Players in the Construction Industry (CI) have dismissed statistics released by Department of Statistics as misleading. The data indicated a steady growth in the industry which is not compatible with the situation on the ground.
Contractors argue that that the industry is in shambles is heading for a crash.
The collapse of the industry has been witnessed over the years and attributed to many factors hence they felt it unfair for the department to make public untrue statistics.
Department of Statistics announced incorrectly that the Construction Industry grew with +/- 42 percent during the first two quarters of the financial year.
From the data released, it shows that the industry contributes a sizeable proportion in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), ranging from 6.7percent in 1994 to 7.9 percent in 2011. The GDP annual average growth rate of 5.4 percent from 2000 to 2011.The industry has been cited as one of the major contributors to employment, ranging from 9.2percent in 2004 to 7percent in 2011.
The report from the department also shows that the construction industry provides a very important contribution to the economy through its job generating ability for unskilled and skilled labour.
“The statistics released portray a wrong picture of what is actually happening in the industry,” said Nick Van Rensburg the Executive Director at ABCON.
He revealed that about 90 percent of citizen contractors who used to be very active and competitive in the industry have now collapsed, and the remaining 10 percent is ailing and struggling to keep their heads above the water.
“There is no growth absolutely in the industry in fact the industry has collapsed and will take time to revive,” he said.
Chief among the factors that have crippled the industry is the acute shortage of jobs, poor project planning and implementation by government, poor packaging and distribution of projects, limited private sector participation, domination and unfair competition by foreign contractors, and the proliferation of corruption and nepotism.
Calls were made to government as far back as 2010 to initiate a bailout package to forestall an aggravation of the crisis which confronted the domestic construction industry. “All the proposals that have been presented to government to try and avert the collapse have yielded nothing,” said Rensburg.
Meanwhile the private sector and the department have agreed to work together to do a broader survey and come up with correct statistics. Rensburg added that it is unfortunate that in his State of the Nation speech, President Ian Khama referred to the very same statistics which unfortunately were incorrect. He added that correct statistics are needed to help in the economic planning.
