Ramaphosa announces R400m boost for infrastructure
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the establishment of a R400 billion infrastructure fund at the Union Buildings on Friday.
The fund forms part of the government's economic stimulus plan, which includes a number of measures to stimulate economic growth.
Ramaphosa said the central element of the plan is the re-prioritisation of spending towards activities that have the greatest impact on economic growth, domestic demand and job creation with a particular emphasis on township and rural economies.
He told reporters that infrastructure is a critical driver of economic growth.
"Infrastructure expansion and maintenance has the potential to create many, many jobs on a very large scale. But it also has the potential to be able to attract investment and to lay a foundation for sustainable economic expansion. Our infrastructure spend has, over the years, been tapering down. And the tapering down of infrastructure means less and less economic activity.
"And it is for this reason that we are now focusing, in a very bold way, on infrastructure with a view to unlocking the potential to create new jobs on a large scale. We have decided to set up what we call a South Africa Infrastructure Fund which will fundamentally transform our approach to the roll-out, the building and implementation of infrastructure projects."
Ramaphosa said the government would heed the lessons it learnt from the construction projects it embarked on ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
The Competition Commission fined 15 major construction firms a collective R1.46-billion for "rampant" collusive tendering related to projects concluded between 2006 and 2011.
Construction companies found to have been involved in collusive tendering while building stadiums for the World Cup had to pay R117 million to the National Revenue Fund.
"The lessons learnt in the 2010 World Cup infrastructure build and roll-out will stand us in good stead as we set out to establish this fund and to address the implementation of our infrastructure challenge," Ramaphosa said.
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