Developmental intervention impact on project environments

This paper investigates the impact of government intervention on the construction fraternity over a 15-year period during which the government of South Africa was developing and implementing new policies, designed to redress the ills of the apartheid past. Construction was identified as the industry through which the wealth of the nation was invested, and targeted as a vehicle for social development. The paper presents the findings of a literature survey; however, little was found that described the impact of interventions on existing firms and project staff. In order to identify this, the results of a series of questionnaire surveys, conducted over a 6-year period ending in 2009, were used. The findings show that interventions had a significant impact on all of the role players in the industry but that project staff, in particular, bore the main impact of that which was intended by the interventions, together with secondary impacts which were not directly intended.