Construction industry continues to push for regulation
After years of procrastination, the country’s construction industry is still waiting in anticipation for government to appoint a council for this industry that can regulate operations in Namibia.However, legislation is needed for this.
General manager of the Construction Industries Federation of Namibia (CIF) Bärbel Kirchner, said in a statement yesterday, that “the regulation of the construction industry will help Namibia curb poverty and unemployment. This will solve some of the issues related to poor public health and education infrastructure.
“Given government’s policy, it shouldn’t take any further persuasion to regulate our industry. With a regulatory council at the helm, we will see the beginning of change, namely of a construction industry that serves everyone’s interests,” she said.
The CIF has been working at persuading politicians to do this since 2006, she said. The first bill on construction and building plans was already tabled in parliament in 2010, but was referred back because more work was needed on it.
All the Ministers of Works and Transport have been approached about this since Minister Joel Kaapanda’s time to support the necessary amendment of applicable legislation. This includes ministers Helmut Angula, Erkki Nghimtina, Alpheus !Naruseb as well as the current minister, John Mutorwa.
Mutorwa presented the latest bill to the cabinet early this year. Justice minister Yvonne Dausab serves as chairperson of the cabinet committee on legislation, which must review the bill again after the legal writers have completed it.
“The hope is that it will then be tabled in parliament,” Kirchner said.
She is afraid that a new minister of 2024 will mean the whole process has to start from the beginning yet again.
Mutorwa shares her frustration.
“I’m just as frustrated,” he told Republikein. “This is not the only bill we are waiting for. There is also the bill on vehicle masses, the bill on roads and one on public passenger transport,” he said.
The new bill for architects and engineers is also lagging. “I hope 2022 does not end without a single new law from the Ministry of Works and Transport,” Mutorwa said.
“Failure to regulate the construction industry through the establishment of a regulatory board has numerous consequences. This leads to inefficient use of public funds, lack of quality control in the industry and lack of any means to grow the Namibian construction industry in the interests of genuine Namibian businesses and the Namibian economy in general,” Kirchner said.
“One cannot help but feel somewhat disillusioned when you know that this is the one piece of legislation that can make the difference in our industry, and that it could have been done many years ago.
“Let's be honest, we all know we can regulate an industry. This has happened before in other sectors. And would you go to a medical doctor who is not registered with a board? We can therefore only appeal to our political leaders and legislators to act quickly and regulate our industry, otherwise there will be nothing left of our own industry, and we will end up only depending on foreign capacity,” she warned. – [email protected]