23 Jan 2025

 Quality infrastructure development is the bedrock of a thriving economy, as such youth in construction must strive to deliver quality projects and on time, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Mr Thapelo Leareng has said.

Speaking during a two-day workshop organised for youth who own construction companies in Goodhope on Wednesday, he implored the youth to deliver quality work when entrusted with government projects to create impressive records of accomplishment for their companies.

He said they faced challenges of youth who either abandoned government projects or delivered them late. Therefore, he encouraged youth to tirelessly work to deliver projects timely, which he noted would create opportunities for them.

He also said for them to thrive in the construction sector, forming collaborations and formidable partnerships to make use of varied skills competencies would enable them to effectively deliver projects on time.

Furthermore, he said they had noticed that some of the youth awarded government construction tenders tended to spend the money on what was not intended for as such he encouraged them to exercise financial prudence at all time.

He said government was committed to empowering youth during tendering processes by ensuring that regulations were in place to cover them to enable them to gain opportunities.

He also encouraged youth to refrain from embarking on corrupt practices, which might taint their reputations, adding that they must strive for their companies to be appointed on merit, and not bribe officers to favour them during a tendering process.

The workshop empowered youth with skills on project planning, compliance and management, laws of contract and regulations, procurement and tendering, negotiation and communication skills.

Goodhope District Commissioner, Mr Rapetse Mathumo said government was resolute on creating employment opportunities.

He thus appreciated the ministry for bringing young people in construction together to drill them on tendering process adding that it was a concern that goods and services sold to government were exorbitantly overpriced, which dwindled government coffers.

“We must deal with this issue to ensure that the pricing is reasonable and in line with market pricing,” he said.

He encouraged youth to manage companies well, manage their finances, and be present at their businesses to ensure success and sustainability of their projects.

Youth focal person in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Principal Projects Officer, Ms Edith Madimabe said it was critical to drill the youth who owned construction companies on all construction business areas to arm them with the necessary knowledge to be able to penetrate the construction sector.

She said the ministry had noticed compliance challenges amongst youth who owned construction companies as such they sought to facilitate them with relevant knowledge.

She said they advocated for youth to be allocated construction projects through affirmative action but youth in turn did not capitalise on the opportunity, but ended up abandoning such projects, mismanaged finances and failed to deliver projects on time.

In an interview on the sidelines of the workshop, youth in construction in Goodhope, Mr Onthusitse Olesitse said their main challenge was poor company management workmanship, pricing and lack of compliance to standard requirements as youth.

“Our problem is that we take short cuts by giving sub contracts to those who are not from the district which impedes our growth in the industry,” he said.

Further, he called for tendering regulations to be revised for the youth during tendering stage as they were financially challenged in terms of requirements as they used more money during applications for tenders that required use of heavy plant machinery.

“In reality, we spend more money on leasing a grader, which is requirement for some works. The regulation should be changed so that the winning contractor should be the one required to provide such rather those in the tendering process,” he said. ENDS