The building industry needs to be turned from a last-resort employer to a passionate career choice for the youth if the industry is to be sustainable in the current tough economic conditions.
This is according to Master Builders SA president John Matthews, who was speaking at the organisation’s annual congress, which started at the Boardwalk Hotel on Monday.
The two-day congress, uniting representatives from various construction-related sectors, was charged with finding solutions to the industry’s most pressing challenges.
For Matthews, this was providing training and development to people from a young age.
“We are constantly looking for quick fixes [as an industry]; we plan for the next year, but not the next 10 or 20 years,” Matthews said.
“We use the excuse that the construction industry is a last resort instead of the passion it should be, but we don’t nurture from the bottom up.
“[We must] create an interest in construction at primary school level, [for youth] to take it forward to the tertiary field.”
Matthews said the problem was not a lack of training opportunities, but lack of a cohesive approach to this training.
Property Sector Charter Council CEO Portia Tau-Sekati said it would be up to the industry itself to come up with a better approach.
“[Job creation] won’t happen by itself,” Tau-Sekati said.
“It is up to the private sector to create discussions around the variables [affecting investor confidence].
“Only new developments will bring new jobs and that is dictated by confidence.”
However, Federated Employers Mutual Assurance Company chair Nico Maas said a bigger issue would first need to be resolved.
“The reason [people are not investing] is no confidence, and until we get rid of fraud and corruption people won’t want to build,” Maas said.
“People also don’t want to work without getting paid.
“It won’t help students to qualify and work for a company, if that company goes under because they aren’t being paid [by clients].
“Payment is the crux of the matter at the moment.”
Matthews, who agreed with Maas, said the industry and its players needed to regain an element of trust.
“We aren’t doing the work we are supposed to be doing [to change the industry] because we are constantly watching our backs,” Matthews said.
He said foreign investments, while welcomed, needed to tie in to the advancement of the industry.
“It must be to the benefit of the people of SA, [otherwise it is] withdrawing capital and stealing jobs from our people.”