Sustainability

Sanyati is conscious of its responsibility to conduct business in a manner that has a positive impact on society, the environment and the economy where we operate.

Sanyati’s Code of Business Ethics, policies and practices are underpinned by good corporate governance and support the following social imperatives:

  • Environmental conservation and rehabilitation
  • Health and safety;
  • BBBEE
  • People development
  • Transformation
  • HIV/Aids
  • Quality Management
  • Corporate Social Investment

With the full commitment of the Board of Directors and the management team, Sanyati has managed to meet the challenge to sustain its social programmes over the last 12 months.

1.  Environmental conservation, preservation and rehabilitation

Sanyati has committed to not only focusing on environmental issues, but to be actively involved in playing our part to attain a high level of environmental sustainability.

As part of our commitment, an Environmental Steering Committee was formed comprising directors from each of the respective operational divisions who actively play a role in strategic decision making with regard to environmental issues and corporate environmental programmes such as the carbon off-set project.

As part of the emphasis placed on environmental conscience and responsible business practices, a prestigious Rhino Award for Environmental Excellence is awarded to contracts that exceed environmental performance criteria.  This is an internal award based on audits conducted across the Group.

Sanyati has implemented an environmental management system that promotes sound environmental management to support improvement strategies and address changing customer needs and expectations as we continue to drive sustainable growth.

Sanyati aims in the year ahead to focus on carbon footprint reduction, waste minimisation, and continued emphasis on increasing our environmental awareness and paving the way to a ‘greener’ future.

2. Health and Safety

The Sanyati Health, Safety and Environmental Manual is constantly revised and updated to ensure compliance with current legislation.

The responsibility and ownership of our comprehensive health and safety programme rests entirely with management at all levels within the Group.  The organisational structure includes the appointment of health and safety experts, who have clearly defined roles and reporting lines with direct access to site management, contract managers and managing directors of all operating entities.

Audits are conducted internally on sites across the Group on an ongoing basis based on the Sanyati Health, Safety and Environmental Manual.  Most sites achieved between 85% and 90% compliance.  External audits are also conducted by clients to ensure compliance with the client specifications and requirements.  The results of all audits are sent to management for review and where necessary corrective action is recommended.

A training schedule for the forthcoming year has been implemented, with attention being paid to legal liability training for management.

We are pleased with the ongoing progress with our determined objective of zero incidents across all sites in the Group.  Our focused effort in this vitally important area of business has resulted in us achieving a Lost Time Injury Rate (LTIR) of 0.07% at the end of April 2011.

The targets for the year ahead are aimed at ongoing improvement with our LTIR results and the implementation of a health and safety recognition scheme across the Group.

3. Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE)

Sanyati is committed to the Codes of Good Practice on BBBEE by engaging in practices that support the upliftment of previously disadvantaged individuals in South African and driving the broad range of transformation requirements as set out in the Construction Charter.

To this end, a BBBEE Steering Committee, filled with senior members of the management team and led by the CEO, was constituted 18 months ago.   The mandate of this team is to determine and drive the implementation of key interventions across the Group with the aim of achieving the measurable targets in each of the scorecard categories.  These efforts were recognised with the achievement of our level 3 contributor status during the year.

Sanyati Holdings was rated as the 28th most empowered company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in a survey conducted and published by the Financial Mail in April 2011.  Our commitment is to ensure that we continue with the journey and achieve genuine and sustainable improvements in all categories of the Construction Charter scorecard.

4.  People Development

The sustainability of the civil engineering and construction industry is dependent on the development of skills and transfer of knowledge.  Sanyati provides in-service training to civil engineers, technicians and quantity surveyors amongst other specialised skills.  Many of the trainees are taken on as permanent employees once their training is complete.

In collaboration with our JV partners and the communities we work in, we have provided training programmes aimed at sustainability of small businesses after our construction projects in the relative regions have been completed.

5. Transformation

Sanyati encourages diversity in its human capital to maximise the benefits of innovation, broader insights and greater chances of success in meeting the current and future needs of our clients.

The Human Resource policies aim to ensure that the Group is able to attract and retain historically disadvantaged individuals (HDI).   This does not exclude or hinder the progress of individuals who fail outside the HDI group.  As a result of these policies, Sanyati has achieved a top ten ranking in the employment equity category of the Financial Mail’s “Top Empowerment Companies 2011”.

The composition of the main board is relective of the direction the Group is taking in light of transformation. The main board has three black directors and two female directors.  76% of our permanent workforce is black and 11% is female.  26% of our management team if black.

Sanyati employment equity profile

Description Male Famale Total
  A C I W A C I W  
Top management 2 - 6 19 1 - - - 28
Senior management 2 - 2 23 1 - 1 - 29
Professionally qualified, experienced specialists and mid-management 20 - 18 63 2 - 3 5 111
Technically skilled and academically qualified, junior management, supervisors, foremen and superintendents 270 11 30 147 11 - 3 16 488
Semi-skilled and discretionary decision making 188 7 - 26 17 - 8 20 266
Unskilled and defined decision making 302 86 5 13 54 3 - 2 465
Total permanent 784 104 61 291 86 3 15 43 1 387
Non-permanent 1 063 34 8 10 158 2 2 - 1277
Grand total 1 847 138 69 301 244 5 17 43 2 664
               
  A = African   C = Coloured   I = Indian   W = White

6. HIV/Aids

Sanyati is ever conscious of the HIV/Aids pandemic affecting its people and the country at large and is committed to provide a sustainable HIV/Aids management programme for all permanent employees. We acknowledge that the successful implementation of this programme offers tangible benefit to both the individual and the organisation in which he or she is employed.


CareWorks, a HIV/Aids healthcare management company, has been contracted to facilitate the HIV/Aids programme for the Group. This programme is running successfully in many of the divisions and is being rolled out throughout the Group. Training has been conducted for both office and site staff in the current year with 269 employees being trained.

7.  Quality Management

Sanyati is committed to meeting and exceeding customer requirements and providing a safe and healthy work environment for all our employees.  To this end Sanyati’s management has formulated their commitment to its policies through the implementation of a management system that is ISO 9001: 2008 compliant and certified.

A Quality Management Steering (QMS) Committee has been established and comprises directors representing the various operational divisions who are actively involved in the strategic direction of the QMS.  One of their responsibilities is to review the system for improvement on an ongoing basis.

The group is currently developing and implementing processes to enable compliance with our INternaitonal ISO14001 by April 2012.

8. Corporate Social Investment

Sanyati identifies (in conjuctin with community leadership) appropriate CSI needs at our various construction sites, including a time frame for the implementation of these initiatives and the aim of ensurng the sustainability of the underlying investment.

The group’s Corporate Social Investment (CSI) committee, comprising representatives from each division and chaired by the CEO, has defined a framework for the identification and execution of CSI spend with the emphasis on sustainability and leveraging opportunities in our core competence of civil construction.

Examples of CSI projects that were undertaken recently include:

  • Our site office that was handed over to the Greenville community has been converted for use as a local clinic.
  • The construction of a netball/basketball court for the Waterloo community
  • The levelling of a parking area and construction of a soccer field for the Verulam community
  • A revamped parking area for the Empangeni Hospice
  • Donations in support of HIV/ Aids initiatives