Gauteng needs R1.8-trillion over the next 15 years to deliver the infrastructure required to support the economic development of South Africa’s economic powerhouse, Gauteng Premier David Makhura said on Thursday.

With some 412 infrastructure projects planned over a 15-year period, there is a deficit of some R1.6-trillion, with the Gauteng provincial government’s own allocation being less than R50-billion over the medium-term framework.

“This is not enough. We need more,” Gauteng Economic Development MEC Lebogang Maile told delegates at the second Gauteng Infrastructure Investment Conference, in Midrand.

Infrastructure investment, maintenance and service delivery are the “lifeblood” of the necessary social and economic transformation of South Africa’s most populous province, he said.

Makhura, reiterated that this remained one of the top priorities for the province’s Transformation, Modernisation and Reindustrialisation Programme, explaining that major institutional and policy intervention was required to reignite growth and promote inclusivity.

He pointed out that for every R1 spent on infrastructure, 92c made its way into the Gauteng economy.

However, government just did not have the funds to meet the current or future infrastructure requirements and never will.

Makhura stressed the importance of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in mobilising the resources required to meet Gauteng’s infrastructure needs.

He further noted that the creation of an enabling environment needed to be accelerated to ensure private sector participation in infrastructure development.

There is also a need to cut red tape and streamline approval processes.

“We need to play our role as government in restoring confidence in the economy and removing uncertainties in our economy,” Maile noted, adding that, without the support of the private sector, the country would face difficulties in turning the embattled economy around.

Many panellists at the conference concurred that partnerships were key to infrastructure development; however, they suggested that the structure of tapping into financial instruments through partnerships should be revamped, particularly as many challenges remained in unlocking the funds that are believed to be available and lying in wait.

Bluefield Investment MD Ravi Naidoo indicated that funds are available for infrastructure projects; it was just a matter of partnership structures being formed that could bring those funds to bear in the right framework.

“Infrastructure investment in Africa needs good matchmakers,” he commented, discussing the formations of partnerships and the importance of the right mix of partners, the understanding of the risks involved and acknowledging the roles and the limits of the partners.

There was no doubt that there was a strong need to invest in infrastructure through partnerships, said Gauteng Infrastructure Funding Agency CEO Oupa Seabi, adding that government and the private sector should unite to fast-track the identified infrastructure projects over the next decade and a half.

However, Gauteng Partnership Fund (GPF) CEO Boniwe Muvevi pointed out that forming PPPs, in the traditional sense, tended to be a lengthy undertaking by virtue of the processes that need to be followed, indicating a need to refine and streamline the processes.

He added that the partnerships GPF had formed fell out of the traditional PPP structure.

GPF is the implementing agent for 12 Gauteng megaprojects, responsible for raising funds to supplement government’s limited funding.

While the PPP defined a framework that institutions adhere to – the principles of which should remain unchanged – the process required efficiencies, he explained.

Further, there is a need to show a return with technically ready, financially feasible and ready-to-be-implemented projects in which investors will be eager to participate.

“The planning issues are where we need to focus,” Muvevi concluded.