From Site Acquisition, Town Planning to New Site Build – Construction: Overcoming Challenges to Build a Tower for the Community
As one of the leading providers for town planning, site acquisition and power applications services, Siphilasonke has a proven track record of delivering excellent work. However, when one of our biggest clients selected us to construct a new tower, a scope of work which we would be doing for the first time, we knew it was not going to be smooth sailing. Not only did the project require technical expertise but it also required community engagement.
Challenges Face: Community Resistance & Overwhelming Expectations
The community where the tower was to be erected came with lots of concerns. A lot of people felt as if the tower was to cause problems for them, some expressed lack of information/prior thorough notice on what was planned to be done around their area. This further developed the resistance and expectations of creating job opportunities for a lot of people within the area, which is something that was already planned by us to make sure that we do hire some community members but only a certain number of people who were to be paid for their hard work.
The Solution: Community Engagement
A community meeting was requested, whereby we had to educate the community members about the work we do, and how the tower is going to benefit them and their families. We also approached the community leaders to further discuss & conclude on the number of people we were considering hiring, for them to also advise accordingly as to which residents we could hire.
Overcoming Construction Challenges:
We faced vast challenges along the way, from bad weather conditions to negotiating with the community to letting us continue to build. Throughout this process we continuously prove to ourselves that we do embrace teamwork, we have overcome obstacles but in the end we made sure the tower was built in accordance with the standards we have set for ourselves as a company and those we offer to our clients.
Conclusion
This process has taught us the importance of teamwork, building relationships with the community, going the extra mile to educate others about the work we do within the industry we are in and how beneficial it would be for them, especially communities that are disadvantaged.
As the company name speaks for itself ‘Siphilasonke’, meaning “We Live Together”. We shall continue to strive for the best, deliver the best services to our clients, build relationships with the communities and simply being the best leading service providers.