As South Africa gears to embark on a massive infrastructure drive, government has established Infrastructure SA and the Infrastructure Fund to prepare and package projects.
“To ensure that there is active implementation of our infrastructure build programme, we have established Infrastructure SA and the Infrastructure Fund with the capacity to prepare and package projects,” says President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Unveiling the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan in Parliament on Thursday, the President said this approach is already encouraging private investors to help the country build capability for infrastructure delivery within the state and to develop blended financing models.
He said the Infrastructure Fund will provide R100 billion in catalytic finance over the next decade, leveraging as much as R1 trillion in new investment for strategic infrastructure projects.
He said several projects are already in construction.
These include human settlements projects such as Matlosana N2 in the North West, Lufhereng in Gauteng, Greater Cornubia in KwaZulu-Natal and Vista Park in the Free State.
Together these represent an investment value of R44.5 billion.
In total, government has gazetted 18 housing projects to the value of R130 billion, which together will produce more than 190 000 housing units.
When coming to infrastructure in transport, projects currently under construction include the N1 Polokwane and N1 Musina with a total value of R1.3 billion.
Within the next six months, government will fast-track the implementation of gazetted strategic infrastructure projects through the approval of credit enhancing instruments, provision of bulk infrastructure, and speedy processing of water use licenses, environmental impact assessments and township establishment.
It will also adapt the infrastructure procurement framework to enable public-private partnerships and unlock new funding.-SAnews.gov.za
