Zululand Regional Round Up - July 2010

Safety audits, safety audits, and more safety audits, is what has kept the Zululand regional office busy in July 2010. As many already know, the Association takes Occupational Health and Safety extremely seriously. Albeit that construction is an inherently dangerous industry, on site deaths and disability in the majority of cases can and should be prevented. One of the criteria for membership of the Association is that members have to be pass a safety audit, and once again, it has been a pleasure to see how compliant our members are and how in most cases it has proven to be a mere formality. 

It is evident that the aggressive marketing campaign that the Association has embarked upon over the last 18 months is paying off nicely. Walk-in’s, people coming in off the street enquiring about membership has increased dramatically. The same is applicable to the telephone; the number of telephonic enquiries have also risen substantially.

We have been enormously busy trying to obtain Find-a- Builder information from members in order to populate their respective web pages for them. Find a Builder is an excellent initiative which essentially amounts to free advertising using a system that has proven itself effective. It is somewhat surprising that with many complaining about how slow the industry is, that we have to chase members for company profiles. One would think that the data would come flooding in, especially considering the successes we are achieving with it.

Without giving away too much information just yet, I have been giving some thought to two proposals which are still very much in their infancy and require approval. One is a Zululand community project involving an orphanage, the other involves training relating to plumbing accreditation. 

To end with I would like to encourage our Zululand members to pull together for a good cause and support the Associations rampathon initiative. Through this project we aim to build a number of wheelchair access ramps across KwaZulu-Natal, for families and communities that normally wouldn’t be able to afford them. This is a great opportunity for us all to make a difference and as far volunteers go, let’s have our Zululand members set the early pace.

Paula Ferraris | Zululand Regional Manager