Risk body calls on private sector to act now to prevent complete infrastructral collapse
Johannesburg - The Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA) has become the latest organisation to also call for renewed private sector pressure after further warnings of complete infrastructural collapse across the country.
This comes after the release of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) released its 2022 Infrastructure Report Card which showed the dire state of the country's key infrastructure including roads, rail, and water.
The report, which has been a go-to guide for policymakers, analysts and educators since 2006, uses a five-point scale to rate the state of the country's infrastructure. The highest score is A, signalling "world-class" and the lowest rating is E, signalling "unfit for purpose". The report gave South Africa's overall rating as D, signalling that poor maintenance has left South Africa's infrastructure "at risk of failure".
According to IRMSA's 2022 Risk Report, poor infrastructural management is one of the most significant factors influencing the risk of complete economic collapse. The report warns that when it comes to infrastructural investment, one of South Africa's biggest challenges is execution.
According to the report, the President announced 51 infrastructure projects worth R340bn in October 2020, which were to be undertaken in partnership with the private sector. More than a year later a third of these projects have yet to get underway.
The report also describes a further commitment from the government to invest an additional sum resulting in an overall investment of R900bn. As these projects are slow to materialise, the capacity to execute these projects poses a critical impediment to economic growth."
"The longer we let our infrastructure decline, the more likely it is that South Africa will become a failed state and fall into complete economic collapse," says Pat Semenya, CEO of IRMSA.
"The investment potential is there, but it seems to be an issue of an inept state that simply does not have the capacity to action these projects," she adds. "If the private sector continues to put pressure on the state, we might be able to dig ourselves out of this pit of infrastructural decay."
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