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WIDESPREAD IGNORANCE ON PRECAST CONCRETE STANDARDS SEWS CONFUSION, AND AIDS COLLUSION
June 19,
2023 857 857 
Judging by the number of complaints received by the Concrete Manufacturers Association (CMA) it is apparent that many construction professionals still believe that the Bureau of Standards (SABS) is the custodian of South African National standards as well as the only certification provider in South Africa.
“There is widespread confusion as to what constitutes a national standard for precast concrete products, who is the custodian of these standards, and who is accredited to certify that the standards are being met in the production process,” says CMA director, Henry Cockcroft.
“We have been alerted by our members and our certification body, CMACS (CMA Certification Services), to numerous instances in which tender documents display this confusion. A typical example often occurs in the specification of precast concrete pavers. Instead of declaring that a paver comply with SANS 1058, the national paving standard, it states that the product should carry SABS certification or be SABS compliant.
“There are 16 precast concrete standards which are all SANS (South African National Standards) and not SABS standards, and they all fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Trade and Industry and Competition (DTIC).
“Therefore any tender document which specifies a national standard should either name the specific SANS standard or, failing that, should call for SANS compliance. There should be no mention of the SABS in any tender document because there is no longer any such thing as a SABS standard,” says Cockcroft.
Correctly stamped culverts which show the SANS certification mark and the name of the certifier.
The Bureau of Standards is a state-owned enterprise with two predominant divisions, namely the Standards Division and SABS Commercial (Pty) Ltd. The former is involved in the creation and updating of SANS standards on behalf of the DTIC, while the latter is a private company, run as a business concern and involved in the testing and certification of products in compliance with the DTIC’s SANS specifications.
“Although SABS Commercial (Pty) Ltd is one of the bodies accredited to certify precast concrete products to SANS standards, it is no longer the country’s sole certification auditing body as it once was. After the introduction of the Standards Act in 2008, the custody of South Africa’s national standards were transferred from the Bureau of Standards to the DTIC. And since then anybody or organisation can apply to become a standards certifier, provided they are accredited by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS).
“Therefore tender documents which state that a product should be SABS certified are not only misleading but are flouting the law and the Competitions Act. Because specifying who the certification body should be, be it CMACS, the SABS or any other certification body, precludes those companies which have used alternative certification auditors from tendering.
“This practice, whether through ignorance or intention, limits opportunity to specific suppliers, promoting favouritism, collusion and price-fixing. Therefore precast concrete producers should make sure that their consultants, i.e. engineers, architects and other professionals, are conversant with certification practice,” advises Cockcroft.
SANAS accredits businesses concerned with product certification in terms of section 22(2)(b) of the Accreditation for Conformity Assessment, Calibration and Good Laboratory Practice Act 2006, Act 19 of 2006. CMACS was first accredited to certify precast concrete products in 2017 and since then, as is legally mandated, CMACS is audited annually and gets re-accredited by SANAS as an accredited certification body every three years.
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