Well Maintained, Functional Infrastructure Critical For Economic Growth – Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa says although South Africa continues to rank in the top five African countries with the best infrastructure, more can be done to improve its development.

The President was addressing the nation through his weekly newsletter on Monday.

He highlighted that good infrastructure can be the foundation of greater and faster economic growth and addressing poverty.

“However for this world class infrastructure to continue to support our developmental goals, it has to be properly, effectively and efficiently maintained. And decisions on infrastructure investment have to respond to the growing need and upgraded appropriately.

“We have good quality infrastructure, but in far too many instances it is not being properly maintained and upgraded. Last year, the South African Institution of Civil Engineering gave the country’s social infrastructure a D rating, with E being failed or failing. Passenger rail scored particularly low, achieving an E,” he said.

The President warned that neglecting infrastructure maintenance can have “detrimental consequences”.

“We are seeing accidents, disease outbreaks and other tragedies that in a number of instances have been associated with dilapidated infrastructure.

“The maintenance of public infrastructure is often the responsibility of local government. It remains of concern that municipalities are failing to spend conditional grants allocated to them for maintenance and upgrades of infrastructure.

“Infrastructure Grant was being spent by municipalities. This grant is for upgrading and building new infrastructure and rehabilitating existing infrastructure,” he said.

President Ramaphosa said municipalities, particularly those that are smaller, do not have the capacity to implement infrastructure plans.

He added that however, there are those municipalities “spending conditional grants successfully and timeously”.

“For example, approximately 91% of funding allocated to municipalities to fund reconstruction and rehabilitation after floods in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal was spent by the respective municipalities.

“This illustrates that with the necessary support, technical assistance, planning and coordination, the problem of municipal underspending on public infrastructure can be overcome,” he said.

In this regard, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, National Treasury and provincial and national government continue to step up support for municipalities.

“Because of its vital developmental function, we continue to prioritise investment in infrastructure across government. Construction is underway on several bulk water, housing, energy and roads projects. Together with better infrastructure maintenance, we are determined that these investments will make a big difference in people’s lives.

“When social infrastructure is well-maintained not only do citizens benefit, but businesses are also supported and the economy as a whole grows and develops,” President Ramaphosa said. – SAnews.gov.za