H&I Construction, which brought high court applications to review and set aside the controversial preferential procurement policy the South African National Roads Agency has now withdrawn, has defended the industry’s transformation achievements.
“We hope that for once and all, Treasury’s statement will alert organs of state that all awards done on the basis of using B-BBEE as a specific goal could be declared as irregular and aggrieved bidders thus will have a right to approach a competent court to have these tenders declared as such,” he said. Chemaly said H&I Construction actively supports and drives transformation because it believe it is what the country needs and it “is not up for debate”.
He highlighted that this is borne out by the Construction Sector Charter Council’s State of Transformation Report 2021.Chemaly believes the B-BBEE Act and the previous Sanral transformation policy have had the desired effect in the industry in that the number of large contractors with more than 50% black ownership has increased over the past nine years from 9% to 53%.
“This was WBHO’s court submission from the start of the litigation process and could, if adopted by Sanral at the commencement of this process, have prevented unnecessary delays in the roll out of infrastructure and legal costs.
Neff said WBHO’s commitment to transformation is evidenced by the fact that the company is majority black-owned, has a Level 1 B-BBEE recognition score, and is actively engaged in transforming the construction sector.