The Civil Engineering Contractor April 2018 | Page 3

COMMENT A new yawn … erm, dawn? U "As some of our projects are taking time to get off the ground and to enhance our efforts, I will assemble a team to speed up implementation of new projects, particularly water projects, health facilities, and road maintenance." – Cyril Ramaphosa is encouraging, he notes that it would possibly be better served if maintenance of existing water and health facilities could be included here? According to the CEO of Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA), Chris Campbell, the body is encouraged by the impassioned call from President Ramaphosa for commitment to ethical behaviour and ethical leadership. In addition, CESA welcomes the intervention to decisively stabilise and revitalise state owned enterprises (SOEs) as well as those implicated in State Capture. I think he speaks for all of us here. There is no doubt that investor and business confidence have improved by leaps and bounds since Ramaphosa was first elected ANC president and then president of the Republic. He has come over as a thoughtful, thinking man who measures his words, deliberates before taking action, and balances the deathly tightrope walk between diplomacy and offence. Ramaphosa’s SONA speech ended with an emotive note, in which he pledged to bring change in South Africa, quoting late music icon Hugh Masekela’s “Thuma Mina” (Send Me): “I wanna be there when the people start to turn it around.” Indeed, so do we all, Mr President, so do we all. nn Kim Kemp - editor [email protected] nder the bleedership of Jacob Zuma, South Africa has come as close to utter collapse as any African country could come, teetering on the brink of being yet another failed African nation. Hanging on to the last vestiges of what could vaguely be termed an economy, a country whose lifeblood was drained by a vampiric collusion between state and the Guptas, South Africa has barely had a pulse these past few years. The economy has nosedived and, caught in the slipstream, the currency went into a tailspin as investors leapt off the sinking ship and the private sector refused to part with its money. By the time Cyril Ramaphosa was elected ANC president in December last year, our currency had slumped to R14.14 to the US dollar. However, even before he was crowned the winner, expectations that he would win the race pushed the rand to 12.52 per dollar, its firmest level since 27 March 2017 and now, at the time of writing (early March), it is sitting at R11.55 per one US dollar. Is this U-turn all we hoped for or, as some cynic stated: “Same bus, different driver”? In his SONA address, President Ramaphosa stated that infrastructure investment is key to grow the economy, create jobs, empower small businesses, and provide services to South Africans — drawing accolades from the infra sector. The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE), for instance, applauded and welcomed his inaugural address as, according to the institution, the president appears to understand the importance of infrastructure and the role that civil engineering and construction play in advancing socio-economic growth in South Africa. To quote directly from the President’s address: “As some of our projects are taking time to get off the ground and to enhance our efforts, I will assemble a team to speed up implementation of new projects, particularly water projects, health facilities, and road maintenance. We have learnt some valuable lessons from our experience in building all the new infrastructure, which will inform our way ahead.” Manglin Pillay, CEO of SAICE, points out, however, that while the establishment of an infrastructure investment team Jazz legend Hugh Masekela’s “Thuma Mina” (Send Me) song inspired new SA president, Cyril Ramaphosa, to encourage South Africans to be part of change in the country. CEC April 2018 - 1