Thesis (Master of Construction Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019. / This study evaluates both the Contractor Development Programme (CDP) mentorship programme and the emerging contractors’ personal limitations in achieving a successful programme implementation. The objectives of the study were as follows: (i) to ascertain whether the perception of limitations of the mentorship programme differs in accordance with contractor’s profile; (ii) to ascertain whether there is any statistically significant difference between the profiles of contractors with regard to the perception on mentorship programme limitations; (iii) to ascertain whether the perception of limitations of the contractors’ personal limitations differs in accordance with contractor’s profile; (iv) to ascertain whether there is any statistically significant difference between the profiles of emerging contractors with regard to the perception on personal limitations. The study adopted a quantitative research method which was preceded by an exploratory study. The study targeted emerging contractors in the Western Cape. The exploratory study was undertaken at the initial stage of the study to gain more insight in terms of the impact of limited contracting opportunities for emerging contractors on the Western Cape CDP mentorship programme. The data was collected by means of conducting semi-structured interviews to purposely selected emerging contractors, and was subsequently transcribed and analysed using content analysis. With regard to the main study, the questionnaire survey with closed-ended questions was distributed to the population of 16 emerging contractors with CIDB grade 3 and 5. The descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the main study. The study has uncovered a number of gaps in terms of the implementation processes of CDP mentorship programme. In regard to the mentorship programme limitations: The findings have revealed the use of ineffective recruitment and selection methods, the lack of training projects for contractors to tender, the lack of MOUs between the banks and the Western Cape CDP to ease access to credit, the lack of continuity in terms of mentoring services, the failure to evaluate contractors when they enter the mentorship programme, failure to monitor contractors’ development during mentorship, the failure to evaluate contractors when they exit the mentorship programme. In regard to the emerging contractors’ personal limitations: The findings have discovered the lack of tendering skills among contractors, lack of skills in interpreting construction drawings, the lack of planning for construction projects, the lack of estimation, and the lack of negotiation skills with material and plant suppliers. The research concludes by recommending that the Department of Transport and Public Works should review the entire mentorship programme. This will be achieved by appointing a business development practitioner to re-design and re-structure the entire mentorship programme so that it can be able to attract and select suitable contractors while meeting the governments’ objective of developing and promoting of emerging contractors in the construction industry.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Emerging contractors play a significant role in the employment and skills development landscape as they are the employers of unskilled and semi-skilled labour in the construction industry (Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works (DTPW): Contractor Development Policy, 2016; Rass, 2019). In 2004, the National Cabinet approved the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to encourage job creation imperatives through the provisioning of skills and business enhancement initiatives for the targeted Historically Disadvantaged Individuals (HDIs), specifically the unskilled and semi-skilled labour force of the South African construction industry (Makiva, 2015; DTPW, 2021; DTPW: Contractor Development Programme (CDP) Policy, 2016; Rass, 2019). In response to this call, in 2012 the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works (WC DTPW) designed and implemented the Contractor Development Programme (CDP) with parallel aims.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / If one compares governments to the corporate world across the globe, it often plays second fiddle when it comes to strategy; new ideas, adopting of new management styles & processes and lastly, change, for this reason, the Provincial Government of the Western Cape recently undertook a journey that would shed it from these stereotypical behaviours. The journey was Christened „The Modernisation Programme‟ and was launched in 2009; one of its brainchildren named „Project Management Approach‟ was created as the bastion against inefficiencies and ineffective service delivery. A case in point is the unfinished Eastern Boulevard freeway in the city centre of Cape Town; the project was scrapped in the seventies, as the need for it was not justified by the traffic demand at the time in relation to its astronomical cost - a clear indication of poor project planning and management. This study was therefore undertook to examine whether the Project Management Approach (PMA) as part of the holistic Modernisation Programme was successfully implemented and if it yielded the expected results and attitude change in the project management environment in the Department of Transport and Public Works, which is responsible for more than half of all Provincial Government‟s projects. The study examines the impact the Project Management Approach had on service delivery, project management IT infrastructure and as a strategic tool. The analysis showed that although the PMA was welcomed by top management and even has the Director General (DG) as its business champion. However, it fell by the way side two to three years later, this was mostly due to limited communication, which practically ceased two years later and a steering committee that was never fully established and supported by senior official. An outcome, which resulted in roughly half of the project leaders being partially aware of the PMA, a similar analysis also revealed that they were not even aware of it being a long-term strategy. The analysis based on stakeholder involvement was more positive and many of the client department‟s end users were satisfied with the degree of improved cooperation between departmental teams. Further analysis conducted on the client/end user‟s opinion resulted in positive responses but failed to fire up the researcher‟s enthusiasm, as it was hardly the response one would expect from clients, had international standards and best practices been present. “Project management can be defined as a way of developing structure in a complex project, where the independent variables of time, cost, resources and human behaviour come together.” (Rory Burke) “Operations keeps the lights on, strategy provides a light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward.” (Joy Gumz)