LEKWA TIMES

• MD’S CORNER • LEKWA NEWS• BUDGET SPEECH

REVIEW• LEKWA EVENTS

• SAFETY TIPS• LEKWA FUN

ABOUT LEKWA CONSULTING ENGINEERS

Established in 2002, Lekwa Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd is a fully representative Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), civil engineering consultancy. Our dynamic approach is based on finding synergies with public and private sector stakeholders as well as our communities. We believe that through this partnership-approach we can be instrumental in unlocking skills development and job creation in South Africa, in support of government’s economic initiatives, Such as National Development Plan – Vision 2030. Our key specialist services include the design and implementation of Municipal and other Infrastructure projects. In addition, we offer value-added project management services according to the internationally accepted standards. Achievement of project deliverables and excellence in service delivery invariably involve balancing the competing demands of scope, time, cost and quality within the context of the requirements of all project stakeholders. Our approach combines high level technical expertise and integrated project management services to ensure excellence in terms of service delivery. Our in-house expertise is broadened through networking with specialist partners and associates to provide conventional and turnkey project solutions to our clients. As a small-scale consultancy we offer the value-added advantage of providing a more personalised service to our clients. For the convenience of our clients, and to enhance our service delivery outputs, we have an established office network covering Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Free State Province.

Keep in touch with us:

@Lekwaconsulting lekwatimes@lekwaconsulting.co.zaLekwa Consulting Engineers

Issue #2 February

MD’s CORNER

he year is gaining momentum with clear indication now of where the country is heading after the President’s State of the Nation

Address (SONA) and Finance Minister budget speech in February. We now know that the country still expects tough economic environment during 2017 with GDP expected 1.5% at the end of the year. Economic growth in 2016 was disappointing at 0.3%. What this all means is that the economic sectors that support infrastructure development like construction and mining did not perform that good in 2016, and there is not too much hope for 2017. As a company, Lekwa Consulting Engineers is holding the fort in the midst of the tough trading environment. I believe that we have positioned ourselves very well to withstand the trading shocks that comes with slowing economic growth. Our teams are fully engaged at the moment with the majority of our projects progressing very well against our committed timelines. Most parts of South Africa have been experiencing significant rainfalls in the last three months, resulting in major disruptions in build projects. In most instances, these disruptions cannot be avoided. I’m happy that our teams are working very closely with our clients and partners to ensure that there are minimum delays on our projects located in rain affected regions.

As mentioned in the last newsletter, the company is celebrating 15 years this year. Our preparations to share this significant milestone with our key partners are underway. We expect to mark this milestone with an event later in the year.

My long time partner and friend Gert Smit and I are also very pleased to announce that Lekwa Consulting Engineers is now a black owned company, as my shareholding has now increased to 51%. This development is very important in an industry and profession where very few black owned companies exist. Lekwa is now a member of the Black Business Counsil in the built Environment.

Regards

Kibiti Ntshumaelo

T

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he Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) recently said that it has 533 firms on its database of which only

122 were black-owned, with this ownership less than 51%, at present. Im glad that Lekwa is now being counted amongst the few that are above the 51% significant market. We hope to shine the light for more black owned companies to follow.

This development does not change how the company operates. We continue to be driven by the highest standards which we have set ourselves, and our partners expect. Internally, we are also not making any personnel changes at this stage as a result of the changes in shareholding. We cannot change a winning formula.

Lastly, I want to thank #TeamLekwa for continuing to be diligent and safe in their work. We are maintaining very good safety records because of everyone’s commitment to return home safe at the end of each day. This is highly commended and please keep it up.

Please remember to follow us on all of our social media channels to stay abreast of all developments happening in the company and industry.

T

LEKWA NEWS

MY JOURNEY WITH LEKWA BY KAREN VD LINDE

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aving previously worked for Klomp & Partners from 1998 to early 2000,

I returned to Ermelo in June 2002 to take up employment at Klomp Consult East.

One of the first projects I worked on for Lekwa was L009-Osizweni Housing Project for Newcastle Municipality. The design of the water & sewer reticulation in Osizweni Unit E & F started in mid-2002, with tender documents being drafted at the end of 2002. The initial design was for 2035 stands in Osizweni Unit E with an additional 1000 stands later added in Osizweni Unit F. The project was first implemented in 2006 (Phase 1) and to date there is still a Phase 5 that has to be implemented to complete the sewer reticulation for Osizweni Unit F.

In the following years we did

mainly water reticulation projects as this was the main focus of the government to provide water to every household. In 2005 we did a project New Bulk Pipeline on the Upper Nseleni Water Supply for Uthungulu District Municipality. The project encompassed the construction of approximately 9,5 km water supply lines. In February 2006 Mr Jan Venter left the Ermelo office for the Mtunzini office to manage this project and the Mtunzini office. I inherited the Design Office and became the manager.

There was a shift from water reticulation to sewer reticulation and the eradication of bucket systems. The next shift was towards roads and stormwater reticulation.

In 2007 we worked on the Renovation & Expansion of 8 Schools in the Gert Sibande

District in Mpumalanga.

In late 2008 until the end of 2011 we embarked on Upgrading of Gravel Roads in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality.

Ultimately we designed approximately 100 roads (covering approximately 44 km) with their associated stormwater reticulation.

H

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In 2011 we embarked on the design of Civil Services for Mamello Ext. 1 near Vaal Marina in Midvaal Municipality. The township consisted of approximately 1000 stands and this was the first time we were responsible for the design of all the civil services, i.e. roads, stormwater, sewer and water reticulation.2011 was also the year that we also designed the upgrading of the gravel road between Mahikeng and Modimola in Northwest Province. Nearly 14 km of road, by far the longest stretch of road we have ever designed.2013 saw the commencement of the multiyear JRA projects: Conversion of open drains in Ivory park & Extentions, Upgrading of Gravel Roads in Lawley & Tshepisong 2014 we completed the project for Construction of a Link Vehicular Bridge in Ezakheni. The bridge had a span of approximately 75 m and was constructed with approximaely 225 tons of steel reinforcement and 1 200 m³ of concrete

In 2015 we worked on a project for the Construction of the Volksrust Disaster Management Centre. This included the design of the intersection with the N11 national road. The highlight of the design process was the commendation we received from SANRAL on the high quality of the drawings and submission for approval of the intersection.In 2016 we completed the designs for 2 big housing projects: Kwazenzele Phase 2 which started off with approximately 2400 stands and Sebokeng Ext. 30, 31 & 32 consisting of approximately 2080 stands. Some statistics for the projects

INFORMATION

Number of Roads

Length of Designed Roads

Stormwater Reticulation

Junction Boxes

Kerb Inlets

Headwalls

Sewer Reticulation

Sewer Manholes

Water Reticulation

47

23.8 km

16 015 m

176

242

8

17 360 m

423

25 465 m

64

27.8 km

22 470 m

252

252

7

27 325 m

479

30 395 m

KWAZENZELE PHASE 2

SEBOKENG EXT. 30, 31 &

• PVC pipes emerged as the favourite replacing HDPE and Clay pipes to become the preferred pipe.

• The establishment of the CIDB (Construction Industry Development Board) and legislation that all project funded by the state be implemented according to the CIDB rules. Most notable influence was on the standardization of Tender Documents.

• The establishment of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and the shift to labour intensive construction methods. This also had a huge influence on the provision of training and skills development

• The roll of the Engineer has changed significantly over the years and the current shift towards Turnkey-projects has again had a huge influence on the roll of the Engineer

The 15 years in Lekwa saw some major changes:

I am sure that the future will hold just as much and more excitement and exhilaration as the past 15 years at Lekwa Consulting Engineers did.

REVIEW OF 2017 BUDGET SPEECH

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The 2017 budget speech took place on the 2nd of February 2017, as presented by the finance Minister of South Africa, Mr. Pravin Gordhan. Below are tweets of expected spending’s in developments and infrastructures. He further outlined new strategies which the government must take into consideration in order to have a well-developed economy through the investments made in developments and infrastructure.

The proposed expenditure of the next financial of 2017/18

Amount expected to be spent on Infrastructure and development

By 2019/20 the government is expected to spend at least R30 billion on agriculture, rural development and land reform.

foto note: Source @TreasuryRSA

LEKWA EVENTS

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Another month, another recognition for #TeamLekwa - Gauteng Premiers Awards 2017

LEKWA SAFETY TIPS

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1. Find and use a good antivirus program. Viruses and other nasty programs could find their way onto your computer if you visit a bad web page or open a bad email. While this is often done innocently enough (curiosity towards something new is only natural, after all), it still happens, so it's important to know how to deal with it. Installing a good antivirus and/or Internet security program on your computer should keep you safe from most stray computer threats.

2. Protect you phone For your phone, there are mobile apps that prevent eavesdropping: WhatsApp recently announced a collaboration with the encryption developers at Open Whisper Systems to offer built-in end-to-end encryption for the latest Android version of its hugely popular app. iOS user? Try Open Whisper Systems Signal app for encrypted voice and text messages.

Another option is Confide: a purpose-built confidential texting app designed with businesses in mind – not sexting teens. It's an off-the-record messenger with end-to-end encryption and self-destructing messages. It's even got a feature to prevent "screenshots" of the displayed text.

3. Protect your home PCFor the home or office computer, there are a variety of software and web services which offer privacy features – the most basic of them would be a VPN or virtual private network, such as FSecure's Freedome service that encrypts all of the data as it travels from your computer to the web, even if you are using a public network, or the Wi-Fi access in an airport lounge (a notorious hotspot for cyber surveillance).

4. Rid yourself of malwareIf you think you may have already been compromised, the Electronic Frontier Foundations offers free tools to help you. The EFF's Detekt tool scans for signs of commercial surveillance spyware known to be used by certain governments

Two-factor authentication is a simple way to make it harder for people to break into your Facebook, Google, Twitter or Apple's iCloud accounts: you can turn it on by opting in on your profile settings, and adding a mobile number. Every time you log in into one of these accounts, you will be prompted for a secondary, temporary code which will be sent only to a predefined phone number.

5. Choose better passwordsWhen it comes to choosing passwords, we all have a tendency to recycle. That's why the most popular passwords are also the ones easiest for online eavesdroppers to guess, and then use to get into your accounts. So think passphrases, not passwords. The longer the better. Here's the trick to make it memorable, and add those extra characters: choose a phrase which you know, like a motto or song lyrics. Example? "KeepCalm&CarryOn".

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LEKWA FUN

SODUKO

LEKWA PAGE 6 @Lekwaconsulting lekwatimes@lekwaconsulting.co.zaLekwa Consulting Engineers

#MEDIUM#EASY

ANSWERS FROM ISSUE #1

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