Site & delivery
cidb grading levels explained, against real adverts
Nine grades, nine ceilings. The grade that earns is the one that matches work actually on the board this week, not the one at the top of the table.
Read→
All resources
Compliance
Compliance
What to do when a client will not pay a certificate
The contract already carries the remedy, and the compliance file that keeps you on site quietly expires while you wait for the money.
Read→
Compliance
Letter of good standing, what it actually covers
It covers the contractor's own employees for injury at work. It does not cover your tenants, your visitors or a child hurt on your property.
Read→
Compliance
Contractor panel registration, and what to have ready
The application takes an hour. What takes three weeks is chasing documents that could not be issued until something else existed first.
Read→
Compliance
The borehole registration deadline that closed in July
Every commercial borehole had to be registered for water use by about 23 July 2026, and the sanction for missing it is criminal rather than administrative.
Read→
Compliance
The cidb blacklist and the contract you already signed
The Minister counts 52 contractors off the cidb register against two in its first 22 years, and his number is already behind the gazette. Nobody writes to the client either way.
Read→
Compliance
Construction Regulations appointments after four collapses
Two written appointments under the Construction Regulations are the client's. The rest belong to the contractor. Investigators went looking for that paperwork.
Read→
Compliance
Who may issue an electrical certificate of compliance
A GreenCard is not a registration, and the PV installer holding one may have no statutory authority to do the electrical work on your roof.
Read→
Compliance
The restricted suppliers list follows the director
Treasury has recorded 35 companies and 45 directors after Eskom's referrals, and a listed name walks into the next company you register.
Read→
Compliance
Five registers to check before a contractor starts
Four of the five checks that decide whether a contractor may lawfully work on your site are free, and most clients run only one of them.
Read→
The Arabella Brief
What changed this week, and what it costs you on Monday.
One email on a Friday, covering the week from Friday to Thursday so the week is closed when it is written. What actually changed, everything with a date on it, one development run through what it means for a contractor with forty people, and what we got wrong. A thin week is a short issue.