Project delivery and engineering consultancy WorleyParsons RSA is answering South Africa’s call for broader economic participation and transformation.

The local company, which is part of the Australian-listed WorleyParsons engineering group that serves the resources and energy sectors globally, has been working intensely with 13 enterprise development companies (EDs) to achieve mutual growth and to promote transformational business development among previously disadvantaged South Africans.

“It’s quite symbiotic. It’s working for us and for them. Plus, it’s the right thing to do,” WorleyParsons RSA CEO Denver Dreyer told Mining Weekly in an exclusive interview, following the company’s outstanding Supplier Grow Conference, attended by 200 people.

Power, infrastructure, mining and oil and gas are the focus areas of WorleyParsons RSA, which is providing the opportunity for emerging businesses to play pivotal roles in the successful delivery of large projects.

“If there’s one thing we Africans do well is we understand the concept of ubuntu and the concept of interdependence,” said Dreyer.

The EDs attend monthly meetings, where pursuits are tracked and new opportunities are brought to the table.
WorleyParsons also has the support of an organisation called Leap, which works with the EDs on a day-to-day basis, providing mentorship and support. In some cases, EDs even use WorleyParsons’ office space.

WorleyParsons’ four divisions of minerals, metals and chemicals; power; infrastructure; and hydrocarbons offer:

• advisory services from master planning and concept work to prefeasibility studies, offered through WorleyParsons’ strategic advisory services arm Advisian;

• feasibility to bankable studies, embracing detailed engineering and project execution;

• brownfield support to the assets that have been handed over, including ongoing maintenance; and

• complex, multibillion-dollar megaproject development and execution, with the EDs having access into all four of these markets.

At the Supplier Grow Conference, at WorleyParsons’ offices in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, EDs were given an opportunity to interact openly with the procurement executives of blue-chip companies, including Glencore, Exxaro, Anglo American Platinum, De Beers and South32.

EDs were given 90 seconds to ‘speed date’, which involved telling their story, selling their services and raising their challenges. On offer from the emerging, previously disadvantaged entities were skills in the fields of infrastructure, roads, water, construction and safety, health, environment and quality, supplemented by the backing of WorleyParsons.

“I’m a patriot at heart, so my thinking is about developing a more inclusive, diverse engineering industry,” Dreyer outlined to Mining Weekly.

When tenders are daunting, EDs are helped through the vendor application process and made aware of the commercial risks.

“We feed off each other and support one another,” Dreyer enthused.