SA Affordable Housing January - February 2020 // ISSUE: 80 | Page 7

NEWS
Building Rolle village one brick at a time
S
hamila Trading Enterprises, located in Rolle village,
Thulamahashe district, Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga
was recently awarded product certification by the
South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) for its brick
making products. Thulamahashe was identified by provincial
government as an area that required infrastructure and that
construction resources should be sourced from local
communities. The company realised the potential and began
to significantly invest in developing the business to meet the
demand of developments in the area.
“The path towards achieving product certification has not
been easy, however the benefits have been rewarding and has
set us apart from other brick making companies. As a business
owner to really participate in economic opportunities you
need product certification. The SABS certificate provides
assurance to our clients that our products meet quality
standards and that the required management systems are in
place,” says Shadow Nyathi, founder and CEO of Shamila
Trading Enterprises.
Nyathi has grown his business in the last two years from
one employee making a few bricks for community use, to
employing 56 employees currently. The majority (41) of
employees are residents of Rolle village. “Rolle village is
where I grew up, the premises of my business is where my
grandmother lived and seeing Shamila flourish is a dream
come true for me and my community. Job creation, the ability
to learn skills and participate in the development
opportunities in our neighbourhood provides tangible hope
for my community for a brighter future,” says Nyathi.
Shamila Trading Enterprises is one of 29 small, medium and
micro enterprises (SMMEs) in Mpumalanga that were identified
and selected for business development, as an initiative of the
Mpumalanga provincial government to enable and empower
small businesses in the construction sector. The programme
was conceptualised and funded by the provincial Department
The team that was responsible for developing Shamila Trading
Enterprise to attaining SABS product certification for SANS 1215
concrete masonry units and SANS 1058 concrete paving blocks.
From left: Surendran Naidoo, SABS – SMME development officer;
Solly Mhaule, DEDT – deputy director: Enterprise Development;
Shadow Nyathi, founder and CEO of Shamila Trading Enterprises;
Dumisani Mngadi, SABS – head of SMME department; and Jeff
Velelo, MEGA – senior manager: Funding.
of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDT) and the
Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA). SABS was the
implementation partner that worked with the SMMEs to
develop quality management systems, processes and guide
the way towards product certification.
“Partnerships with provincial governments and
organisations like DEDT and MEGA are proving successful to
developing a sustainable local supplier base for quality
products. Without the significant development of SMMEs,
they will continue to remain on the side-lines of economic
opportunities. Such partnerships move beyond the
development of SMMEs for development sake by creating real
market participation opportunities, so that local businesses
and the communities they serve begin to thrive,” says Garth
Strachan, Acting CEO of SABS.
K46 completion will start in March 2020
T
he whole of Diepsloot remains without a paved access
road two years after the contractor went into business
rescue. A new tender to finally complete the K46 stretch
of road was finally advertised on 18 October, according to the
Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport (GDRT).
The K46, a stretch of road between William Nicol Drive and
the N14, was originally meant to be completed in 2017, and
GDRT now hopes that work will be completed by late 2021. The
stretch of road, which runs from William Nicol Drive to the N14
highway near the Diepsloot area, has seen endless problems
since work began in 2015. It was meant to be completed by
construction company Lubbe Construction in September 2017,
and the contract with that company to complete the work was
extended twice before GDRT decided to blacklist Lubbe.
www.saaffordablehousing.co.za
The tender process for the project had to be restarted to
find a company able to complete the road but was
reportedly delayed by inter-departmental red tape. The
construction tender was finally only advertised on 18
October on the tender bulletin. The procurement
processes are expected to be finalised by the end of
January 2020, with construction expected to commence in
March 2020.
Construction will take about 20 months, meaning that
the road will be done by November 2021. Officials from
the GDRT had been under investigation for their alleged
failure to manage the project properly, and at the time of
writing the disciplinary process was still in process and
anticipated to be completed at the end of last year.
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