Mentorship of new entrants and the professionalisation of practitioners will help people in the construction industry to excel and build roads and sustainable infrastructure that will transform the shape of the economy. The National African Federation for the Building Industry (NAFBI) has a mentorship programme in which 120 mentors are mentoring small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) on construction sites in partnership with SANRAL, Rand Water and the South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions. On SANRAL sites alone, 44 mentors are coaching more than 400 SMMEs. Said SANRAL marketing and communications GM Vusi Mona: “We are trying to make a positive impact through our investments of billions of rands into the construction and maintenance of roads. Through this, we are creating thousands of jobs by developing roads and we are creating opportunities for SMMEs, with a focus on youth, women and people with disabilities,” he said. SANRAL takes deliberate steps to make itself and its role familiar to especially small, black-owned businesses and the communities in which it works. “We aspire to be connected to the people of South Africa because this asset is owned by the people of South Africa,” said Mona.