Seen on site at Transnet’s fire equipment station which is being constructed in Eastern Mole Road in the Port Of Cape Town are from left: Isithembiso Suppliers’ Nolufefe Nase – health and safety representative and Ntsikie Mgayiya – managing member, Rachel Ramedupe – Turner & Townsend’s senior consultant and Seli Mosieane – Isithembiso Suppliers’ project manager.
National women-owned and managed construction company, Isithembiso Suppliers, has achieved international ISO quality standards which enable the organisation to be more competitive in the marketplace, particularly when tendering for projects in the oil and gas industry. The company operates nationally and is especially active in the Saldanha and surrounding areas.
Isithembiso was identified by PetroSA as one of 15 suppliers on their Women Enterprise and Supplier Development Programme, which seeks to ensure that women suppliers of PetroSA benefit from supplier development opportunities by helping build their capacity to be successful, sustainable and competitive businesses. They believe it’s better able to achieve business objectives by developing their suppliers to understand PetroSA’s values and expectations and do the job ‘right’ the first time. The development programme helps minimise compliance risk and develops a culture of quality within the suppliers’ business processes.
Global construction and management consultants, Turner & Townsend, were appointed to enhance the skills and capabilities of the employees of these women-owned businesses. They assessed the skills needs of Isithembiso Suppliers and developed a training plan which they co-ordinated and managed, culminating in Isithembiso’s processes and systems being aligned with the globally recognised ISO 9001:2008 quality standards.
The year-long mentorship programme also resulted in Isithembiso being upgraded from a level 3 BBBEE company to level 2.
Comments Rachel Ramedupe, a consultant for Turner & Townsend, who headed up the programme for Isithembiso: “Since 2008 Turner & Townsend has had a successful working relationship with PetroSA on supplier enterprise development, with our past experience with suppliers in the construction and oil and gas industries providing us with a competitive advantage.”
Says managing member of Isithembiso, Ntsikie Mgayiya: “We joined the programme at a critical time, when current clients required that our company’s systems and processes be aligned with those of ISO 9001:2008 quality standards. Turner & Townsend was quick to understand the objectives and priorities and made positive, quality contributions to our business processes.”
