As part of its strategy which seeks to open doors for stakeholders, local small businesses, communities, and business forums South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) has embarked on robust stakeholder engagement initiatives to assess the needs of SMMEs in Bloemfontein.

These engagements sessions set to map out the impact that the routine road maintenance projects (RRM) are creating in the province through stimulating job opportunities, empowering women and youth, implementing training, skills and development programmes.

Speaking to SMMEs and local communities in Winburg as part of SANRAL’s flagship Taking SANRAL to the People programme, Dumisani Nkabinde, Regional Manager for SANRAL’s Eastern Region, mentioned SANRAL has been distant to its stakeholders and came up with this concept which seeks to demonstrate how SANRAL runs its business and how it brings its stakeholders in the mix.

Says Nkabinde, “transformation is core to SANRAL’s mandate with attention aimed at giving an opportunity to black-owned SMMEs that didn’t do the business with SANRAL in the past. Going forward we will focus on subcontracting and giving opportunities to small businesses, preventing bigger firms from taking business from smaller firms.”

Since the introduction of its Horizon 2030 Strategy, SANRAL has made a concerted effort to empower locals by providing them with job opportunities and enabling SMMEs to partner with more established construction companies on their projects. This creates the benefit of skills transferal and mentorship that will see SMMEs move from sub to main contractors in the near future.

Horizon 2030 is a proactive response by the road agency to create a national road transport system that serves as an “economic artery”, delivering an improved standard of living for citizens that live alongside its projects.

The day to day road maintenance projects also adds to SANRAL’s mandate and in support of connecting with stakeholders through working together to deliver a safe, efficient, reliable and resilient national road transport system through a sustainable process that benefits all the people of South Africa.

Monageng Mokgojwa, SANRAL’s Eastern Region Stakeholder Manager, echoes the same sentiment: “In a strong effort to build on the major success areas experienced in the past, SANRAL also reviews areas where the performance was suboptimal to ensure the necessary interventions are made to correct them and ensure success.”

The third and coming decade will see a focus on long-term visioning, reviewing the network growth and SANRAL’s mandate. Emphasis will be placed on relevance and concerted steps will be taken to ensure fair access to opportunities and redress of past imbalances.