By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday that the government will step up efforts to drive investment in infrastructure development to boost economic growth and job creation.
In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa highlighted the critical role of large-scale construction projects and consistent infrastructure maintenance in stimulating economic recovery and improving service delivery.
“To achieve the levels of growth, our country needs to create enough jobs for its people. We need far more construction and more reliable and consistent infrastructure maintenance. That is why infrastructure development is a strategic priority for government,” said Ramaphosa. “We will intensify our efforts to ensure that infrastructure investment by both the state and business drives economic recovery, growth, and job creation.”
He emphasized that investments in key infrastructure — including airports, roads, railways, public transit systems, water, energy, and telecoms — are essential for economic expansion. Infrastructure development, he noted, has a multiplier effect, driving productivity, employment, and improved public services.
Ramaphosa acknowledged that capital investment from both public and private sectors had been in decline for years due to economic challenges, resource misallocation through state capture, bureaucratic hurdles, and low investor confidence. However, he said reforms and initiatives were now yielding results.
A recent report by Nedbank found that the total value of new projects announced by both the public and private sectors last year amounted to R445-billion.
“This was more than double the year before and represents the largest fixed investment in infrastructure in South Africa since 2021, Ramaphosa says.”
It is significant that more than 78% of the value of this infrastructure investment was from government and State-owned enterprises (SOEs)
According to Statistics South Africa, capital spending by SOEs, national, provincial and local government continues to rise.
This while private sector entities announced investment plans in 2024 with a total value of R95-billion, including an R18-billion mixed-use development in Gauteng, a R4-billion investment by Volkswagen to upgrade its Kariega facility in the Eastern Cape and a new private university for the Western Cape.
During the State of the Nation Address and debate, government outlined a number of infrastructure projects already under way across the country.
These include projects in water and sanitation, human settlements, renewable energy, recreational, heritage and maritime infrastructure. They also include road rehabilitation, the refurbishing of State-owned buildings to attract investors and upgrading health facilities.
Ramaphosa says the work of Infrastructure South Africa (ISA), which was established under the sixth administration to lead infrastructure planning, management and delivery, has enabled progress in the implementation of the designated Strategic Infrastructure Projects (SIPs) in areas such as energy, water and sanitation, student accommodation and trasnport.
To date, 34 out of 50 SIPs are in implementation stage, to the value of R281-billion. An additional pipeline of catalytic projects to the value of R21-billion will break ground this year, Ramaphosa confirms.
To ensure construction projects get going faster and are finished sooner, ISA has launched a project preparation fund worth R180-million to prepare and package infrastructure projects across government.
Recently revised regulations for public-private partnerships will help to further unlock private-sector expertise and funds for infrastructure.