AOA BREAKING NEWS – FEBRUARY 2021
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A SUMMARY OF THE JBCC PUBLICATION
JBCC 2020 AND ALL THAT – A practical application by Prof MJ Maritz[1]
The construction contracting arena is especially fraught with risks of all descriptions, and a thorough understanding of the contractual rights and obligations of the various parties to the different contracts is essential to anyone involved in this field. Such understanding can be very rewarding and enjoyable, but participants must learn and observe the rules, or they will neither enjoy the activity nor be successful at it. The same applies to construction activities. It may be a chore, but learning the rules under which the industry operates is an essential prerequisite to success.
The acronym ‘JBCC’ stands for the Joint Building Contracts Committee. This is an organisation established in 1984 by various construction-related entities. It is now fully representative of all the role-players in the Built Environment and includes the professions, contractors’/subcontractors’ associations, the Black Business Council for the Built Environment, and the South African Property Owners Association. In the building sector of the construction industry in South Africa, the JBCC Agreements are by far the most used and enjoy wide acceptance. They are also widely used in other African countries such as Botswana and Lesotho, but also others.
One of JBCC’s main functions is to publish, and update as necessary, construction agreements and related back-up documents. Its first editions were published in 1991, and since then there have been various editions, published at varying intervals. The latest 2018/2020 editions contain important changes from previous editions, and this book not only highlights these changes, but focusses on the interpretation and understanding of the contractual conditions that users, especially contractors and subcontractors, have to deal with on their construction projects.
