Five goes into one
POLICYMAKERS
Ngage Media Zone
The overall winner for the Infrastructure Category in the 2017 Fulton Awards was the Mount Edgecombe Interchange, submitted by SMEC South Africa as Principal Agent for the client, the South African National Roads Agency( SOC) Limited( Sanral). The Fulton Awards are awarded by CSSA.
Five goes into one
Five concrete and cement industry bodies aim to combine into one for greater efficiency and a single voice.
By the time this magazine is in readers’ hands, the current representative organisations of the concrete and cement industries may be well on the way to becoming a single body. Speaking on behalf of one of the five, CEO and director of the Concrete Society of Southern Africa, John Sheath, explains the motivation for the move:“ Whereas industries such as timber and steel have a single industry body and have a single voice to talk to government and promote itself to industry, concrete and cement to date have not had that one monolithic identity.
“ There’ s no question that it will happen— all the major role players have agreed. Therefore, it is simply the mechanics of bringing everything together, to which end we have several working committees on the various aspects. This is not a‘ merger’ in the sense of combining five different organisations; the aim is to have one brand new organisation performing everything and more, that the five currently do,” says Sheath.
The five organisations are:
• The Concrete Society of Southern Africa( CSSA)
• The Concrete Institute( TCI)
• The Southern African Readymix Association( SARMA)
• Concrete Manufacturers Association( CMA)
• Association of Cementitious Materials Producers( ACMP)
The major stakeholders in these organisations are the six cement manufacturers: AfriSam, PPC, Lafarge, NPC, Sephaku / Dangote and a relative newcomer, Mamba. These companies are keen to reduce their corporate costs.“ All these companies tend to be approached by each of the concreterelated industry bodies for sponsorships, advertising support( as some of the bodies also have their own publications), and to become members. This is a result of considerable overlap between the concrete organisations,” says Sheath.
Discussions started in earnest in October last year, having been mooted over the past four or five years, though nothing practical came of it, says Sheath.“ What is giving current impetus to the process is the tight economic conditions. All companies are looking to save every cost they can, and these include corporate memberships. However, it is about much more than costs. A single representative body will be far more efficient, a much stronger organisation mandated to speak on behalf of the industry with a single voice. Everything will be aligned, which will greatly assist in the focused marketing of concrete and cement.
“ In addition, it will be able to provide its( expanded) membership with a comprehensive range of services through one organisation, and also consolidate important aspects such as government liaison and technical research,” Sheath continued.
4- CEC September 2018