Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Sihle Zikalala has assured the country that his department has plans in place to deal with the various infrastructural challenges.

During a media briefing, in Johannesburg, on June 27, the Minister said infrastructure investment by the public sector was declining, while there was also a lack of investment by the private sector.

In an update on key infrastructure projects, he also spoke about innovative approaches being considered to improve social infrastructure project implementation, the transformation of the built environment sector and efforts to deal with corruption and fraud in the built environment sector.

“We are guided by the National Development Plan, and of course, the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP). Our task is to resuscitate the economy [and] to focus on infrastructure development,” he said.

He added that the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) had developed a long-term framework in the form of a National Infrastructure Plan 2050, which mainly focuses on the development of infrastructure for energy, freight, water and digital communication, besides others.

ADDRESSING TRANSFORMATION, CAPACITY CHALLENGES

Zikalala pointed to research conducted by public entity the Council of the Built Environment, which revealed that there were still significant challenges curbing transformation in the built environment sector.

Emphasising the importance of the sector providing more employment opportunities to the youth and women, he stated that the DPWI was working on priorities to ensure the department addressed these challenges.

To that end, the DPWI has laid out a number of plans.

“We firstly have to coordinate work and shared competency between the national and provincial government departments. Our mandate also includes helping other government departments by constructing and managing offices, assets and properties.”

He added that the DPWI was developing integrated government precincts in urban and rural areas, in order to provide improved government accommodation, which would lead to enhanced service delivery.

This would be delivered through project implementation plans that procurement professionals would design and manage.

KEY DEALS

In addition to capacity building, Zikalala also stated that the DPWI was working on several ongoing and key endeavours.

The first is the development of the Expropriation Bill, as the DPWI is also conducting a review of the Expropriation Act.

The Bill has gone through a number of reviews and is currently undergoing Parliamentary processes.

“The objective is to ensure expropriation laws are in line with the Constitution. The Bill will be to assist organs of State, including municipalities, to provide services to vulnerable groups.

“This Bill is now with the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), as they are currently conducting public hearings across the country,” he clarified.

He pointed out that the DPWI was also working on the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP), of which Stage IV has contributed to the creation of about 3.94-million work opportunities between April 2019 and March this year.

The target of this EPWP is to reach five-million jobs, and about 79% of this goal has been achieved, he enthused.

“In addition, we are focusing on developing skills for the built environment industry. Among others, we have programmes that include supporting youth from previously disadvantaged environments to enter the industry.

“We are working with institutions such as the University of Johannesburg, the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. We’re also working through technical and vocational education and training colleges to ensure there are students who are trained as artisans,” he added.

Zikalala also pointed out that the DPWI was supporting the efforts of government in addressing gender-based violence and femicide.

“We play a supportive role by releasing assets or properties for social development to house victims, and that has been done in almost all provinces. We are also creating awareness, including media campaigns.”

Further, the DPWI was also contributing to fighting corruption in the construction sector, he pointed out.

The DPWI, with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), instituted the Infrastructure Build Anti-Corruption Forum.

The DPWI also continues to conduct lifestyle audits on senior management service (SMS) members. The process has been structured in two phases, the first of which focuses on SMS members, and the second focuses on identified critical areas.

A total of 60 senior managers were subjected to the lifestyle audit as Phase 1 of the project. The audits for 48 officials have been concluded. The process is continuing with the remaining 12 officials.

INFRASTRUCTURE SOUTH AFRICA

Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) is an agency within the DPWI that is focused on “catalysing projects”.

ISA also deals with the planning of infrastructure, management of the project pipeline, and coordinates investment, he added.

“We’ve started with the National Infrastructure Plan 2050, and we’re now moving to ensure that we’ve got projects registered to ensure they are delivered. There are about 88 infrastructure projects that have already been gazetted, and we will be meeting later this month to process others that will be gazetted before the end of the year”.

Working with ISA will help the DPWI coordinate investment into infrastructure, and optimise State assets, Zikalala added.

“The focus is to oversee these plans to ensure that the projects in the pipeline are credible, and then ensure that the projects are then built. This requires that they are fit-for-purpose and ensures that the public sector is participating in infrastructure and guaranteeing infrastructure standards”.

HIGHLIGHTS AND UPDATES

Lastly, Zikalala provided updates on a number of ongoing DPWI-related initiatives.

Since its inception, the Infrastructure Fund has packaged 13 blended finance projects through ISA and the National Treasury, to a capital value of R57.7-billion across several sectors.

The human settlements sector is estimated to have delivered 35 496 housing units.

Water and sanitation projects will deliver over 382 000 megalitres a year.

The student accommodation programme - under SIP 34 - is anticipated to provide 9 500 beds when completed.

The  Welisizwe bridge project – which is to improve mobility of communities in rural areas, alleviate unemployment and contribute to job creation – will be implemented in a number of provinces. This includes the North West, Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal. “We are budgeting R3.8-billion for the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, and we will be building 96 bridges”.

Highlights from last year include that about 328 950 903 ha were processed for release in support of the land reform programme, R1.5-billion was spent on client capital projects and the Infrastructure Fund facilitated the approval of R2.6-billion in funding.

Zikalala also added that the DPWI had supported 173 bursary students to study in built environment fields.

“In terms of corruption, we have 463 cases of corruption and maladministration that have been investigated since 2009. We are attending to all of these.” Twenty-five cases were investigated for the 2021/22 financial year.

“Lastly, we are improving our relationship with client departments. Before, other departments used to complain about the DPWI, because we service each and every department. We're trying to address that situation by building capacity, managing our relationships and ensuring delivery on time,” he concluded.