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CONSTRUCTION WORLD JUNE 2016
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COMMENT
EDITOR & DEPUTY PUBLISHER
Wilhelm du Plessis
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Erna Oosthuizen
LAYOUT & DESIGN
Lesley Testa
CIRCULATION
Karen Smith
TOTAL CIRCULATION:
(First Quarter ’16)
4 734
PUBLISHER
Karen Grant
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY
Crown Publications cc
P O Box 140
BEDFORDVIEW, 2008
Tel: 27 11-622-4770 • Fax: 27 11-615-6108
The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher.
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Tandym Cape
@ConstWorldSA
Two reminders:
• Best Projects 2016 is now open for
entries. Please see the overview of
the awards and entry requirements
on page 12.
• Sustainable Construction Worldwill
be published in October. This will be
our second sustainable supplement.
Although green building is still
very much in its infancy in South
Africa, it is becoming vital. Support
this supplement with advertising
or editorial.
This is applicable in the African context where
infrastructure is so lacking. The wealth of
commodities that Africa possesses can often not
be transported to ports to, in turn, create wealth
for the countries of origin.
Sadly, there has now – following a drop in
commodity prices and China’s weaker demand
for Africa’s resources, been a slowdown in the
demand of even those commodities that can
be transported to ports.
It seems to be a vicious cycle and one
can only predict that there may now be even
less need to develop infrastructure networks.
This does not have to be the case.
The New Partnership for Africa’s Develop-
ment (Nepad) says that because of these reasons
(lower commodity prices and a cooldown in
China), African economies are slumping and
GDP growth stagnating in the continent’s
emerging markets.
In this issue there is an interview
with Bruce Morton, the executive
officer of Basil Read’s Roads Division.
He explains why this division is
increasingly becoming a transportation
division. For him, it is no longer about
a roads division building a product, in
isolation. It is about the bigger picture:
how roads form part of a country’s
infrastructure; how it can become part
of the national imperative.
Infrastructure will play a vital role in how African economies can diver-
sify its offering – to make them both competitive and less reliant on the
Far East. Pictured in the Kwale mineral sands export facility in Kenya.
Opportunity despite the slump
According to Nepad Business Foundation CEO,
Lynette Chen, stimulating the African continent’s
future economic growth will depend on how
quickly African countries can diversify what
they export – and so move away from reliance
on single-resource exportation.
Over and above this, there will have to be
an increase in inter-African trade. For this, a
vast improvement in the African transportation
infrastructure is needed – such as the east to
west and north to south routes that Morton
mentioned during the interview. A result of
the lack of adequate transportation is that the
cost of trading has remained high – this in
turn preventing potential African exports from
competing on global and even regional markets.
Wilhelm du Plessis
Editor