South Africa’s business and political elite converged at Midrand’s Vodaworld recently to witness and celebrate the marriage of two of the nation’s highly respected engineering and architecture entities – GIBB Engineering and SVA International architects.

The meeting of key decision makers from the public and private domains also heard for the first time that GIBB, the largest South African black-owned engineering consulting firm has reached its R1 billion turnover mark, a remarkable achievement considering that it competes with mainly multinational firms. Both formidable entities in their own rights, GIBB acquired 70% of SVA International - a merger that can only stand to benefit the private sector and government’s National Development Plan, which has been placed high on the agenda. Among the political heavyweights and captains of industry were Collins Chabane   - Minister of Public Service and Administration; Sandile Zungu - a leading entrepreneur and Secretary General of the Black Business Council and Jabu Mabuza – Chairman of Telkom, Director at Tsogo Sun and President of  Business Unity South Africa.

GIBB Group CEO Richard Vries also announced the appointment of former BUSA President, Nomaxabiso Majokweni, to GIBB Holdings board, chaired by black empowerment pioneer Don Mkhwanazi. A key discussion point was government’s Strategic Infrastructure Projects, described by Zungu as “the beginning of a long summer for GIBB and SVA International”. “This merger between SVA International and GIBB could not be timed better, the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Unit has identified 18 Strategic Infrastructure Projects worth hundreds of millions of rands and the opportunities are endless,” he said.

Zungu cautioned however, that price fixing in the construction industry by some of the larger privately owned firms threatens economic growth. “There needs to be a greater level of ethics shown in the construction industry, especially with the recent revelations concerning price fixing among other firms. As a leading black-owned firm, GIBB has a moral obligation to compete fair but fiercely. Our government needs to see that sound ethics to carry out its infrastructure plan is possible, and so we as the private sector, need to play our part,” Zungu added. GIBB Group CEO, Vries stressed that the firm was in excellent financial health and that the merger can only benefit government’s capital infrastructure programme.

According to Vries, GIBB has shown an accumulative growth rate of over 99% during the last five years in an industry with an accumulative growth rate of 35%. “The nature of competition too, has changed, with nine out of the 10 largest firms being foreign owned – GIBB is the last man standing. As GIBB and SVA International we have taken the first step to building a firm to compete with the best in the world, showing that Africans can do it for themselves, by themselves,” he added. BUSA President Jabu Mabuza meanwhile used the platform to dispel myths around affirmative action. “There is a perception that affirmative action produces a substandard product. I beg to differ, Tsogo Sun, a BEE product is worth R35 billion, and today GIBB is a company on the same path,” he said.

In closing Don Mkhwanazi, who speakers rated highly for his role in facilitating black economic empowerment in the country, encouraged support from the private and public sectors at the function. “With the cooperation of all stakeholders GIBB and SVA International can tell the best story. It is time for Africa and Africa is indeed in motion,” Mkhwanazi said.