Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Sihle Zikalala visited the Western Cape. Zikalala was visiting the Robben Island world heritage site, which is being revitilised to improve infrastructure and increase the number of visitors .Picture: Ayanda Ndamane / African News Agency (ANA)
Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Sihle Zikalala says the government will need R1.6 trillion to invest in infrastructure in the next few years.
He said they had not invested in infrastructure projects in the last few years due to various challenges.
But the government will need to jack up its plans to ensure more resources are thrown into the infrastructure projects.
State-owned entities have been punted to be the ones driving initiatives on infrastructure.
In the last few years, many SOEs have been affected by a number of problems which has led to poor performance.
The government had maintained that SOEs are drivers of economic growth.
Zikalala, who was replying to a parliamentary question from IFP MP Sanele Zondo, said they will require huge resources to get more infrastructure projects in the pipeline in the next seven years.
“South Africa has seen declining fixed capital investment and economic performance over the past decade. Analysis of this widening investment gap to National Development Plan targeted growth levels, shows that an additional R1.6 trillion in public sector infrastructure investment is required by 2030, over and above that forecasted for current public sector entities,” said Zikalala.
“Delivering an infrastructure-led economic recovery plan will require the government to overcome various challenges currently faced in the infrastructure underspend due to poor project preparation and lack of capability and capacity in the public sector,” he said.
Zikalala said there was a lack of project preparation and this had led to a lack of interest from the private sector.
This would require the government to invest in project preparation.
Once that was done the private sector would start coming on board and they will increase projects in the pipeline.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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