By Bheki Khawula
and Neliswa Nhlabathi
In the quest of achieving economic empowerment for the poor people of our country, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Public Works Honourable MEC Sipho “KK” Nkosi mandates all Public Works sections, regions and directorates to focus with great emphasis in training people from the vulnerable groups with an objective to enable them to access economic development opportunities from the Public Sector. From Wednesday, 20 September 2023 to Friday 22 September 2023, KZN Public Works in partnership with National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) gave a built environment training to Military Veterans construction entrepreneurs of Umdoni Municipality, at the Scottsburg Library in the KZN South Coast.
Stakeholders to this initiative among others included KZN Department of Public Works, Umdoni Local Municipality under Ugu District Municipality, Department of Military Veterans (DMV) and the KZN provincial government Office of the Premier (OTP).
Upon welcoming the audience, Mr Sandile Meyiwa (Acting District Manager: Ugu District Office), introduced all the officials to the program target audience and stated the roles played by all the officials and concerned stakeholders present at the workshop, in the service delivery duty. He informed the Military Veterans that the caring government of the day comes to the people to hear about problems encountered and needs and in return comes back with services in response to the people’s needs. In conclusion, Mr. Meyiwa invited the Military Veterans to physically contact or visit the Public Works Southern Region Ugu Office for any suitably compelling need.
Among other provincial government departments, KZN Public Works is also mandated by OTP on the progress of the programs targeted to benefit military veterans, said Mr Sipho Msomi (Deputy Director: Youth, Women, People With Disabilities and Military Veterans.) Public Works Department is duty-bound to service Military Veterans among other vulnerable groups). This can be done by among other things, leasing vacant land belonging to Public Works, to a group or co-operative structure belonging to Military Veterans. This is another economic development initiative targeted to benefit military veterans.
KZN Public Works also advises Military Veterans to identify vacant and unused Government Buildings such as schools so that those buildings maybe used as skills centres to benefit amongst other vulnerable groups the Military Veterans and their dependants. It would be in Public Works delight to link those skills centres with a relevant service Sectoral Education And Training Authority (SETA). Continued Mr Msomi. “In so doing, Public Works together with Military Veterans will be working against vandalism taking place in vacant unused buildings. Furthermore, we would love to work together with Department of Economic Development regarding assisting these skills centres by developing them to business houses.” Concluded Mr Msomi.
Mr Sibusiso Biyela (Deputy Director: Office of the Premier) is responsible for all matters pertaining to Military Veterans in the Premier’s office. The role of the office of the Premier is to co-ordinate all Military Veterans programs by mandating all Government Departments to form up programs with an aim to assist and service Military Veterans. This is a monitoring and evaluating function. This includes the assistance to Military veterans to enter the business terrain, to be educated and be given skills training. The office of the Premier plays the over sight role and cracks the whip to any Government Department which fails to deliver in accordance. Reports in this regard are required by the office of the Premier from all Government Departments on quarterly basis.
Mr Saziso Nene (Deputy Director: Department of Military Veterans (DMV), Provincial Co-ordination) spoke briefly about the construction of Military Veterans database. This database consist of soldiers who fought for apartheid and also those who fought against apartheid. The quantity of members in this database keeps on fluctuating just because retired soldiers join Military Veterans and also as older members die, this has a deduction effect in the quantity or amount of the members in the database.
Isaac Vusimuzi Hartley (NHBRC Building Specialist, Scientist, Research Division) told the program target audience that NHBRC is an entity born by Department of Human Settlements, a sister department to the Department of Public Works. Mr Hartley stated that NHBRC offers free training and Legal advice to home builders and home owners. Their services ensures that home owners are always protected in case of properties which are not built in accordance to the required or set standards. Registered home builders are automatically protected as members of NHBRC as well.
NHBRC has set technical standards against which homes must be constructed. Mr Hartley, stated that , by default, a new home is supposed to last between 20 and 30 years without technical problems. This only becomes a case only if the prescribed standards requirements have not been followed. NHBRC registers home builders as individuals and not as groups or companies. It is there to assist the Government in making sure proper stable houses are built. This helps to protect the benefiter or owner of the house against poorly built houses. NHBRC also protects the builder by giving free training, advice and legal actions. NHBRC works hand in hand with the government to assist the South African community with its various programs. Such programs includes among other things, training the youth in TVET colleges. Home builders registered with NHBRC are mandated to renew their membership certificates every year. They are able to train construction teams on sites and this service is provided free of charge. This government entity also assist when a builder has a conflict with the person she or he is building for. This is called conciliation process and consumer dispute resolution.
For the entire training period, NHBRC trained Military veterans about home-building skills. This detailed on focal points such as innovative building technology, using technology to build any structure with the help of Engineers and the regulations that are available. Another focal point was safety using Act 35 in terms of Health and Safety Act 103 of 1977 of National Home Building Regulations. They also covered Foundations, how to build with bricks, how to build structures that are sustainable, how to comply with the constitutional right in terms of home building and how to deliver sustainable Human Settlement constructions development.
The above-narrated training will in a long term be highly beneficial to the Military Veterans because hence it creates a pool of technical people in the construction industry. This is tailor-made for emerging business people, what materials to use and what standards to comply to. This training also enhances the environment in terms of creating sustainable constructions and businesses. This shall also be of high assistance in matters of business management, creating or developing materials that which are required to deal with the climatic and environmental changes which affects our country mostly at the times we live in.
The NHBRC training equips the military veterans build entrepreneur to better understand and comply with the 4th Industrial Resolution (4IR). This training further empowers the military veterans to have an upper hand in understanding the use of technology and the use of different equipment to develop not only construction but to deal with the surroundings in terms of sustaining their environment and creating safer and better human settlements.
In conclusion, Ms Delisile Mncube (Director: Youth, Women, People With Disabilities and Military Veterans) stated that, as government officials, we are duty-bound to regularly follow up with great interest and dedication on all matters pertaining to the interests of vulnerable groups, including the Military Veterans. This includes making sure that all interested suitable people are registered on the Eyesizwe Contractor Development Program (ECDP) database. This is a good program, tailor-made to economically develop the vulnerable groups. “As the Department of Public Works, we have a duty to make sure that the Military veterans are not left behind, we want them to be included in the ECDP so they can also have access to the different opportunities the Department offers.
The content covered in the entire course included soils, foundations, superstructure, roof and NHBRC Legal Presentation. For the entire course, there was a visible interactivity between the target audience and the facilitators. The training workshop lasted for a duration of three days at the end of which certificates of attendance and participation were issued by KZN Public Works to the military veterans.
