The level of government subsidies for development programmes was not sustainable and alternative sources of funding needed to be found, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan told a KwaZulu-Natal Institute for Architecture conference in Durban on Friday.

Addressing the conference theme – ‘Calling for a national spatial revolution’ – the Minister acknowledged that reforming urban spaces was a precursor to economic growth; however, he pointed to fundamental changes that were needed to realise this across a broad spectrum.

Referring to funding, he acknowledged that the National Treasury was looking for new ideas on how to fund development projects and said it was working with metropolitan municipalities, which were capable of borrowing larger sums in their own right, to ensure they “borrowed wisely”.

In addition, at a number of points during his keynote address, Gordhan stressed the importance of public–private partnerships when it came to the future roll-out of infrastructure projects.

“It is important to [create] a culture of cooperation between the public and private sector and one of trust when it comes to sharing resources between the public and private sectors,” he said. 

Gordhan pointed out that the architectural profession could play an important part in driving spatial development to achieve growth. While this meant the righting of past wrongs when, through apartheid, the country created divided living spaces, it also demanded ensuring that critical issues that impacted on the poor and vulnerable were addressed.

He said it was important to design the suburbs of the future “upwards instead of outwards” in order to do away with the need for expensive transport that was impacting on the poor and vulnerable who were travelling unacceptably long distances to work or to seek job opportunities.

Referring to the newly released International Monetary Fund report that estimated South Africa’s growth would be just 0.1%, he noted that the Treasury was “more optimistic” but added that it needed to be around 3%.

He stressed that strategic reform and targeted government interventions would be guided by the National Development Plan (NDP) and the President’s State of the Nation Address. Key focus areas would be fiscal reform, labour issues, infrastructure, bank and capital markets and market regulation, besides others.

He also highlighted the need to revitalise agriculture and agroprocessing, advance beneficiation of minerals and metals rather than rely on the export of raw materials and moves to “reindustrialise” the country. 

He pointed out that urban planners and municipalities needed to provide facilities to support entrepreneurship, particularly in villages and rural areas.

Investment was “a huge requirement” for the future but, given both the local and global economies, investors were risk averse and were pursuing short-term yields, he noted.

Gordhan also identified boosting State-owned enterprises, the greater roll-out of broadband, implementing water and sanitation projects and developing transport infrastructure as critical areas to generate growth.

“The challenge is not to reinvent the NDP but to be decisive about what we should stop doing,” he said, challenging delegates to provide him with a list of do’s and don’ts at the conclusion of the conference. 

He stressed that it was important to manage relationships between elite politicians and citizens so the latter did not feel disempowered and could be confident that those representing them would act in their best interests and not just certain sectors.

He said government was looking at dealing with delays in regulatory approval for projects, which was a headache for investors.

He also urged municipalities to assist the poor by providing secure tenure and access to housing while also implementing good land use management and working towards modernising spatial development control mechanisms.

Already, various government departments were working towards a new era of spatial planning and land use management in South Africa, he noted.