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Up until a decade or *** ago, the construction industry in South Africa was considered to be one of the strongest pillars of its economy. However, over the past few years, the industry has been plagued with challenges due to a decline in government infrastructure spending, shortage of a skilled workforce, cost overruns and hijacking of construction sites by extortionist groups known as the ‘construction mafia’. This has led to a decline in activities such as building constructions and site preparations. In fact, over the past few years, top construction companies such as Group *, Basil Read and Liviero have shut operations, owing to financial difficulties, impacting thousands of jobs within the construction sector. This has not augured well for the country’s architectural and engineering activities industry, which has witnessed a decline in revenues from *** billion U.S. dollars in 2014 to *** billion U.S. dollars in 2019. Moreover, the outbreak of the corona virus has further added to the industry’s woes as industry operations have come to a virtual standstill. Revenues are expected to fall drastically in the short to medium term.