THE SYMPTOMS

EVERY CRISIS IS EXPRESSED THROUGH A SET OF SYMPTOMS. JUST LIKE AN ILLNESS. ADDRESSING THESE IS THE FIRST CRITICAL STEP TO ACHIEVING EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS.

On this project, the construction mafia and business community threatened to burn down the construction site for a mega-project in the port. They were tired of being promised opportunities they couldn’t access. A new policy promised 30% of large scale projects to be localised, and Freeport Saldanha was not in a position to give it away for free. The threat of violence and high levels of conflict and anxiety sent the organisation into a crisis.

Our challenge was to create and empower the community by localising a minimum of 30% construction contract that has been awarded to Civils2000.

The focus is a genuine opportunity to develop local SMME’s through the process and empower them with new knowledge and a responsibility to charter a productive relationship with the Freeport that ensures they deliver quality services, ensuring future opportunities and growth. The construction contract is a mechanism to achieve that.

There is an expectation locally that 30% of the work will be allocated to local SMME’s. However their were very real capacity constraints of the local SMME’s to perform this on a construction project of this nature that is highly specialised.

The challenge has four components, that are all interconnected. 

• Determining and agreeing the level of human development that will happen as part of the contract.
• As a result of the agreed approach, configuring the packages for subcontracting. 
• Agreeing on the process that needs to be followed to achieve the desired development outmodes, and putting in place accountability towards achieving this.
• The expectations and perceptions that have been developed during the course of the project by the local business community with regards to access the 30%, are not align with those of SIDZ in terms of sustainability and productivity.
• Agreement between the client, professional team and contractor about what the best approach is and what the objectives and key results are.

I supported the client and construction team to transform the crisis into a vision and come to a set of agreements about what they wanted as outcomes.

I worked with the client, business community, contractor and professional team to define what is possible in terms of opportunities for the local businesses to access and support the local business community to take full responsibility for deliver high quality services and long term partnership.

THE RESULT- ZERO STRIKE DAYS, NO INFRASTRUCTURE LOST AND 30% OF THE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT SUCCESSFULLY LOCALISED IN FAIR EXCHANGE FOR QUALITY SERVICES.