South Africa’s construction industry has long suffered from a gap between the quality of plans and the pace of delivery on site. Summits were held and declarations were signed, but progress was still too slow and too often stalled. The nation-building summit had another declaration at the end, but it could have easily been dismissed as similar. That’s wrong.
Over the past year, intentions have begun to turn into measurable actions. The sector grew from cutting jobs to creating about 250,000 jobs in the third quarter. This is one of the biggest growths of any industry. Similar changes can be seen in non-crime scenes. Since the 2024 Durban Summit and Durban Declaration, 770 incidents of vandalism have been recorded, 240 court orders have been obtained and 176 convictions have been secured against perpetrators.
The 2025 Nation-Building Summit Declaration aims to ensure and accelerate that change. It sets out five priorities. A unified performance improvement framework. Accelerated build program and related skills development. Full implementation of an integrated social facilitation framework to stabilize the ground. Driving sustainability and innovation, including building information modeling (BIM) and digital project management. and a clearer and stronger mandate for public works infrastructure.
Single performance framework
The most significant change is the industry’s move to a single performance framework. The manifesto commits to a unified performance improvement framework for the construction industry by the end of June 2026.
The framework monitors and reports on performance across infrastructure clients, contractors, and professional service providers, flags underperforming clients, allows for unbiased blacklisting of underperforming contractors and professionals, and introduces cost standards across key infrastructure types so that budgets and schedules can be benchmarked more reliably.
With the Building Industry Development Board’s rating system, database and regulatory powers, we are uniquely placed to turn this into a living dashboard, and the Building Industry Development Board Amendment Act will help cement this performance-focused approach into law.
skill development
The second initiative is to treat enterprise development and skills development as core to performance, rather than add-ons. Smaller and emerging contractors, especially CIBD grade 1-4 contractors, are located closest to local communities and are often the first to hire local workers. This declaration therefore strengthens the Build program and commits to training at least 1,000 contractors on construction management systems in 2026 and 3,000 beneficiaries through the CIBD Skills Development Standard on real projects in the same year.
We are also calling for a digital skills intervention map across CIDB, the Building Education and Training Authority, the Built Environment Council and other development agencies so that training is tailored rather than fragmented and tailored to the needs of real projects.
Community participation
The third commitment addresses social stability and community participation in a structured way. The main focus of this year’s Summit was the Integrated Society Promotion Framework, developed by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure as a direct result of the Durban Summit.
The declaration commits governments and industry to implement the framework across infrastructure customers by the end of June 2026, and supports ministries, local governments and state bodies on how to apply the framework from the start of projects and the creation of a professional registration category for social facilitators.
If this is done properly, the character of the construction site will change. Communities will see transparent rules on localization and subcontracting, clear channels for complaints, and trusted people whose job is to mediate interests before disputes escalate.
Improving sustainability
The fourth task is to strengthen sustainability and drive innovation. In a country facing tight budgets and climate risks, inefficient and outdated project practices cannot be tolerated. The declaration therefore commits to publishing a national building information modeling framework for the construction industry by the end of September 2026. Standardization and digitalization of project management processes in the public works sector. Update building codes and procurement policies to reflect sustainability and innovation. Strengthen collaboration to speed up and digitize plan approvals for private sector projects.
The Nation-Building Summit Declaration gives us the tools, the goals, and the timeline.
Finally, the declaration seeks to strengthen obligations on public works infrastructure. Fragmented laws and distributed responsibility make it difficult to enforce consistent standards and hold someone accountable for systemic failures. The Declaration proposes that all laws and regulations governing the built environment should be brought under the Ministry and its organizations, and calls for progress towards centralizing budgets for infrastructure projects.
The Nation-Building Summit Declaration gives us the tools, the goals, and the timeline. This plan builds on the work already underway, from the Durban Declaration to the arrests and convictions of the past year, and sharpens our focus for the next steps. It cannot give discipline. It has to come from us.
Public customers, contractors, professionals, workers and communities all need to play their part, including embracing measurement, paying on time, investing in skills, embracing transparency, and leveraging the frameworks currently in place (integrated social facilitation frameworks, build programs, hotlines, performance dashboards) rather than relying on confusion and informal gatekeeping.
Suppose we treat this declaration not as a ritual document for archival purposes, but as a binding contract with South Africans. In that case, we can move from a stop-start, crisis-prone industry to one that consistently builds the roads, schools, clinics, public spaces, and the jobs and businesses that this country deserves. That is our accountability.
• Dladla is CEO of the Construction Industry Development Board.
