ROB ROSE: Behind the demise of SA’s iconic building firms
How many more construction companies need to hit the wall before the government realises it has a national crisis on its hands?
The corporate graveyard is crowded with the newly built headstones of iconic companies that built the face of SA: Basil Read, Esor and now Group Five. Others are on life support: Aveng clocked up an operating loss of R484m for the six months to December and even the hitherto bulletproof WBHO made a R23m operating loss for that same period. Khathutshelo "K2" Mapasa, the CEO of Basil Read (now in business rescue), says the situation is now so bad that the government must intervene to bail out the sector. "Look, I agree with the capitalist philosophy of creative destruction, that things have to fail. But the thing is, at Basil Read, I’ve realised we [affect] far more than just shareholders. This isn’t about one company," he says. At last count, the industry employed 618,000 people — more than the entire mining industry in this country. PODCAST: How the construction industry contributed to its own demise. Subscribe: iono.fm | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Pocket Cast | Player.fm So Mapasa ...
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