As you are aware we are commencing with the refurbishment of our Head Office in Westville and have appointed a Contractor who will be commencing with the works on Monday, 7 December.  The Association has resolved to use this construction work as a platform to provide certain skills transfer and enterprise development opportunities.  The idea is that one or more so called Emerging Members will be provided the opportunity to team up with the main contractor with a view to observing and learning about certain aspects of the contract.  The Association will be paying the Contractor to create this opportunity and the Emerging Member/s will need to commit themselves with the appropriate time to take advantage of this opportunity.

"Emerging" a general term which is used to broadly describe contractors or enterprises who come from historically disadvantaged backgrounds and are growing and developing in order to increase their capacity to perform contracting work.

The opportunities that will be provided will probably include:

Master Builders South Africa recently embarked upon a payment quality survey, and has for our benefit, submitted a detailed report with respect to the findings.

The survey which included members of Master Builders KwaZulu-Natal, was prompted by several indicating factors that contractors, suppliers and industry role players are, with more frequency, experiencing late payment and non-payment. This impacts directly on cash-flow, leaving many contractors unable to meet their financial obligations.

In the introduction to the report, MBSA make reference to the following two pieces of information, which inspired them to address the matter:

Firstly......

A snippet which featured in the March 2009 edition of SA Building:

"When market conditions change and become more challenging, bad practice rears its head. Clients at times through their Agents, will cause progress payments to be delayed to 60 days and beyond. More and more main contractors are subjecting their subcontractors to the same treatment - at times this even happens between Association Members! The public sector too has been sited as poor payers, particularly when it nears financial year end.

You've heard all this talk about saving electricity and using the sun's rays to heat water, of course.

Well along comes this guy with the yellow umbrella and he claims that his insurance company is one of the main players in the solar game.

Get the connection?  Neither did I, at first.

Turns out that in SA we have about 120 000 geysers (or Hot Water Cylinders as some Capetonians call them) which pack up every year.  When I say 'pack up', that doesn't fully describe the huge damage which a lot of them cause when they develop holes and then spew hot water all over your ceiling.  Think of that geyser in Yellowstone National Park in Obamaland and you'll get the picture.
Once the ceiling is truly wet, it collapses, and that's when the fun starts.  Everything beneath, including your new laptop, dancing shoes, and leather jacket will take an unscheduled shower.
Not nice.  Big mess, big hassle. Lots of time and paperwork to get your insurance company to pay.
Workmen banging around for days while at night you try to catch some sleep on the low couch in the TV room, wondering whether that new colour you chose for the carpet will match your replacement jacket.

The following article was published in "Concrete Trends" (Official Journal of the Cement and Concrete Institute) VOL 12 No4 November 2009 edition. We thank Concrete Trends and the Cement and Concrete Institute for allowing us to republish it.

It's not easy to sum up an enormous, complex project such as Gautrain, the largest rail project currently under construction in the world. Work is forging ahead over the 80-km length of eventual rail tracks, involving 15 km of tunnels, 11 km of viaducts and bridges and 10 stations. Pervading every activity site is an air of pride as the various sections start to take shape. But nowhere, says Lauren Lonsdale, is pride and enthusiasm more apparent than when talking to the 'concrete men'! Cyril Attwell, chief concrete technologist and research scientist for main contractor, Bombela Civils Joint Venture (BCJV), has applied his synergy philosophy to the fly ash concrete designs and achieved remarkable results. "We are fortunate to have some of the best fly ash in the world," says Attwell, "Not only that, I believe South Africa can show the rest of the world a thing or two about concrete technology."

Gautrain will change the face of Johannesburg and, in keeping with this, the parameters for the concrete work embraced a durability specification of a 100-year lifespan. The project will require in the region of 800 000 m³ of concrete and 116 000 m³ of grouts. BCJV are using DuraPozz®, the classified fly ash from Ash Resources, in virtually all of its mix designs.

The Association is aware that a number of Members are in the habit of entering into contracts based purely on an offer (a quotation for carrying out the work) and an acceptance of that offer by the customer.

There is no doubt that this offer and acceptance procedure leads to a perfectly legally binding agreement.

But what if a dispute arises during the course of the contract or, invariably, towards the very end of the contract?

The customer, for some reason, is not satisfied with the work and refuses to pay the last installment due.

The Member refuses to complete the last portion of the work because he has not been paid, or he fears that, even if he completes the work satisfactorily, he will never receive his money.

Sometimes the dispute grows to the point where the customer refuses to allow the Member back on site.

The Eastern Cape High Court in Grahamstown recently added its voice in support of KZN High Court judgments which have upheld the demand nature of the JBCC construction guarantee.
The Facts

AB Construction concluded a standard JBCC building contract in connection with the construction of a residential development known as Furstenburg Grand at the Nahoon Mouth in East London.

In compliance with its obligations in terms of clause 14 of the JBCC agreement, AB Construction arranged for Constantia Insurance Company to provide the requisite construction guarantee in favour of Toasty Trading, the employer under the agreement.

During the course of the contract various disputes arose between AB Construction and Toasty Trading which resulted in Toasty Trading, after issuing an appropriate breach notice, cancelling the agreement.

AB Construction countered by saying that the cancellation by Toasty Trading of the agreement was invalid because Toasty Trading itself had been in breach of the contract pursuant to which AB Construction had issued its own breach notice to Toasty Trading.

Master Builders KwaZulu-Natal held its annual golf day at the Durban Country Club on Tuesday 24 November 2009. The course was in immaculate condition, following the recent rain and we managed to field 108 players. The event is in fact becoming so popular that it was oversubscribed a few weeks before the closing date.

Aside from being a fun and relaxing day out of the office, events like the Master Builders Durban Golf day are intended to facilitate interaction amongst Members, as well as between Members and the Association. Judging by the feedback that we received on the day and following the event, these objectives seem to have been met.

The winning team, with a score of 85 points, was the Pietermaritzburg-based team Shospec. They walked away with a GPS unit each and will have the privilege of having their company name on the Master Builders Cup, which has a long line of winners going back over 75 years.

We would like to thank our Gold Marketing Partners, who contributed to the success of the day. By all accounts, this was a unique and successful marketing opportunity for all of them and we look forward to welcoming them back next year. We would also like to thank our Silver Marketing Partners who sponsored prizes for the event (you will find their logos in the web album above). The Gold Marketing Partners were:

1. RMD Kwikform
2. Wiehahn
3. Builders Trade Depot
4. Shospec

We would like to build on the success of this Golf Day for next year and already have some exciting ideas. If you would like to participate in this event next year, or any one of our other regional golf days, keep an eye on the events calendar on Masterbuilders.co.za.