Construction Industry News and Views - November 2020
Construction Industry News and Views Edition 187 02 November 2020
Dear Members and Readers
Members are urged to remain cautious under Lockdown Level 1 and to continue to implement ongoing safety precautions to prevent the risk of infection of COVID-19 in the workplace. The Association has circulated a COVID-19 Policy template to members and our team is available to assist you with all your compliance requirements.
The Association would like to thank FEM for their provision of 10, 000 face masks, which will go a long way in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in the construction industry – “Prevention is better than cure.” The masks will be distributed as per the qualifying criteria.
FEM held a virtual awards function on Friday, 30 October 2020. It was a grand introduction to the new way of doing business. Congratulations to all recipients of awards and it was very pleasing to see some of our member companies in the line-up. Well done to our KZN members!
The Association’s Training Academy is now situated on the ground floor of the Master Builders Centre with excellent facilities and a great training ambience. Members are invited to take advantage of the November training programme on offer at our Training Academy – Register 1 delegate and get 1 free on listed courses.
November’s newsletter informs members of the upcoming projects by the Catalytic Projects Unit of eThekwini Municipality. The health and safety feature for this month takes a deep dive into the danger of excavation operations near structures. In the article entitled “To the class of 2020” Master Builders KwaZulu-Natal wishes Grade 12 learners all the best for the upcoming matric examinations. South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) is examined, and we provide an explanation of the finer details of this Act and its effect on South African businesses.
Please join me in bidding farewell to Ross Stembridge, our Building Services Manager who retired at the end of October 2020. We wish him all the best and every success in his future endeavours.
Stay safe!
Vikashnee Harbhajan | Executive Director
Membership News
At a recent Corporate Member engagement which took place via the MS Teams platform, members who fall into the Associations corporate member category were delighted to hear from Steve Angelos, Senior Programme Manager Catalytic Projects Unit, eThekwini Municipality. The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Planning Commission (KZN PPC) defines the term ‘Catalytic Project’ as a project of significant scale (i.e. its reach) and scope (i.e. impact on employment, services, economic and social investment, and/or rates)
In recent times there has been an increase in the number of employees who have lost their lives during excavation operations. This is due to either being buried alive in excavations or material falling upon employees such as walls when doing excavations near structures. This article aims to assist those frequently working in excavations and how to safeguard themselves when doing so.
The class of 2020 will be remembered well into the future as those who had persevered through the COVID-19 pandemic. Their academic year has been disrupted in the most unimaginable way. Learners participating in the Master Builders KwaZulu-Natal Vuka Makhi Programme travelled every Saturday for almost two years to the Master Builders Centre for lessons in Mathematics, Physical Science, English, Life Orientation and Basic Computers. Their academic year came to an abrupt halt in March 2020.
POPIA – South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act
South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) took effect on 1 July 2020 with a grace period of 12 months to comply with the provisions of the Act. POPIA will give effect to the constitutional right to privacy, by introducing measures to ensure the personal information of 'data subjects' (such as employees, clients etc) are safeguarded when it is processed by 'responsible parties' (i.e. employers, service providers etc). POPIA provides conditions for the lawful processing of personal information.
The Master Builders KwaZulu-Natal Conference Centre offers a variety of function and meeting facilities. We also operate a coffee shop in the building “Café Indaba”, which offers a wide range of catering options to conference clients.We are centrally positioned between the Highway area and the city of Durban and are minutes away from the N2 / N3 highway interchange.For a hassle-free conference or training session at a convenient location, look no further.
The training programmes are intended to provide access to currently employed candidates, unemployed candidates and school leavers, as well as to facilitate workplace training.
Members who have current contracts that make provision for Contract Price Adjustment are able to download the latest published indices from Statistics South Africa by clicking on the following link.
