Civil Engineering June 2021 | Vol 29 No 5

Civil Engineering June 2021 47 i N bR I EF UFH launches R419m student housing development Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Dr Blade Nzimande recently unveiled the University of Fort Hare’s (UFH) new greenfield R419 million student housing development in Alice, Eastern Cape. The Alice Student Village Phase 2 was completed on 11 March 2021 and comprises 12 blocks and 1 440 beds. With the completion of Phase 2 that was built in just over two years, UFH now has 6 049 available beds in Alice, giving the university the ability to accommodate 70% of students on its Alice campus. The Alice Student Village Development comprises five cluster developments and two self-standing blocks. Each of the five clusters comprises three blocks, each with its own courtyard and landscaped gardens. The internal design of the blocks is apartment style, clustering a small number of rooms with a shared bathroom, giving students more privacy and better social integration. In addition, the 1 500 m 2 student centre has spaces for shops and a lecture or meeting space with platform seating. There is also an outdoor concourse for student assemblies. The entire structure was designed with wheelchair accessibility in mind, and the development houses 34 rooms that are accessibility-compliant for students with physical disabilities. The Department of Higher Education and Training contributed a grant of R122 million for the Alice Student Village Phase 2 development, while the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) provided R278 million loan funding and UFH contributed R19.6 mil- lion. The Infrastructure Investment Programme of South Africa, funded by the European Union, awarded a Direct Capital Grant of R28 million to UFH, which the university could draw on to pay the interest portion on the DBSA loan while construction was in process. “The new student village addresses critical student accommodation short- ages in Alice. In two years we built and completed the largest student residence development project in South Africa. An improved and dignified campus life experience is no longer a dream, but a reality for the students of the University of Fort Hare,” says Prof. Sakhela Buhlungu, Vice-Chancellor at UFH. “The completion of this student housing development is an important milestone for the university’s ‘Decade of Renewal’ master plan, which is setting the university on an ambitious trajectory of reinvention in the 21 st century.”  SA cement producers engaging for sustainability South Africa’s cement industry continues to engage government to create conditions that will sustain the sector’s local production capacity and grow market demand. Speaking at the Cemtech International Cement Conference, AfriSam marketing and sales executive Richard Tomes high- lighted the rise in cement imports and the application of the carbon tax as key issues. He argued that the local industry is making steady progress in its climate mitigation journey, and that South Africa is among the leading countries in driving down the carbon footprint in the cement and concrete industry. Tomes pointed out that cement imports are on the increase again, having peaked in 2014 at about 1.2 million tonnes. Importers are generally from countries that do not have a carbon tax like that which was recently applied by the South African government to local producers. Similarly, the importers do not contribute in terms of social and labour plan initiatives, as they do not conduct any mining activities locally, as well as other projects related to the upliftment of local communities. “When you have a situation where importers of cement are not subject to these added costs, it poses a threat to the viability of the local industry and will ultimately have a negative implication on the levels of employment and social transformation,” he warned. These imbalances are exacerbating the stresses arising from the country’s longest ever business cycle contraction, which has seen infrastructure spending decline and has driven some large construction companies into business rescue. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated this downward trajectory, leading to dire conditions in the civils and building industries. “It has become increasingly difficult to maintain profitability in an environment of surplus cement capacity and declining in- frastructure spending by government. The sector’s total installed capacity is currently about 20 million tonnes, with demand at only around 13 million tonnes,” said Tomes. Despite the poor performance of the economy, the South African cement sector continues to improve its climate mitiga- tion performance in terms of carbon footprint. The local industry is a global leader in developing blended cement tech- nology, making use of waste products such as ground granulated blast furnace slag and pulverised fly ash to extend and enhance its cements.  The cement industry offers full beneficiation of a locally mined raw material The new Alice Campus Student Village