
However, these women-owned companies only had 4% of the work, or 4% of R600 million.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said 17 000 jobs were created between 2004 (127 000) and 2005 (144 000 jobs) and predicted that the construction sector could top the 200 000 mark by 2010.
Rasool said women needed to be boosted during this time of sustainable economic growth.
”We can’t have a gradual evolution given the current boom … [or] we will by missing the climax of this boom,” said Rasool.
Concurring with Didiza, Rasool said it is important that women are given the necessary support and mentorship.
Using a construction metaphor, Rasool said they didn’t want to ”send somebody high on the building without the scaffolding”. — Sapa