BLACK BALANCE FEATURE

FEATUR

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B L A C K B A L A N C E

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Company name FEATURE

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Jane Bordenave talks to Black Balance’s founding Executive Director Malcolm Biggar about the importance

of empowerment and how it is influencing current projects.

ENGINEERING THE

Jane Bordenave talks to Black Balance’s founding

ENGINEERING THE

F U T U R E

Before

After

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F U T U R E

Kwazulu-Natal based Black Balance is an economic development and engineering consulting company. The fi rm was founded in 2006 as

a joint venture between Executive Directors Mel Clark and Malcolm Biggar who had been running two independent businesses previously. “I am an engineer by trade and started my company Biggar Engineering in 1998,” Biggar explains. “It was a fairly small BEE civil engineering company, but it was strong. When Mel and I began talking about a joint venture in 2005, we saw the opportunity to bring his economic expertise together with my knowledge of engineering and create an entity with a broader skills base. One year later Black Balance was born.”

The organisation’s main focus is on government and municipal contracts, such as the construction of waste management infrastructure, roads and buildings owned by the local municipality. “We have looked to capture a small segment of the South African engineering and property development market, with the majority of our projects being government tenders,” says Biggar. There are many benefi ts to having cornered this particular market, not least of which is the ability to fulfi l important areas of the company’s philosophy. “When we are looking at a project, we examine both the most effective way to complete it and how it can be used to empower the local community. Sometimes on smaller projects this is not possible, but on the larger programmes we will always try our best to provide empowerment opportunities to local black-owned companies.” Explaining the reason for this, Biggar continues: “There

have been a lot of changes in South Africa since 1994 and the end of apartheid, but unfortunately there are still prejudices to overcome. Being in the position where we can choose to empower local companies and local people, we can give them the experience needed to help effect that change.”

To help achieve this empowerment, when Black Balance is involved with a project, it ensures that the balance of the budget is spent in the local community. “Normally there’s an 80/20 split in the budget, with 20 percent being spent in the community where the project is taking place and the remaining 80 percent will leave

once it is completed. Consequently, the amount of money that will enter and benefi t the local economy is greatly reduced,” says Biggar. “We aim for 50-60 percent of the budget to go directly to people in the local area.”

What Black Balance attempts to ensure is that as much of the construction activity is subcontracted to sizeable community based organisations, thereby creating opportunity for these community based

organisations to grow. “So, if we have a project worth R20 million, we would divide this into four R5 million contracts and empower four local contractors directly,” Biggar says. It is a method that has garnered a lot of interest from the business’ partners as a way of empowering previously disadvantaged communities. “From a sub consultancy point of view, Black Balance will look to appointing smaller organisations to assist with the volumes of consultancy work and thereby grow these smaller practices into sustainable

Black Balance FEATURE


We are now helping the district to locate extra sources

of money that will allow us to get the

reticulation extended and the project complete

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companies,” he adds. “In addition, ancillary works associated with our practice are outsourced to companies who need empowerment, this way we hope to contribute to the economic upliftment of our beloved country.”

The fi rm’s current main project is a pipeline that will serve the iLembe District Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal. The total project value is R1.2 billion and could last up to 30 years. The initial phase, which has just gone out to tender, is a R20 million emergency pipeline installation. Currently, many of the rural villages in iLembe do not have access to potable water. Water is either brought in by tanker, and held in large storage vessels, or the village may have a borehole with a standpipe. Neither situation is desirable, as residents have to walk up to

200 metres to get potable water, which they then have to carry all the way back to their house, but this new development is set to change that. ”The fi rst stage is a major pipeline that will be laid within the R102 highway road reserve, that runs in parallel with the coastline, about 8km

inland,” explains Biggar. “From there, we will reticulate east and west to reach the towns and villages in the iLembe district municipality.”

This is a very important project for Black Balance, in terms of budget and scope and gives the company a unique opportunity to put its philosophy into practice in many ways. “With this project we will be reaching some of the most impoverished sections of KwaZulu-Natal and, hopefully, make it so that by the time we have fi nished each person has a tap


Black Balance FEATURE

With this project we will be reaching some of the most

impoverished sections of KwaZulu-Natal

Devru Construction is a multi disciplinary construction group based in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Over the past 15 years, the Group has grown from strength to strength to provide a comprehensive

portfolio of civil engineering services to its clients.

With a highly qualified team fortified by strong family values and extensive resources, Devru Construction has the edge to provide clients with an appropriate solution to their needs.

Postal Address: P.O. Box 70554, Overport, 4067 Physical Address: 10 Tramway Road, Rosehill, 4051 Tel: +27 31 5633852 Fax: +27 31 5643986 Cell: 0834415131 / 0833062050 e-mail: [email protected],

in their own house, not 200 metres away,” says Biggar. “We are already in talks with the procurement department of the iLembe district municipality about how to proceed according to our principles. This initial phase has been an emergency installation, but from here we can think more about how to empower the local community. The scale of this project will enable us to really put our philosophy into practice by using local contractors, local workforce and local suppliers as much as we can. We will also be working to ensure that the people who work with us at the construction phase will be the ones who will continue to be there for the maintenance and development of the project even after we have left. We are looking to improve people’s lives by giving them better access to water and also to boost the local economy at the same time.”

It is an ambitious wish-list, but that is what Black Balance is about. The challenge now,

according to Biggar, is to secure additional funding for the continuing stages of the project. “There is enough investment to put in place the bulk of what we have planned and we are now helping the district to locate extra sources of money that will allow us to get the reticulation extended and the project complete.”

From all of this one thing is clear: Black Balance isn’t so much a company with a corporate philosophy as two men’s philosophy turned into a company, and that’s what makes it work. The desire to use improvement works such as roads or housing or pipelines to really benefi t the community where these things are being built in a way that goes beyond the project itself is the fi rm’s unique selling point, and one that is piquing the interest of both potential and actual clients.

South Africa has, as Biggar says, changed greatly over the past 16 years and it is companies like his that will help it to continue moving forward in the future. END


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www.blackbalance.co.za

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