LABOUR-INTENSIVE CONSTRUCTION
Employment is about dignity and life Skills development and employment generation were among the priority messages delivered during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2020 State of the Nation Address (SONA). Developments within the Expanded Public Works Programme and at Sanral have committed to addressing this via a renewed focus on labour-intensive construction (LIC) techniques. By Professor Robert McCutcheon*
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he author is only too aware that this is being published during the midst of the current Covid19 pandemic; however, when it passes, and it will, South Africa will still be confronted by the continued and pressing reality to develop skills and generate employment. During the SONA, the president was quoted as saying: “We will be piloting an alternative rural roads programme during which four experimental road stretches of 50 km each will be constructed. This initiative will ensure costeffective solutions for the state, meaningful skills transfer and higher potential for labourintensive job creation than conventional roads construction methods.” These pronouncements are encouraging. However, we have heard variations on these themes many times before. Is this time different? I hope so. The dire situation regarding unemployment has worsened since 2018. The ‘narrow’ definition of unemployment (those actively looking for
work) has risen to 29%. The ‘broad’ definition, which includes those who have given up looking for work, now stands at 39%. For those aged between 15 and 35, unemployment is over 70%. While the need for exploring ways and means of generating employment is becoming increasingly urgent, it is unreasonable to expect that a small component of activity within 3% to 10 % of the economy can ‘solve’ the unemployment problem. And discontent has increased at the local municipal level, which complicates action on that plane.
Immediate action required In my previous articles for IMIESA, I expressed my continued advocacy of the widespread use of ‘modern labour-intensive methods’ for the construction and maintenance of infrastructure. I provided reasons for my disappointment regarding implementation in South Africa, particularly my reservations concerning the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), which began in 2004.
So much for cautionary notes. The president’s policy statements are certainly positive regarding skills development and the LIC potential by comparison with ‘conventional roads construction methods’ (i.e. fuel-powered heavy equipment). At the highest level, there is an understanding of the potential, but this must now be translated into action.
Sanral objectives Sanral is at the forefront of LIC employment generation. In 2017, Sanral released Horizon 2030. It stated that South Africa’s “high unemployment rate exerts pressure on Sanral to maximise the number of jobs created”. To date, Sanral’s most important action has been the publication, in August 2019, of the Committee Draft Final Revision: Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Works for State Road Authorities. Each chapter contains a section addressing labour enhancement. It is extremely important that Sanral – South Africa’s premier roads authority – has published draft specifications related to the formal use of ‘labour enhanced’ methods across the entire spectrum of its activities. This is a great step forward. In the long term, it will be the bedrock for future expansion of LIC; however, I strongly disagree with the use of the term labour enhancement. The draft specifications provide definitions for both labour enhancement and labour-intensive approaches. Labour enhancement is the process of improving the scope for the use of manual labour as an alternative to using machines to increase employment opportunities on a project. In turn, labour-intensive processes, to a large extent, exclude the use of machines.
Labour enhancement vs labour intensive definitions I do not understand the essential difference between the two definitions since they both aim to use less ‘machinery’. The latter should be
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IMIESA April 2020
