In his R7.6 billion maiden budget vote speech, the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Dean MacPherson, declared that his tenure marks the advent of a new dawn for heightened growth and improved efficiency in the portfolio.
“I want to bring a new hope to our country that will see the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure playing a leading role in growing an inclusive South African economy through infrastructure-led growth,” MacPherson said.
He said that his tenure would be anchored by ethical public and private partnership initiatives and collaborations that will create a professional department “… capable of attracting R10 billion direct private sector investment within the state property portfolio.”
This public/private partnership will provide the foundation for new the construction of new energy, communication, water and transport infrastructure, he added.
These new projects will reposition the department to play a greater role as a strategic catalyst for job creation and poverty alleviation, he stated.
This infrastructure development will enable the department to increase its ratio of gross fixed capital formation (this includes construction, machines and equipment, among other things) from 14% to 30% of gross domestic product.
However, this will only be possible if the department can improve the maintenance and use of the state property asset portfolio, MacPherson said.
The department’s driving force is Infrastructure South Africa (ISA), which has a strategic vision to lead in creating a conducive environment for increased private sector investments.
To ensure that ISA achieves this mandate, it will be prioritised to ensure that it has research capabilities and that its projects are well-considered, financially viable, catalytic in nature and delivered on time, the Minister explained.
In the debate on the budget vote, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Work and Infrastructure, Carol Phiri, said that the budget can contribute to socio-economic transformation.
“The budget is not just a table full of numbers. It is not just something that officials work with. The budget has everything to do with the needs of our people, the needs of families; it is about the needs of labour, and the needs of business.”
Furthermore, government infrastructure programmes account for 40% of the construction industry’s infrastructure projects and contribute 3% to the country’s GDP.
In light of the department’s centrality to South Africa’s socio-economic development, Phiri criticised the reduction in the department’s budget in this financial year from R8.8 billion in the previous financial year to R7.6 billion and advised the department to engage in qualitative spending to meet its priorities.
Meanwhile, fruitless and wasteful expenditures must be rooted out, because they are signs of poor planning and corruption, which have no place in the department, she said.
Also participating in the debate, Ms Leigh-Ann Mathys representing the Economic Freedom Fighters said the property market is essential in how the economy functions, for creating jobs and in producing an industrialised nation.
However, according to the EFF, the department has become nothing more than an administrative office for signing lease agreements and for selling government properties and land in corrupt dealings, she said.
As construction of public infrastructure is a strategic component of South Africa’s economic growth and job creation and is a sustainable solution for accommodating all state departments, the EFF proposes the desirability of a state construction company to achieve this goal.
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