During a sustainable enterprise tour earlier this month of two of the 24 businesses that form part of construction and engineering firm Murray & Roberts’ enterprise development programme, the company said it subcontracted between 70% and 80% of its building work and its enterprise development programme held tremendous possibilities to sustain and grow many smaller and developing contractors.

“Large corporations like Murray & Roberts have a meaningful role to play in small- business development,” said Murray & Roberts group sustainability director Andrew Skudder, adding that, with South Africa celebrating 20 years of democracy this month, Murray & Robert was reflecting on what the company had achieved over the past 20 years.

“The company has a defined purpose that states it delivers infrastructure to enable socioeconomic development in a sustainable way. Our core purpose is to build buildings, roads and infrastructure to help grow the economy and enable social development in our society,” Skudder noted.

He pointed out that, through Murray & Roberts’ core purpose, the company created jobs and trained people.

“Many of the people whom we employ are semiskilled or unskilled. For example, Eskom’s Medupi coal-fired power station had 17 000 people working on it at its peak and about 5 500 of those were unskilled and semiskilled employees from Lephalale, in Limpopo,” he stated.

Construction enterprise development manager Sheldon Mayet noted that the company had progressed from compliance to commitment in terms of enterprise development, and that its 24 enterprise development programmes ranged from small to large businesses.

“More than 281 people are employed by these companies, which expands as the businesses grow. When I get a business that is interested in becoming part of the programme, I find out if they are suppliers in construction and then incorporate the business if we feel we can grow,” he says.

The JSE-listed group’s enterprise development programme spans financial support through direct funding, early payment and preferential credit terms, as well as extensive mentoring and business-support assistance.

The company also provides business management and technical support on an ongoing basis to help build the capacity and expertise of these companies.

The total value of enterprise development initiatives across the group is R143-million.
Murray & Roberts believes that helping its partners grow and prosper will, in turn, enable the partners to help other small contractors, thereby increasing overall capability within the sector, as well as ensuring widespread success in transformation.

Murray & Roberts has a long record as a good corporate citizen. For more than 50 years, the group has engaged in social upliftment activities aimed at redressing inequalities of the past, while supporting developmental objectives needed to sustain economic growth in the future.

The Corporate Social Investment, the Letsema Sizwe Broad-Based Community Trust and the Letsema Khanyisa Black Employee Benefits Trust programmes serve as the conduits through which Murray & Roberts engages in community development and realises its goal of positively impacting on the individuals concerned – its employees and the communities in which the group operates.
The programmes are aligned with Murray & Roberts’ overall business strategy, focusing on development in the core areas of mathematics, science and technology education; support for women’s empowerment, youth development, people living with disabilities, orphans and vulnerable children; and promoting high- performance sports development.

Logistics company Leeuw Transport, one of the two companies visited during the tour, has been participating in the programme since 2009, which was a turning point for the business.
Leeuw Transport owner Andries Ndlehe explained that operating as an independent transport contractor was exceedingly difficult without partners such as Murray & Roberts.

“I’m very grateful to Murray & Roberts for the help they have given me. They have helped me tremendously to grow my business, which is not yet finished. Through their support, I am planning to expand into transporting into the rest of Africa,” he said.

The other company visited during the tour, women-owned construction company Stephina Projects, has been part of Murray & Roberts‘ enterprise development programme since 2000 and has been involved in numerous road and steel construction projects.

“Being a woman in the construction industry is not easy. I would not have been able to get this far without this support. Most of my friends who started in construction have failed, but thanks to the lessons I have learnt about their experiences and the advice I receive from my mentors at Murray & Roberts, I have managed to prevail,” said Stephina Projects owner Stephina van Rooyen.

While a significant amount of progress has been made to transform South African society and its economy in the first 20 years of democracy, imbalances and inequalities remain.
Murray & Roberts stated that it was committed to the ideal of improving the quality of life of all South Africa’s citizens and would continue to use its resources where it could make the most impact to achieve these goals.