Brotherhood
October 10, 1973 , then a public holiday, changed the lives and careers of the two Laker brothers, Albé and Siebrits.
Both were enrolled as full-time engineering students at the time, but due to financial constraints they also worked full-time. This double role was taking its toll.
Housing project completed in 2000 in Temperance Town, Gordon's Bay
On that day in 1973, while installing a sewer house connection for a friend to further their income, the neighbours asked the brothers to also do their installations. Before the Lakers realized what was happening, approximately R30 000 worth of quotes were given. The brothers never returned to the lecture rooms and learnt their first lesson the hard way: turnover was not profit. “Construction, especially sub-contracting, was not for the soft and lighthearted,” says Siebrits Laker.
4 November 2004.
Lwandle housing handover.
Marius Fransman, minister of housing and local government and a recipient.
National acclaim
From a humble start as sub-contractors utilizing exclusively labour intensive construction methods, ASLA grew to one of the leading companies in the building and construction industry. The company provides employment to more than a 1 000 families on an ongoing basis.
The team who originally helped with the design and building of the housing concept. Left, Basil Hendriks. Right, Danie Vercuil.
Pioneering work in the subsidised housing process as well as continuous in-house research and development from the early days of the Riversdal project in 1977, have led to ASLA Devco receiving the Institute for Housing of S.A.'s Housing Developer of the Year award for the Western Cape in 2002.
In 2004 ASLA Devco received the Institute for Housing of South Africa's National Housing Developer of the Year award. Most recently ASLA Construction was awarded the prestigious Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut's Business of the Year in the Helderberg area.
Through community-based project involvement more than 15 000 affordable houses have been handed over to beneficiaries.
Approach to housing
• The ability to package, manage and create a unique, cost-effective financial model of cross subsidisation between residential and non-residential development components to the benefit of the beneficiaries.
• Integrity and commitment in forming a partnership with the local authority and beneficiary community, taking the responsibility and risk to successfully solve the problems relating to the housing needs in the area.
• An innovative approach to modeling affordable housing options and their ongoing national and international research regarding new tendencies in the housing market.
• A designed and patented top structure (Patent No 141731), which secures maximum value for money for the beneficiaries and also maximizes job opportunities for less skilled persons from the beneficiary community.
• The ability to provide the management skills to successfully complete housing projects and to provide a complete project.
Building better communities
As soon as a project is identified, a Beneficiary Committee is elected to represent the community.
All town planning, land-use issues and design standards on services and top structures are workshopped with the Beneficiary Committee before submission for approval to the relevant authorities.
The prioritisation and administration of the waiting list and the allocation of top structures are done in consultation with the Beneficiary Committee.
On all housing projects, whether conventional Greenfields projects or PHP projects, about 80% of the required workforce is recruited from the beneficiary community. This recruitment is preferably from the unemployed and unskilled as envisaged in the Expanded Public Works Program and the CETA strategies.
The remaining 20% are permanent employees of ASLA, consisting of skilled specialists for specific employment categories, i.e equipment operators, drivers, survey assistants, qualified artisans and administration personnel, who act as mentors until a certain level of skills has been transferred. After the skills transfer has taken place, local labour is employed as sub-contractors with the necessary assistance on legal and business requirements.
A highly skilled team
15 September: Western Cape Housing award
F.l.t.r: Marius Botha, Director. John Brits, Director. Marius Fransman, minister of housing and local government. Albe Laker, Managing Director. Johan Verwey, Director and Schalk Loots, Director.
The company has a history of successfully completing many contracts with challenging circumstances and specifications. Managed by a highly competent management team consisting of many qualified engineers and professional staff, the ASLA Group continues to be the innovative leader on many fronts.
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