Planning and ethical professionalism key to RAL’s road infrastructure service delivery

RAL team in a brainstorming session to devise solutions to existing organisational challenges in an effort to rejuvenate their passion to improve road infrastructure delivery in the province.

PLANNING AND ETHICAL

PROFESSIONALISM KEY TO RAL’S

ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICE DELIVERY

wing to Roads Agency Limpopo’s (RAL) endeavour to improve delivery of the road infrastructure in the province, the entity’s Engineering Division and support units held a mid-term strategic review workshop to assess progress on implemented projects and identify future improvement areas to enhance efficiency.

The primary aim of the workshop was to convene all internal stakeholders within the Agency to share knowledge and lessons learnt to improve the operations going forward. Added to identifying the positives, the session focused on areas that affect project implementation and quality of the work done.

ORAL’s General Manager: Operations, Mr Martin Ramaboea urged the engineering team to address RAL’s road implementation challenges, further highlighting that “the session is for all of us to reflect on our achievements and challenges so that we can develop alternative ways to take us forward,” he said. Participating during the session were Engineering, Stakeholder Management, Communications, Supply Chain Management, Governance, Risk and Compliance as well as Health and Safety units. Road construction expert with over 20 years of experience, Mr Standford Mkhacane, was invited to give a keynote address which he used to share his wisdom. He shared his wealth of experience in civil

Above: The mid-term strategic review workshop gathered RAL staff members to reflect on some of the success stories and challenges encountered in the past as they work towards improving Limpopo’s road network.

Left: Retired Road Engineering and Maintenance Expert, Mr Standford Mkhacane says engineers should discharge their professional responsibilities with integrity.

engineering and construction.

In his speech, Mkhacane called upon the engineers to maintain ethical integrity and professionalism as the basis for successful delivery of quality road projects. “Practising as an engineer needs one to think independently and not allow him/herself to be influenced by external factors. You need to discharge your professional responsibility with integrity,” he urged the RAL team.

The road construction expert pleaded with the team to improve on planning, stressing that it is an essential part of road construction. “There is nothing wrong with planning in advance for a road project that will be implemented in five years,” he advised. The workshop comprised break-away sessions where attendees worked in team units to identify challenges in each unit and recommended solutions to mitigate the identified challenges. Commenting on the importance of the session, several employees applauded the importance of the session in improving the province’s road “THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH PLANNING infrastructure. Mr Musa Ndlovu, RAL’s Project Manager IN ADVANCE FOR A ROAD PROJECT THAT concurred that “the session was quite an interesting exposure to familiarise ourselves with what other WILL BE IMPLEMENTED IN FIVE YEARS.” units encounter on a daily basis and deliberate on how new strategies can be used to address the issues at hand as the entity moves forward.” His words were echoed by the Junior Project Manager, Ms Thakgalang Kekana who added that the reflective session was important as the “only way we could address shortcomings and improve on our performance to avoid repeating the same mistakes.” Meanwhile, Ms Mabjalwa Modjadji who is the Manager: Community Development at RAL said she was glad that, through the deliberations, participants “were able to collectively suggest solutions which will help us improve our operations, especially the implementation of roads.”