Plumbing Africa June 2019 | Page 3

FITTING THOUGHT 1 Will we ever get away from bribery and corruption? Not another political headline, when we have been bombarded by political campaigning for the months up to the national elections, you might be thinking? But perhaps it’s not as political as you think when you consider that bribery and corruption don’t only exist in politics. Ethical business in almost every sector is compromised by its own industry players on a regular basis. the world’s inhabitants, politics should never trump the needs of the people and nor should the use, or tolerance of sub-standard goods that are just increasingly saturating the market, bypassing the set measures in place to ensure a fair playing field. I suppose on the back of recent circumstances in South Africa, you take a closer look at the things you are involved in, and then you start to realise that the issues you find are like the proverbial elephant in the room — everyone knows they are there, but no one dares to look at them. This takes away from industry quality, creates a question bubble around the ‘plumbing industry and plumber’s reputation’ that we persistently hear about, and also eliminates any chances of local is lekker products having their opportunity in the country to have any hope of getting off the ground. Each industry contributes to the country as a whole and the next time you want to complain about the state of the economy, perhaps you need to take a look at your own contributions. I find it hard to understand the approach of certain businesses where there are persistent complaints about the ‘state of the industry’ or ‘poor trading conditions’, but should we not be asking ourselves what we are doing to either make or break what is happening? The business challenges of the industry are there because of what is accepted, and now considered ‘normal’. This, in its own way, is all about politics, volumes and money. Take procurement as a quick example. This is the most common place where ‘dodgy’ transactions take place — especially on larger scale projects — be it turning a blind eye to sub-standard products, kickbacks, irregularities in tenders, or driving labour prices below cost to take competitors out of play, with a full understanding of the consequences being executing poor quality in one or other form. At the end of the day it creates an uncompetitive environment, not to mention bringing the industry as a whole under scrutiny. Doing the right thing is not always easy and there are, of course, always various factors that play a part in every choice, but when it comes to the responsibility the plumbing industry has towards www.plumbingafrica.co.za In this issue our project is the Clinix G.M. Pitje Day Hospital and Pharmacy on page 38. Our feature looks at the affordable housing sector that accounts for roughly 75% of the construction industry currently on page 44. We are close to the wrap-up of our Rainwater Harvesting series on page 32. We profile Deon Nel — IOPSA Annual Award winner of plumber of the year — on page 50 and also talk to Robert Schoeman, who was awarded the IOPSA Annual Auditor of the year about how he is experiencing the industry on page 62. Your input is valuable to us so please get in touch with any queries, suggestion, compliments or complaints — we want to hear it all and we take what you have to say seriously. Enjoy your June issue of Plumbing Africa and as always, Happy Plumbing! Ben June 2019 Volume 25 I Number 4