About half of South Africa’s public infrastructure has collapsed or is collapsing. This needs to be addressed urgently, warned the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (Saice).
‘Something has to be done or South Africa may become a failed state’, said Saice President Professor Marianne Vanderschuren at the release of its 2022 Infrastructure Report Card on last week.
The scorecard is based on a five-point scale: ‘A’ is world class, ‘B’ is fit for the future, ‘C’ is satisfactory for now, ‘D’ is at risk of failure and ‘E’ is unfit for purpose.
The overall grade in the report was a ‘D’ compared to a ‘D+’ in 2006; the lowest rating since the report was first published in 2006.
There was an improvement to a ‘C-‘ with the investment made for the Fifa World Cup in 2010 ‘but the trend has been downwards ever since’.
The Gautrain is the only infrastructure sub-sector to receive an ‘A’ rating. Its infrastructure is in good condition and there are sound maintenance practices.
The four sub-sectors to receive ‘E’ ratings are the rail branch lines; Prasa branch lines; sanitation and wastewater in all but urban areas; and provincial and municipal unpaved roads.
Vanderschuren said there are centres of excellence in the country, such as the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa), Gautrain, Sanral, the Eskom transmission network, ICT, oil and gas pipelines, and the fishing harbours.
According to Treasury, South Africa needs to invest 30% of GDP in infrastructure. In 2020, it was 13.7%, less than half of what we should be doing.
‘Unless we invest in social infrastructure properly, we cannot give people the mobility to find jobs, you can’t keep them healthy, you can’t educate them so that they get jobs,’ said Vanderschuren.