Govt partners with private sector for ‘big ticket’ infrastructure projects

Census 22 shows there has been an increase in the delivery of basic services in the last decade, says President Cyril Ramaphosa, and all that’s now needed is to improve the quality of those services.

Ramaphosa, who was answering questions in the National Assembly yesterday, said SA would continue with the inflation-targeting monetary policy approach to curb inflation – and there was hope the policy will bear fruit in time.

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Ramaphosa elaborated on the government’s plan to build “big ticket” mega infrastructure projects in collaboration with the private sector. He said the new approach to public-private partnership would ensure funders also maintained, operated and transferred the projects they built.

For some time, the government had been focusing on finding an effective mechanism to undertake big ticket infrastructure projects.

“We want those projects to move ahead,” he said.

Economic growth

The projects were undertaken as part of the government’s desire to achieve economic growth. The projects under the microscope are water works projects, which would be accompanied by construction of schools and houses.

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Ramaphosa said this task would have taken 75 years to come to fruition if the new innovative funding approach had not been adopted.

There would be build-operated transfers where private partners were not just investors, but would also maintain the infrastructure. They would also operate the big ticket installation projects and, in the end, transfer them.

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“At all material times we will be having a developmental approach to make sure all that is done in an affordable way. Yes there will be another speeding up of processes such as the PPP process which we are now going to ensure gets off the ground,” Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa vows to deal with construction mafia

One of the large-scale infrastructure projects is the second phase of the Lesotho Highlands water scheme. Ramaphosa vowed to deal with the notorious construction mafia that hijacked projects and extorted money from construction companies on site.

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The government would establish the infrastructure build forum – a multi-stakeholder collaboration against fraud, corruption and maladministration in the sector. Also, a police team is to be set up to secure the construction of the projects without hindrance, he said.

– ericn@citizen.co.za