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Women in Construction
T he prestigious event took place at Gallagher Convention Centre and was hosted by the City of Joburg – alongside NHBRC as a gold sponsor , CETA , SEDA Construction Incubator and The City of Cape Town ’ s Transport Authority , as the bronze sponsors of the event . Over 300 guests from the construction , cement and concrete industry applauded the finalists and celebrated the various winners of the 2016 Women in Construction Awards .
The Women in Construction Awards evolved through a need to recognize and celebrate the role of women in the construction , cement and concrete industry . The awards , which comprise of both individual and organisational categories , acknowledge the increasing importance of women in the industry . The call for nominations for the Women in Construction Awards resulted in 37 nominations . A panel of judges – which consisted of 19 global industry experts – identified five individual finalists , representative of three African countries and six organisational finalists . The organisational awards acknowledged organisations which have stepped up and developed women ’ s roles through innovative training programmes as well showing their commitment to developing the careers of women in the industry .
Exposed : Levitt ’ s kickback racket
A daming forensic report about financial wrongdoing at controversial Auction Alliance ( AA ) has implicated a string of auctioneers , liquidators , attorneys , bank officials and prominent individuals in hundreds of millions of rand of secret commission payments .
Although some similar transactions have been reported in the past , the forensic report , a copy of which Business Day has in is possession , shows how they were only the tip of the iceberg involving financial wrongdoing at the firm .
Auction Alliance and its founder and MD Rael Levitt brought an urgent interdict in the High Court in Johannesburg last night to prevent Business Day from publishing the report ’ s contents .
However , Judge Lotter Wepener turned down the application , with costs . The report is the product of a forensic investigation that was carried out by auditor Allan Greyling in 2012 , ironically at the behest of the board of Auction Alliance . The report claims that hefty commissions were paid to counterparties that may have encouraged early foreclosures in order to facilitate auction business .
Retail Cannibalisation
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etail cannibalisation is a growing reality in South Africa and , until now , it has been all too easy to place the blame for this squarely at the feet of shopping centre developers .
However , on closer inspection , Marius Muller , chief executive of leading shopping centre investor Pareto , believes this retail cannibalisation is largely being driven by retailers themselves .
Muller shared his views on the controversial issue at the South African Council of Shopping Centres annual research conference , held in Sandton recently . He was joined by Maurice de Villiers of Woolworths and Craig Coetzee of Spar in a panel discussion on retail cannibalisation moderated by executive director at MSCI , Phil Barttram . Cannibalisation refers to a situation where a retailer opens a new store location close to an existing store . When this happens , the existing store loses customers to the new store . Retailers are usually willing to take the risk of cannibalisation if they believe the new store will also attract new customers that do not currently shop at the retailer , boosting combined sales . However , this isn ’ t always the result .
“ Retail value is being eroded by retailers chasing the top line at the expense of defending what they already have ,” says Muller .
6 JUNE 2016 SA Real Estate Investor www . reimag . co . za