The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) is invested in addressing governance and regulatory challenges that affect the construction sector, Minister Sihle Zikalala said in an address at the Big 5 Construct Southern Africa conference and exhibition on June 27.

In a keynote address, he spoke about the need for the DPWI and government as a whole to “take the lead in ensuring rebuilding the country”.

“As the government of South Africa, we will take the lead in ensuring that we contribute to rebuilding the country. As part of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, the DPWI is leading the [infrastructure] sector.

“South Africa has a strong core network of infrastructure nationally, yet in the past ten years, we’ve seen a decline in the investment in infrastructure,” he pointed out.

Zikalala added that to finance infrastructure at the scale required to meet the target of the National Development Plan, government and the private sector both needed to play a role in investment.

Government was going to provide about R100-billion in blended finance over this decade for investment in infrastructure, he added.

“This will require collaboration between us and the private sector. A lack of adequate maintenance and investment in infrastructure over a period of time has resulted in the backlog of repair, endangering the functioning of infrastructure and a number of systems”.

He noted that the South African Institution of Civil Engineering’s 2022 Infrastructure Report Card had rated the country’s infrastructure at Grade D, which implies that the country’s infrastructure is poorly maintained and is not coping with current demand.

South Africa loses nearly 41% of treated water owing to leaks.

Further, in the electricity sector, chronic under-investment in upgrading and maintaining distribution networks, distribution plants and equipment, and the impact of illegal connections, had been significant and added many challenges leading to outages, he noted.

“We are mindful that we have a backlog and want to provide our areas that still don’t have necessary infrastructure with all they need, but we need to ensure maintenance,” he explained.

“Through Infrastructure South Africa (ISA), we have developed the National Infrastructure Plan 2050. On top of this, we have Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) that have the potential for development of construction in a number of stages. This includes the just energy transition, green hydrogen and gas projects, and the development of roads and telecommunication networks.

“We have a responsibility to ensure economic growth takes place, as this growth is partly influenced by the built industry. Research indicates that the built environment needs to adapt in terms of technology and must enhance collaboration and make the industry more transparent.”

In terms of public sector capacity, South Africa must address the lack of technical capacity in government departments that work on construction projects, the Minister stressed. 

“The erosion of municipal capacity increases service delivery failures. We support the call by the Council for the Built Environment (CBE) that senior public officials need to acquire professional registration, especially in our municipalities.”

He added that the DPWI – through the support of the Construction Industry Development Board – was capacitating infrastructure clients on the required best practice standards.

This comes in addition to ensuring that aging infrastructure client departments are also capacitated.

“To respond to the call for revitalising the industry, we’re going to focus on key projects. Among others, we’re hoping to ensure the implementation of a robust and capable project pipeline. We have 88 projects that are registered as SIPs.

“We’re going to ensure transformation – in construction and supply of materials – is equally enforced to ensure Africans, women, young people and people with disabilities will participate.”