2
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
MARCH
2015
>
COMMENT
EDITOR
Wilhelm du Plessis constr@crown.co.za
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Erna Oosthuisen ernao@crown.co.za
LAYOUT & DESIGN
Lesley Testa
CIRCULATION
Karen Smith
TOTAL CIRCULATION:
(Fourth Quarter ’14)
4 710
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
The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher.
PRINTED BY
Tandym Cape
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.
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.
Wilhelm du Plessis
Twitter: @ConstWorldSA