Construction World March 2015

COMMENT

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For the six years that I have been editor of Construction World I have been attending the Consulting Engineers South Africa’s (CESA) annual media briefing. It is during these briefings that the current president of CESA gives his theme for the year, while reflecting on what was achieved in the preceding year.

The reality The quality of education for poor black South Africans is substandard. South Africa fares appallingly inmaths and science – and without these subjects the training of engineers and related disciplines cannot happen. Thematter is exacerbated by the unemploy- ment rate of 25,4%. Infrastructure development can go a long way in bringing this figure down, but one needs a generation that is equipped with the correct skills to achieve this. Thela says that this actually puts an entire generation at risk; that it contributes to the socio-political disorder and puts even more strain on SA’s already limited financial resources. All in all it arrests any kind of economic growth. The ultimate goal: increasing infrastructure investment The National Development Plan states that 30% of SA’s GDP need to be spent on infra- structure development if it is going to make

any meaningful contribution in the eradication of unemployment/poverty. Coupled with this is an ideal annual growth rate of 5 – 7%. Both will halve the unemployment rate. The reality is that only 22,3% of GDP is spent on infrastruc- ture and the country is not even achieving a 3% growth rate. These facts re-emphasise the need for a dramatic increase in infrastructure development. Thela indicates that this can only be achieved by leveraging private sector resources (thus an increase in public private partnerships), and addressing the inefficiencies in the procurement system (eradicating the lack of planning, inappropriate procurement approaches, better project management capacity, increasing skills and eradicating corruption). These will increase SA’S credit rating which has been downgraded by various rating agencies.

EDITOR Wilhelm du Plessis constr@crown.co.za ADVERTISING MANAGER Erna Oosthuisen ernao@crown.co.za LAYOUT & DESIGN Lesley Testa CIRCULATION Karen Smith The tone of these briefings has ranged from extremely positive (2009 and 2010) and the (increasingly) less than optimistic briefings post the massive local construction boom and the simultaneous world economic crisis. Over the years the messages of these brief- ings have escalated in urgency: the country is faced with severe social, political and economic difficulties. Hand-in-hand with these is the urgent need for infrastructure development. It is a vicious cycle though: you cannot alleviate unemployment without huge infrastructure projects and correct skills, while the correct education levels are needed to support these sustained infrastructure projects. The current CESA president, Abe Thela presented his theme for 2015 recently. ‘Meeting socio-economic challenges through sustained infrastructure investment’ focuses on the role infrastructure plays in socio-economic development. He believes that increased investment in infrastructure will lead to improved skills development.

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Wilhelm du Plessis Twitter: @ConstWorldSA

PUBLISHER Karen Grant PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY Crown Publications cc P O Box 140 BEDFORDVIEW, 2008 Tel: 27 11-622-4770 • Fax: 27 11-615-6108

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The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher.

CONSTRUCTION WORLD MARCH 2015