DAVID MAYNIER: A focus on infrastructure spend to boost the Western Cape

We are pumping more money — significantly more money — into infrastructure in the Western Cape, with spending increasing in real terms for the first time in a long time.

Collectively, provincial and local governments are responsible for about 48%  of public sector infrastructure investment in SA. In terms of the constitution provinces are responsible for:

• Social infrastructure such as education, health, human settlement development and social development;
• Economic infrastructure such as provincial road networks, critical tourism and environmental infrastructure, particularly in provincial nature reserves; and
• Catalytic and virtual infrastructure such as the provincial broadband rollout, infrastructure investments, industrial development zones (IDZs) and special economic zones (SEZs).

Infrastructure delivery will be one of the most significant contributors to provincial economic growth, by boosting investment, stimulating job creation, productivity and competitiveness.

In the Western Cape infrastructure spend will focus on the construction and maintenance of roads and education, health, and general building facilities. Ultimately, we aim to support economic recovery and growth in the province.

That is why we will spend R30.3bn in the medium term, including a R2.6bn additional expenditure, on infrastructure in the Western Cape. This includes, over the medium term, a total of R7bn on education infrastructure, R3.6bn on health infrastructure; and R11.2bn on roads infrastructure.

Over the medium term, we expect spending on infrastructure assets to increase by 6.1% per annum in the Western Cape, and by 54.2% on new infrastructure assets.

Critically, we have committed R870m to build new roads, upgrade existing roads and provide long-term certainty on road infrastructure funding, which is so vital to driving economic growth in the Western Cape. We must also invest in the preparation of infrastructure projects so that we have a pipeline of shovel-ready projects.

We will therefore allocate R87.7m through the province’s Project Preparation Facility, to provide funding for integrated social housing projects, including Stickland North, Oude Molen and Leeuloop, and provide funding for a possible public-private partnership for the Cango Caves, one of the top tourism destinations in the Western Cape.

To push forward we must get the infrastructure management system right. That is why we are now preparing to withdraw Provincial Treasury Instruction 16B, which will bring much-needed competition to the infrastructure space by ensuring the provincial transport & public works department will be the preferred, but not exclusive, implementer of projects for the education and health departments in the province.

We have committed to provide bespoke quarterly reports on infrastructure spending performance to the provincial standing committees on education, health, and transport & public works, to assist them to effectively monitor spending in the province.

At the end of the day investment in infrastructure is an investment in the economic recovery of our province, and an investment in the future of the people of the Western Cape.

Maynier is Western Cape finance & economic opportunities MEC.