Bigen Africa project wins second Govan Mbeki Award

Bigen Africa, a leading infrastructure development company with a strong presence in southern Africa and a growing African footprint, is responsible for the design and site supervision of a project that has, for the second year running, won a prestigious Govan Mbeki Housing Award.

The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality has attained Best Informal Settlement Upgrade and the Best Rural Human Settlement Project for the Second Creek Human Settlement Development, where Bigen Africa plays a key engineering role.

“Bigen Africa’s Land Development division is responsible for the design and site supervision of the construction of internal civil engineering services as well as external and internal connections of the water and sewer,” says Brian Arthur, Bigen Africa’s Project Engineer on the project. “The portfolio includes project management of the building of the top structures.”

As a provider of engineering, management consulting, development financing and advisory services, Bigen Africa has successfully delivered cost-effective, sustainable infrastructure projects in South Africa and several other African countries, including Namibia, Botswana, Malawi, Angola, Nigeria and Ghana.

The Second Creek Development is located on the southern side of the Parkside township in East London, Eastern Cape. The purpose of the project is to construct 265 low-cost housing units, with basic services, to accommodate impoverished families who have been living in informal dwellings next to the decommissioned Second Creek waste disposal site.

“The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality initiated the project when it became aware of the desperate circumstances of these people, some of whom were daily scavenging the dumps,” says Brian.  “The project reflects both the sentiment of the Govan Mbeki Awards, named after the man whose mission in life was to preserve human dignity and provide homes for everyone, and Bigen Africa’s vision of developing sustainable infrastructure that will improve the quality of life of all.”
 

Bigen Africa’s strategy of providing sustainable solutions over the entire life cycle of the project includes practising the company creed of “doing good while doing business” through channelling some of the employment opportunities to the local community. This provides a much-needed opportunity for community members to generate income over the short term while also improving their future prospects of employment through the skills they acquire.

The purpose of the Govan Mbeki Awards is to reward municipalities, contractors and the business sector in providing housing for people who would otherwise not have access to it. Bigen Africa has previously also been instrumental in achieving a Govan Mbeki Housing Award for Best Priority Project for the Klarinet Integrated Human Settlement Development Project in Mpumalanga, where it provided a one-stop project structuring and management service, as well as engineering services to the development arm of Absa.