INFRASTRUCTURE ROLL-OUT
Why SA’s civil engineering body fears a double blow
The country’s junk credit status recession could heap more pressure on the struggling civil engineering sector
A civil engineering body has raised concern that the country’s junk credit status recession will slow the roll-out of infrastructural projects. This could place more pressure on a struggling sector, leading to more business failures and retrenchments, according to the South African Institution of Civil Engineering. Ratings agency Fitch has downgraded SA’s foreign-currency and local-currency ratings to junk, while S&P Global Ratings has downgraded SA’s foreign currency rating. On Tuesday, Statistics SA released figures showing that the economy shrunk for two consecutive quarters. The civil engineering industry had to retrench en masse following the slow roll-out of state projects, said the institution’s outreach officer, Marie Ashpole. The government had allocated R870bn for civil projects since 2012, but only a few larger ones had gone ahead, she said. "The Medupi power station is costing the country far more than budgeted for and taking years longer, and the Kusile project went ahe...
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