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.
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All resources
South Africa
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Technology
What carbon tax does to a cement or steel price
CBAM certificates cost EU importers 75,36 euro a tonne in the first quarter of 2026. The carbon number that reaches an invoice in Boksburg is the R308 a tonne South Africa charges at home.
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Cost & decisions
What your spec is worth in a municipal tender
Municipal distributors sell 44% of South Africa's electricity, and a correctly specified protection device only survives their tender if the document says so.
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Site & delivery
When a municipal contract runs out of money at 95%
Johannesburg Water stopped a tower at 95% because the contract budget was exhausted, and the standing time is now somebody's to carry.
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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.
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Property & facilities
Who approves the quote in a sectional title scheme
There are 130 female sectional title owners for every 100 male owners, and the quote your contractor wrote is still addressed to a single homeowner.
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Cost & decisions
How long retention can be held in South Africa
Retention runs on your contract's clock, not on a statutory one, and on a R3 million job the 5% still held at month nine is R150 000 of yours.
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Cost & decisions
Fuel escalation on a contract you priced in June
Diesel rose R2,94 a litre on 2 September, and whether you recover any of it was decided by a clause you signed three months ago.
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Technology
150MW of data centre, and which trades it buys
MTN is targeting 150MW across South Africa and Nigeria as a minority partner, and the trades that sell into a data centre are settled inside the main contract long before the shell goes up.
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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.
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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.
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Site & delivery
Where to find construction work in a R2 trillion pipeline
Of 263 projects worth R1,99 trillion, the 54 in documentation are the ones that become tenders. The 82 under construction are somebody else's order book.
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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.
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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.
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Cost & decisions
Municipal tariffs rose 8,1% and 10,2% in July 2026
Headline inflation fell to 4,3% while the services a building actually buys went up by twice that, which is why the maintenance budget broke.
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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.
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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.
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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.