The Black Business Council in the Built Environment (BBCBE) hosted the BBCBE Inaugural Built Environment Indaba 2024 on 4 and 5 April, 2024, at Gallagher Convention Centre in Gauteng. Established in 2007, the BBCBE represents black construction and professional organisations in South Africa.
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The event was themed, ‘Building a transformed built environment through collaboration, procurement and skills development’.
The Indaba offered a platform for the public and private sector, academics, researchers, built environment practitioners, civil society and industry players.
They discussed “ways to address our aging and incapacitated infrastructure and provide solutions to expand and reach out in particular to our impoverished and disadvantaged communities that have not realised basic needs – such as clean water, sanitation, electricity, and reliable public transport while at the same developing scarce skills, creating employment and economic opportunities.”
According to their statement, “The BBCBE aims to influence legislation in order to enable a better environment in the building and construction industry. Through the Built Environment Indaba, BBCBE highlights the importance of building a transformed built environment through collaboration, procurement, and skill development.”
The Hon. Maloko Kubayi, Minister of Human Settlement said: “As a country, with less than 60 days before the end of the sixth administration, the discussion as you have themed it is timely and necessary. It is timely because it gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect on the journey that we have travelled in building a sustainable and growing built environment sector, as well as creating a transformed and inclusive sector.”
The BBCBE also shares that: “With the population increasing, the demand for housing will always be on the rise as more and more people look for shelter. What is of great interest for us as a sector is where, geographically, people want houses and what type of houses they want. In addition to access to economic opportunities and social amenities, there are important trends that have become dominant in determining the location and type of housing, namely, urbanisation, climate change, and innovation in alternative building technologies.”
“Urbanisation has placed 60% of South Africans in major and secondary cities, which means that the demand for housing in urban centres has significantly increased. It therefore stands to reason that the infrastructure backlog that we find in housing is concentrated in urban centers, both in major and secondary cities.”
“As the built environment continues to grow, so do other factors such as skills development for people working within the industry, youth development for those aspiring to be part of the built environment, economic development for the country, and the participation of black businesses in public and private sector projects.”
“It is vital for stakeholders to also be involved in the discussion on the government’s medium-term priorities, which will be articulated in the medium-term strategy framework and the five-year strategic agenda for South Africa.”
