Housing in Southern Africa March 2016

Housing

A comprehensivemanual outlin- ing the guidelines was recently released. The revisions to the guidelines were made in conjunc- tion with the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). Speaking at the launch, NHBRC Special Projects advisor Dr Jeffrey Mahachi said the revisions to the guidelines had been a long time coming. “More than 15 years after the original guidelines were released, we embarked on a process of putting to- gether a new manual to address cur- rent challenges in the sector,” he said. “The development of the manual involved various stakeholders across the South African construction sector and we are highly satisfied with the final document.” Mahachi explained that the new The National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) launched a series of building guidelines that are set to make a significant impact on the way the local construction sector operates. New SA construction guidelines

standards to ensure effective quality assurance in the built industry. “One of the things that this will help us to do is get into international markets and lock out sub-standard products from the South African market,” he said. Other key issues that the guide- lines address include the SANS 10400 Standards for material, energy effi- ciency, newtechnology for inspection of houses, and soil classification. In his address at the launch event, NHBRC Chairperson Abbey Chikane encouraged the builders and hous- ing consumers to continue to engage with the council. “We will continue to educate the built industry through various pub- lications such as the ones that are launched today,” he said. A number of technical publica- tions, which were developed by the NHBRC’s Centre for Research and Housing Innovation, were also launched. These include: Eric Molobi Housing Innovation; Housing Con- sumer Brochure; Home Builders Bro- chure; Energy Efficiency Guidelines; Promoting Innovative Building Tech- nologies NHBRC: Here to Help You, cartoon booklet; Housing Typologies for Disabled Persons. The NHBRC also offers services such as enrolment of new homes, home builder registration, home building inspections, builder train- ing, geotechnical and materials engineering. In 2015/16 financial year the NHBRC has trained 827 youth, 187 artisans, 81military veterans and 1 857 emerging home builders. Of this total women make up 64% (i.e. 530) of the youth, 44% (i.e. 36) of military veterans and 44% (i.e. 821) of the emerging home builders. For more information: www.nhbrc.org.za ■

Dr Jeffrey Mahachi

manual would address a number of issues that had become concerns for the NHBRC and the industry as a whole. “Our mandate is to assure quality homes,” he said. “The new guidelines address issues such as the standards of building materials, the rules gov- erning new building technologies, training and development, andmany others.” A representative from the SABS, Dr Sadhvir Bissoon said that themanual was an important first step in estab- lishing and implementing national

March 2016