SEASON OF CONTRASTS It’s a time of year when exactly what we should be focusing on is not immediately apparent. We’re still stuck with the same preoccupations that we carried over from 2018 – none of them in any way inspiring. This year has brought little by way of solutions. But now we have begun […]
Hard-Hitting Master Builders South Africa Congress 2019 Sets The Scene for Re-construction Of The Construction Sector Emperor’s Palace, Johannesburg, 9 September 2019 In what is arguably the most robust construction-related events in recent history, the Master Builders South Africa Congress pulled no punches in presenting the dire state of the construction industry and trying to […]
Construction industry urged to recommit to Code of Good Practice to solve current challenges A group of construction industry stakeholders has urged the industry to return to basics in order to overcome its current challenges successfully. The call was made at a stakeholder meeting initiated by Master Builders Association North, as mandated by a recent […]
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 […]
UNITY AND FREEDOM When one considers the age of the various Master Builder South Africa (MBSA) member associations in South Africa (the oldest being Master Builders Association – Western Cape which clocked up 128 this year) we can be justifiably proud of an institution that has survived major economic and political fluctuations and remained the […]
Master Builders calls for urgent government intervention to save the Construction industry Master Builders South Africa is calling for urgent government intervention to prevent further destruction of the construction industry in the country. The call follows Group Five’s filing for bankruptcy protection last week, the fifth major construction company to do so in less than […]
BUILDING STRONG CHILDREN If you’re looking for predictions about where South Africa is going in 2019, you’re spoilt for choice. Mainstream and social media, as well as informal opinion platforms are full of experts happy to offload their views – many of them negative. It’s a doomsday theorist’s delight, and it can be very destructive. […]
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. […]