Zikalala: Construction mafias, lack of funding to blame for slow pace of infrastructure delivery
Deputy Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Sihle Zikalala has blamed the slow pace of community infrastructure delivery on construction mafias, a lack of funding and corruption.
Construction mafias have been targeting infrastructure developments, business entities and construction sites countrywide by extorting money from contractors.
Last month, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson announced plans to develop a concrete solution to tackle the rising phenomenon of construction mafias.
On Tuesday, Zikalala briefed the NCOP during a ministerial session on challenges facing infrastructure delivery to communities.
“In South Africa, we understand that the current challenges confronting us on infrastructure are financial constraints, stalled projects, crime, which others interpret as construction mafia and the gap in infrastructure that can even hinder the promise of new development,” Zikalala told MPs.
“Another problem is funding and budget constraints. This relates to limited resources, which have been found to hinder the planning and execution of projects, leading to delays and incomplete work. This is largely caused by diminishing fiscus and reduced budget allocation.
Zikalala said the onus is on law enforcement agencies to develop better strategies to tackle corruption in the sector.
“Defaulting constructors is one of the major challenges we are confronted with. While it is not a unique South African problem but an international build environment challenge, it has major developmental implications for us. We are driving a campaign to weed out shadow and corrupt contractors within our system.
“There are many contractors who win contracts in government by simply underbidding or under-quoting. Corruption in government contracts is a huge problem, and it is sophisticated and therefore needs a dedicated approach,” the added.
Minister of Human Settlements Mmamoloko Kubayi and Transport Minister Barbara Creecy echoed Zikalala’s concerns, saying they were faced with similar challenges.
“Disruption by communities, where they want to dictate who must get the project and who must not…who must be employed and who must not. All this would then lead to increased costs and delays,” said Kubayi.
“Cost escalation, which is something that we noticed after COVID-19 and the July unrest. A lot of prices in terms of material went up, and therefore, it was no longer viable for contractors to deliver on projects.”
Creecy added that “there are challenges including theft and vandalism of infrastructure, disruption by the so-called business forums. There also capacity in terms of the industry to deliver on these programmes.”
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