Raubex laments road building sector’s bumpiest conditions in decades
Construction group flags lack of work and violent community unrest affecting a number of sites as causing an unfavourable operating environment
Trading conditions in SA’s road-building industry are the worst in at least three decades because of community unrest and a lack of spending by the state, construction group Raubex says. “The 2019 financial year has without doubt been the most difficult I have experienced in my 30 years in the SA road construction industry,” CEO Rudolf Fourie said. “The lack of work, coupled with violent community unrest affecting a number of sites, has caused very unfavourable operating conditions in the SA market.” In March, Bloomberg reported that an SA engineering contractors’ lobby group had asked the government to better enforce security as criminals had disrupted or vandalised R25.5bn of construction projects across the country. Armed gangs disrupted the R1.7bn Mtentu Bridge project in the Eastern Cape, while a R2.4bn oil-storage investment project at Saldanha, Western Cape, was halted in March after people demanding to be part of the project burnt down properties, the SA Forum of Civil Engin...
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