Battered building industry needs to reopen, and soon

ON SUNDAY, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that South Africa would be eased to level 3 of the coronavirus lockdown.

For many businesses and the unemployed, this news would have come as small consolation for the pain they have had to endure since March 27, when the lockdown came into effect to halt the spread of Covid-19.

Now we await word from Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel to see the industries which will be allowed to trade.

One industry which desperately needs to be reopened is the construction industry.

Why do we say that?

With South Africa’s more than 30% rate of unemployment, the construction industry has traditionally absorbed most of South Africa’s unskilled labour, a category in which most of the unemployed find themselves.

Because of the general economic downturn which preceded the lockdown, the construction industry was already in decline, contracting by more than 6% last year.

According to the SA Revenue Service (Sars), 144 companies have already applied for business rescue this year, compared with just more than 200 for the full 12 months of last year.

Two weeks ago, a former giant of South Africa’s construction industry, Group 5, announced that it would delist from the JSE after the company, which had built King Shaka International Airport and Moses Mabhida Stadium, both in Durban, entered business rescue last year.

Smaller businesses in other sectors of the economy have used the easing of the lockdown to level 4 to improvise, and while they can no longer open their shops for reasons of health and safety, beauticians and hairdressers have started operating from their homes.

Businesses which can’t deliver their services remotely have suffered greatly, while the supermarket chains have joined online retailers to develop new smartphone apps in which customers, weary of physically going to shops, can have their groceries and goods delivered to their homes.

While the safety of the public should be foremost in the minds of the politicians in charge, South Africa can simply not afford to have companies going out of business.

The many that can safely operate should be allowed to trade.