Govt turns to private sector to fix public sector facilities
Given the current economic downturn, government does not have the resources to look after all of its assets, says Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) property management trading entity head Siza Sibande.
“Hence we want to partner with the private sector to improve public facilities.”
Addressing a media conference at the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa 2024, held in Cape Town this week, Sibande noted that the DPWI was now focused on leveraging and optimising State assets.
“We developed a strategy that we call the State Immovable Asset Optimisation strategy.
“We have entered a new phase where government will apply partnerships/collaborations with the private sector, such as refurbishment, operate and transfer; and build, operate and transfer.
“The focus here is to leverage State assets by unlocking the value of underutilised immovable State assets.”
Sibande noted that the State had the biggest asset portfolio in the country, “yet the value we created out of these assets was close to zero”.
He added that the State’s targeted immovable asset portfolio comprised of about 29 000 land parcels, or 4.7-million hectares of land.
“This is quite a big portfolio that should be able to create a return on investment.”
Roughly 25% of the total land parcels were stand-alone and unutilised.
“These are at risk of illegal occupations,” said Sibande.
Around 3% of the properties are in Pretoria alone, he added, with one of these being Telkom Towers.
“This is one of those properties we want to leverage. It stands in the centre of the city. If we can refurbish it, we change the face of the inner city.”
Sibande said the State also held a large agricultural portfolio, “and we would want our people to have access to those properties with long leases”.
He added that DPWI had “issued the first round of some of these assets yesterday (March 17).”
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation