Site & delivery
The money spent before your tender exists
About R1.8 million of preparation at Matjhabeng helped unlock an R800 million DBSA facility, long before any contractor could price it.
Read→
All resources
Policy
Site & delivery
Infrastructure procurement gateway review, after the ruling
The draft regulations that would have made gateway reviews compulsory fell with the Procurement Act, and the risk they targeted did not fall with them.
Read→
Compliance
How to get on a preferred supplier list, and stay on
Getting on a list takes a morning. Being called off one depends on something the Competition Commission has now measured properly.
Read→
Compliance
Pre-export verification of conformity, and what remains
The dtic withdrew its certificate rule for certain Chinese imports two days after it was due to start. The compulsory specifications and site check stay.
Read→
Site & delivery
Structural steel shortage in South Africa, and the waivers
SAISC now backs tariff waivers one ITAC application at a time, and counts steel whose quality is still to be demonstrated as short.
Read→
Compliance
Vendor registration for contractors, after the court ruling
The Constitutional Court struck down the Public Procurement Act on 17 September, so you register exactly where you registered before the ruling.
Read→
Compliance
How to check if a plumber is registered in South Africa
The register answers in two minutes, and a comment window closing 24 October may make it decide who hears your complaint when the work fails.
Read→
Compliance
Standard for Uniformity, and what it tells a client to check
The draft second edition does not touch your grading. It rewrites how every organ of state applies the register. Comments closed 30 September 2026.
Read→
Cost & decisions
Buildings grew, construction works shrank
South Africa's economy contracted in the second quarter while construction grew, and the gap between buildings and works tells you which jobs to chase.
Read→
Cost & decisions
Steel safeguard duty and what it does to your rate
ITAC added South Korean hot-rolled steel to the safeguard on 4 September 2026 at 11 percent, and the origin of your fabricator's coil now sets part of the rate.
Read→
Technology
What carbon tax does to a cement or steel price
CBAM cost EU importers 75,36 euro a tonne in early 2026. The carbon number that reaches an invoice in Boksburg is the R308 a tonne South Africa charges at home.
Read→
Compliance
The borehole registration deadline 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→
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.