08 April 2011 - The  Metropolitan Oliver Empowerment Awards (the ‘Olivers’) are well-known for celebrating the South Africa’s foremost champions of empowerment in the public and private sectors, including major corporates and small, medium and micro enterprises.

The awards are hosted every year by Impumelelo, a pioneering publication dedicated to black business success, and organised by Topco Media in partnership with headline sponsor Metropolitan.

This year, Aurecon was a finalist in the Basic & General Industries category. “This is an important signifier of the group’s transformation efforts,” comments Gustav Rohde, Aurecon’s Chief Executive Africa Middle East.

“Since achieving democracy in 1994, South Africa has strived to create for its citizens an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom. Achieving this requires both economic and social development. Aurecon is acutely aware of this and is playing an important role in supporting Government’s vision of growth, development and stability through implementation of its PRO Aurecon programme,” he comments.

The programme is a comprehensive, people-driven, corporate, citizenship programme. Internally, the programme focuses on transformation and skills development. ‘Transformation’ involves addressing the inequalities of the past by affording previously disadvantaged groups equal opportunities, while targeted ‘skills development’ programmes are a means of ensuring the continued strengthening of the strong technical skills base for which the company has become so well-known.

Externally, the focus lies on the communities in which the company operates, with the aim of supporting these communities financially by way of donations and also through outreach programmes which our staff participate in.

“We are extremely proud of this achievement,” comments Rohde. “Our finalist status confirms Aurecon’s successful on-going transformation.”