Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson has announced a series of reform measures aimed at strengthening safety, accountability and infrastructure delivery.

In his keynote address at the second Public Works and Infrastructure Summit, held in Johannesburg, on July 3, Macpherson said this framework would be important in assisting the built environment industry restore market and public confidence following a string of fatal building failures across South Africa.

The summit, themed “From Collapse to Confidence: Strengthening Public and Building Safety, Asset Management and Infrastructure Delivery” marked the launch of the National Built Environment and Construction Safety Framework, which is viewed as an important step towards strengthening safety, accountability and collaboration across the built environment system.

The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), through State body the Council for the Built Environment (CBE), will also be gazetting CBE Public Interest and Safety Regulations.

These regulations focus on identifying, reporting and responding to structural and dolomitic occurrences, improving compliance in the erection of buildings and adhering to certification scheme requirements in line with the principles established in the South African National Bureau of Standards (SANS) 17024.

Macpherson has also endorsed the launch of the Public Infrastructure Index as a way of providing a periodic overview of how key industry stakeholders perceive the performance, readiness, capability and credibility of South Africa’s infrastructure system.

“For too long, we have spoken about confidence in infrastructure delivery without having a clear, regular and structured way to measure how key stakeholders perceive the performance of the system.

“[The Public Infrastructure Index] will help us track whether confidence is improving, identify bottlenecks, test whether reforms are being felt, and move from anecdote to evidence,” he stated.

Moreover, Macpherson noted that the broader mandate of public infrastructure was about ensuring safe access to services and restoring confidence in the State's ability to plan, regulate, maintain and deliver sustainable infrastructure.

He cited the rapid construction of a temporary repatriation center by the DPWI alongside the Limpopo provincial government close to the Beitbridge border post, located between South Africa and Zimbabwe, within 96 hours as an example of what could be achieved when urgency, capability and purpose aligned.

However, he signalled that rebuilding confidence in the built environment sector also required confronting the failures exposed by recent building collapses in George, in the Western Cape; Redcliffe, in KwaZulu-Natal; and Ormonde, in Gauteng.

Macpherson acknowledged that those incidents highlighted shortcomings in construction quality, oversight, professional accountability and regulatory enforcement.

“We remember George. We remember Radcliffe. We remember Ormonde. The George building collapse remains one of the most painful construction disasters in South Africa’s recent history. It claimed 34 lives and injured 28 people.

“We must be honest that there is a fundamental challenge in how the built environment is regulated in South Africa,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Macpherson said the CBE has an important role to play given that the organisation sits at the centre of the built environment profession and can help government strengthen professional standards, public safety and confidence in this sector.

He also announced that he had recommended the reappointment of CBE CEO Dr Msizi Myeza for a further five-year term and concluded his address by arguing that the success of this year’s summit would be judged by the quality of discussions held, with an impetus placed on adequately addressing the regulatory and safety issues that were prevalent within the built environment.

“Let us use today to move from collapse to confidence, from disaster to excellence, from neglect to maintenance, and from plans to projects,” Macpherson said.