Gauteng Housing launches Women Empowerment Programme

The Gauteng Provincial Government has, since 1994, placed women high on its agenda. Today, there is evidence that as a result of our efforts working together with women themselves, Gauteng has indeed become a better place for women to live than it was a decade ago.

At the same time, the provincial government through its interaction with the people of Gauteng and women in particular, is very conscious of the key challenges that we continue to face in improving the conditions of women. Many of these challenges are addressed in the provincial government's five year programme that the Premier released in June last year. We believe that this five year programme will go a long way in empowering women in our province.

On this last day of what has been an exciting Women's Month, I am happy to announce yet another groundbreaking Women Empowerment Programme that will see the empowerment of women gathering momentum.

We have identified the gap that exist in the construction industry between male owned and women owned companies and thus embarked on taking steps to uplift and aid women in construction. In the last financial year a strategy was developed to assist these women owned companies by engaging them in various construction projects through partnering them with male owned companies that already had skills and knowledge of the industry by enforcing sub-contract agreements on the projects.

In 2004 the Department of Housing set specific targets aimed at empowering people from the disadvantaged groups. In terms of the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) we are planning to give 70% of opportunities to BEE companies. The breakdown in terms of historical disadvantage groups is as follows: Women = 30%, Young People = 5%, People with disabilities = 5% and Local = 40%.

The Department has deliberately increased the 10% national target for women in housing to 30% because we believe that it is possible to achieve this 30% and even more, because where there is a will, there is a way.

We have established a data base that has women companies and we use that from time to time to give them opportunities not only just participation but we look at ownership and encourage women to form co-operatives that will tender for work within the Department.

Between the periods of 01 April 2004 to 31 March 2005 the Department of Housing gave contracts to the value of R99 million rand to women owned companies. In the last financial year 2005/6 we have spent approximately R60 million on women contractors.

The Department has also taken a decision that in all our tenders women will be given opportunities and will be partnered with other developed companies.

In taking this commitment forward the Department has identified ten (10) Women construction companies that have been allocated work to the value of R200 million over a period of three years and support systems will be provided for mentoring and coaching through our professional teams.

These women owned construction companies have been allocated a project in each municipality. This is to ensure that there is fair distribution of growth and development across the regions of Gauteng . It is expected that at the end of the next three years these companies should be able to compete in their own right with established developers.

In terms of the selection criteria, we considered amongst other things project previously or currently being implemented by each developer, skills and experience required and general qualifications. One of the consideration was to verify whether they are registered with construction bodies such as Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) and the National Housing and Building Registration Council (NHBRC).

The Department has therefore resolved to give support the selected women companies as follows:

• Projects have been identified specifically for these women companies only.
• Cessions for material supply, plant and equipment will be offered and signed by the department.
• Facilitate skills development through human resources development unit, by seconding recent graduates with relevant skills in construction to form part of each company per project. (e.g. quantity surveying, civil engineering, building science, health and safety officers, architecture, land surveying and town planning).

Clearly, housing delivery will never be the same in this country. The predominantly male-dominated construction industry is heading for a dramatic facelift as a result of numerous progressive initiatives by women's organizations as well as government.

There is no better way in which women advancement in the industry can be pursued and promoted other than through such initiatives. These initiatives are nothing but a clear indication of the government and private sector's commitment to the total economic liberation of women in our society.

Such interventions are an affirmation of a pressing need to transform our social structures and networks. For if we continue to perpetuate the disparate power relations in which women's economic dependency translate to the strengthening of chauvinistic social structure that stifle women empowerment, the entire society then is heading for socio-economic disaster.

It is such pragmatic interventions that need to be replicated all over South Africa so that the housing backlog as well as the transformation of the construction industry can be speeded up.