DREAMS AND REALITY What could be better than a cheque handed over, on time, at the end of a completed contract? Possibly the prospect of work for the next few decades on a mega-billion rand project that would most definitely take its place in the history books – one way or another. Both seemed to […]
It’s been a waiting game, these past few months, and the opera ain’t over yet. Most of the waiting has been for results that would largely be out of our control, both as individuals and as industries that rely on positive conditions in our economic environment so we can do our best work. First we […]
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SILVER LINING? The term ‘life can turn on a tickey’ was never more appropriate, as South Africans, in a matter of a week, saw what they believed was a bit of a silver lining in the dark economic clouds, become a load-shedding nightmare that once again threatens to plunge us into […]
ACCOUNTABILITY It’s little wonder that South Africans are inclined to duck below the parapet as daily new disclosures of this corruption or that deception fly around the media doing untold harm to our country’s reputation. Seemingly without there being any real punishment for the perpetrators. But suddenly, somewhere in this endless inventory of misery we […]
CONTEMPLATING THE CLOUDY CRYSTAL BALL My natural optimism may not have been immediately evident as we started our blockbuster 113th Master Builders South Africa (MBSA) Congress in Port Elizabeth, but it’s my belief that there is a distinct difference between gloomy pessimism, and a good hard airing of the facts, however unpalatable, with the object […]
INTERESTING TIMES August started out with Zimbabweans demonstrating in the streets of Harare because they reckoned the results of their general election had been rigged. There were threats of making the country ungovernable. South Africa kicked off Women’s Month with mass marches intended to shut down the economy – even if just for a day. […]
Could discontent’s winter get any colder? As a first order of business I must pay respects to my predecessor, Bafikile Bonke Simelane, not only for the highly professional way in which he conducted his presidency of Master Builders South Africa, but also for his very erudite and informed monthly Comment in our magazine. The building […]