South Africa shoots itself in the foot

South Africa has been warned about the collapse of its infrastructure for years, with the government only waking up to the reality when it is almost too late. 

The country’s infrastructure is dominated by projects completed over 30 years ago, which have design lives that are close to ending. 

These pieces of infrastructure, from national highways to water pipes, demand significant maintenance to be kept in operation. As they get older, the cost to maintain them only rises. 

However, the growth in government spending over the past 15 years has largely gone towards consumption in the form of public sector wages and not investment. 

This has dire consequences for South Africa’s infrastructure and its economic growth, with load-shedding, logistics bottlenecks, and water shortages all being symptoms of declining investment. 

Stellenbosch University civil engineering Professor Richard Walls told Newzroom Afrika that none of this can come as a surprise, with multiple warnings being issued over the past decade. 

“None of the things happening now are a surprise. Many organisations have been doing excellent work for many years, flagging concerns,” Walls said. 

“These organisations have developed guidelines and produced recommendations. An example is the South African Institute for Civil Engineers (SAICE), which produces an infrastructure report card every few years.” 

Ten years ago, SAICE rated South Africa’s infrastructure as C, and now, in SAICE’s latest report, it has deteriorated to a D rating. On its current path, the country is heading towards an E, meaning unfit for purpose.

Walls explained that, in some areas, South Africa is doing relatively well with regard to infrastructure, such as national roads, airports, and heavy haul mines. 

“Other areas have significant problems. Water has become a major crisis at the supply level and municipal level, in terms of maintenance,” Walls said. 

“Some entities and some municipalities are doing well, and other things are crumbling to pieces and having a massive impact on service delivery and the quality of life of our people.” 

Fix the root cause

Oftentimes, the failure of infrastructure, in the form of water shortages, load-shedding, and logistics bottlenecks, are symptoms of underlying issues. 

“One of the things you see is that when those problems occur, those are symptoms. Often, we want to rush in and fix the symptoms quickly,” Walls said. 

“But, to get rid of the symptoms, you need to deal with underlying problems. It will vary from municipality to municipality and from department to department.” 

However, there are some common challenges regarding infrastructure across South Africa, such as corruption and a lack of skills. 

These issues plague service delivery at a local and national level, with these challenges also not being easily solvable by throwing more money at them.

“There has been corruption. It has been identified in many cases. Sometimes, it is the lack of expertise in particular departments,” Walls said. 

Corruption can come in the form of money not being used for what it should. For example, revenue generated by the sale of water or electricity may be used for salary increases, rather than maintaining infrastructure. 

It can also come in more blatant forms, where the wrong contractor wins the wrong tender and cannot execute the project. 

“There is also a lot of red tape. When we are building and producing infrastructure, there is a lot of red tape that contractors and engineers have to go through,” Walls said. 

“Often, it becomes more about ticking all the right boxes than necessarily providing infrastructure. So, when the focus is not service delivery, and it is about ticking various political boxes, it becomes a challenge.” 

Another significant hurdle is the lack of capital that can be invested into infrastructure in South Africa, with it having a R4 trillion funding gap. 

“The need is urgent. South Africa has experienced consistent underinvestment in infrastructure for three decades, with only a brief spike around the 2010 World Cup,” Stanlib’s Johan Marnewick said.

“A structural constraint in the domestic financial system is that local capital markets are relatively shallow and concentrated compared to developed economies. Deepening capital markets is not merely a financial ambition but a developmental imperative.” 

Increased investment of this sort is vital for South Africa’s economy, with it being a key driver for sustained economic growth.