The Acting Head of Infrastructure South Africa (ISA), Mameetse Masemola, has estimated that the country will need nearly $5.7 trillion to close the infrastructure investment gap between now and year 2050.
The ISA’s boss gave this estimate in a statement issued during the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa (SIDSSA) on Monday.
During a media briefing on the nation’s infrastructure situation, Masemola provided an update on projects led by ISA since its creation in 2020, as well as highlighted efforts being made by the government agency to foster public-private sector cooperation and accelerate infrastructure development.
On the mandate of the ISA, she said: “Our mandate is to close the infrastructure investment gap… We ensure projects are viable and bankable to attract funding from global investors. We work closely with authorizing departments to ensure fast rollout of projects, while ensuring the projects meet local regulations.”
Masemola, who disclosed that the ISA had led projects across ICT, energy, water and sanitation, transport and human settlement sectors, which had grown in recent years, pointed out that the affected sectors “are the sectors that support economic growth and enable South Africa to be competitive globally. Most of the projects were in their early stages in 2020. The value was R230 billion and the value has grown to over R500 billion.”
According to her, in the energy sector, 95% of projects deployed have been private sector-led, including renewable energy projects developed under South Africa’s Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP), Embedded Generation Programme and Just Energy Transition Programme.
She explained that of the energy sector projects, 25 were under construction under Bid Window 5 of REIPPP, with five having reached financial close and a total of 14,000 jobs expected to be created.
In addition, the ISA boss hinted that in the transport sector, 15 projects had been announced, of which six represent a total value of R25 billion and were currently under development.
Masemola said that ISA had also achieved remarkable success in human settlement sector, with over 9,000 units constructed and 38,000 jobs created since 2020.
Speaking further on ISA’s current and future project pipeline, the expert said that the agency had secured R600 million from South Africa’s treasury to invest in projects over the next three years, with 31 projects currently being prepared.
