Construction World July 2018

MARKETPLACE

Confidence levels POSITIVE FOR 2018 despite slowdown The results of Consulting Engineers South Africa's (CESA) Bi-annual Economic and Capacity Survey for the period June to December 2017 recently released indicate that expectations relating to industry confidence levels for the first six months of 2018 are still positive, increasing in the last six months of this year.

CESA CEO, Chris Campbell.

T his despite the slowdown in investment by Government and general economic conditions not facilitating growth in the sector with investment by government showing the biggest decline in 2017 since the financial crisis of 2009/2010. 2018 got off to a relatively good start, with economists and market analysts hailing the win by Cyril Ramaphosa in the ANC’s December elective conference, as well as the eventual resignation of ex-president Jacob Zuma boosting industry confidence indexes in the short term.

“In the December 2015 survey, industry confidence levels fell to their lowest level in 16 years. Since then there has been good improvement with the net satisfaction rate improving to 96,3 percent in the first six months of 2017 and falling significantly to 54,4 percent in the December 2017 survey but are positive for 2018 rising to 92,6 for the last six months of the year. This is despite employment in the indus- try decreasing by an average of 12 percent in the last six months of 2017, one of the biggest declines since the inception of the

survey,” states CESA CEO Chris Campbell. Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) fell by 3,9 percent in December of 2017, the third consecutive contraction, following contrac- tions of 2,1 percent and 3,9 percent in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2017 respectively. Investment was negatively affected by a slowdown in government investment, as well as general economic conditions not facilitating growth in the sector, although an increase in confidence to some degree. Investment by general government saw the biggest decline in 2017, with a contraction

Strengthening Gauteng Built Environment team Recognising the increasing pressure on the built environment from growing populations and development in African countries, global engineering and infrastructure advisory company Aurecon has appointed Kolosa Madikizela as its Unit Leader for the Built Environment in Gauteng.

Madikizela has built her 14-year career in the construction, property development and engineering sectors at organisations such as Bigen Africa, Aveng Group, and Nexus Facilities Management Company, as well as Life Healthcare and Shell South Africa in facilities management. Her most recent role was as the Man- aging Director at Pragma, an engineering organisation specialising in physical asset management. “African skylines are going through a period of unprecedented change. Growing populations and digital disruptions are changing how people live, work and play, and I look forward to pursuing ways to grow the Built Environment Unit and take on more work in Africa,” says Madikizela. Ferdi Nell, Aurecon Managing Director Africa, says that the company’s built environment capabilities are funda- mental to the successful execution of its business strategy and Madikizela’s appointment is key to achieving the com- pany’s business goals.

“I am delighted to welcome Kolosa Madiki- zela to lead our Built Environment Unit. She will play a key role in bringing together the right people to make sure that we deliver world-class buildings to our clients, as well as use innovation and emerging technol- ogies that will create future-ready African environments,” says Nell. Aurecon is working on some of the most significant buildings across the property, health, education, manufacturing and infra- structure sectors in Africa. These include some of the largest and greenest commercial office buildings in South Africa, such as Aurecon’s Tshwane office at the Lynnwood Bridge Office Park, “The Towers” in Cape Town, and Atrium on 5 th in Johannesburg. She serves as an industry expert on the advisory board for the Built Environment at the University of Cape Town’s department of Construction Economics and Manage- ment. Previously, Madikizela was an external supervisor to Masters students in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the

Cape Peninsula University of Technolo- gy (CPUT) and a Guest Lecturer at the Department of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying. She served on the industry advisory boards for Industrial Engineering at CPUT and Stellenbosch University. Madikizela has contributed many articles to the African Facilities Manage- ment online website (AFM online) and she is a freelance talk show host at Cape Talk radio station where she covers a wide range of topics from engineering innovation, gender equality and transfor- mation to lifestyle, property development and politics. 

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD JULY 2018