POOR maintenance is robbing many South Africans of the benefits of the country's great infrastructure, warns President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“We are seeing accidents, disease outbreaks and other tragedies that in a number of instances have been associated with dilapidated infrastructure,” he said.
“We have good quality infrastructure, but in far too many instances it is not being properly maintained and upgraded. Last year, the South African Institution of Civil Engineering gave the country’s social infrastructure a D rating, with E being failed or failing. Passenger rail scored particularly low, achieving an E.”
The president described these as the "detrimental consequences of failure to maintain public infrastructure".
Ramaphosa said Mzansi consistently ranked highly on indexes published by the African Development Bank that evaluate the status of transportation, electricity, information communication technology, as well as water and sanitation infrastructure.
“South Africa ranks in the top five countries in Africa with the best public infrastructure. This is important because infrastructure development plays a key role in ensuring fast economic growth and alleviating poverty,” said Ramaphosa.
He said for these services to continue supporting the country’s developmental goals, they must be properly, effectively and efficiently maintained.
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Ramaphosa said the maintenance of public infrastructure was the responsibility of local government and it was a concern that municipalities were failing to spend conditional grants allocated to them for maintenance and upgrades of roads and water supply.
“The Department of Co-Operative Governance, National Treasury and national and provincial government will continue to support municipalities to use their budgets effectively and fulfil their responsibilities to the South African people,” said the president.
He pointed out that when social infrastructure was well maintained, it benefited citizens, businesses and the economy as a whole.
Infrastructure includes roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, and telecommunications (including internet connectivity and broadband access).
