Construction World August 2016

9 SEPTEMBER 2016 ENTRIES CLOSE 2 16 BEST PR O JECTS

COMMENT

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Future growth in African construction will be in cities. By 2050 the world’s urban population will have increased by two thirds, up from 3,9 billion to a projected 6,3 billion people. This is according to the United Nations’ estimates. Nearly 90% of this growth will take place in Africa and Asia, resulting in over 20% of the world’s urban population living in African cities.

Africa is home to seven rapidly growing megacities: Cairo (Egypt), Accra (Ghana), Johannesburg-Pretoria (South Africa), Khartoum (Sudan), Kinshasa-Brazzaville (Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo), Lagos (Nigeria) and Nairobi (Kenya). PICTURED: the Johannesburg CBD.

Sustainable Construction World, our second sustainable supple- ment, will be published in October. Although green building is still very much in its infancy in South Africa, it is becoming vital. Support this supplement with advertising or editorial.

In sub-Saharan Africa the populationwill increase to 2,4 billion by 2050 (in 2013 it was 1,1 billion) – most of this growth will be in cities. Estimates indicate that the area will need some 40 million tonnes of new cement tomeet the infrastructure needs of this escalating urbanisation. Getting it right This is, however, dependent on whether local governments can focus on more effective infrastructure delivery procurement. So says professional services firm, Deloitte Africa. The company’s Jeanne-Pierre Labuschagne – the infrastructure and capital projects lead, spoke at the recent African Construction Expo in Midrand. This expo has the specific aim of promoting public and private sector collaboration with the construction industry. Urbanisation will create the biggest opportu- nities for infrastructure investment, construction and growth – this will influence the economies of countries directly. However, Labuschagne maintains that the connectivity of cities to smart corridors will determine future growth – and this connectivity can only be achieved with infra- structure: roads, airports, harbours, etc.

The reality is that infrastructure procurement is not well executed – government systems, espe- cially in South Africa, are not well designed which leads to delays in the planning and approval of vital projects. To solve this, tender specifications, procure- ment processes, the monitoring of these and the evaluations of existing governmental projects have to be improved. There has been improvement. According to Deloitte’s Africa Construction Trend Report 2015 the number of infrastructure projects that qualify for inclusion in this report increased from 257 in 2014 to 301 (17% increase). Southern Africa is significantly behind North Africa in terms of the number of new projects. Notwithstanding this, South Africa has spent R2,2-trillion on infrastructure between the 1998/1999 and 2014/15 financial years. The big spenders locally are PRASA, SANRAL, Eskom, Transnet – it is no surprise that they are state- owned enterprises. Over the next three years the South African government has committed to spending some R800-billion on various infrastructure projects

– power stations, roads, dams, water supply pipe- lines, rail and port facilities, schools, hospitals etc. Making Africa less exposed The adverse global economic environment has not helped the situation. It is, however, generally accepted that in such times, the need for broad- based economic infrastructure is not diminished. In fact, it increases. It is now that Africa canmove forward to become competitive globally. This will only be achieved by reducing the cost of doing business in Africa, improving the quality of labour so that manufacturing and service industries can be improved. If these are achieved, it will make Africa less dependent on the highs and lows of the global economy as it will have its own diversified and resilient economies. At the core of this is efficient infrastructure. Without it Africa will always be seen as the Dark Continent and it will always be maximally exposed to adverse global economy cycles.

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Wilhelm du Plessis Editor

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EDITOR & DEPUTY PUBLISHER Wilhelm du Plessis constr@crown.co.za ADVERTISING MANAGER Erna Oosthuizen ernao@crown.co.za LAYOUT & DESIGN Lesley Testa CIRCULATION Karen Smith

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD AUGUST 2016