The Ministry sees this as a means to secure 1.5% economic growth, the minister adds, “The IMF says that South Africa could see a 1.8% growth, which is positive.”
A collaboration between the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure SA (ISA) sees the launch of a first-of-its-kind bid window to “turbo charge” investment into construction in South Africa.
By Duncan Nortier This bid window invites submissions from national and provincial governmental departments, state-owned entities, public entities, municipalities and private sector projects to apply for ‘project preparation support’.
“Only 10% of projects reach their financial goals, we want to increase project preparation support to see the success of vital infrastructure in South Africa,” says Mameetse Masemola the acting head of Infrastructure SA.
Project preparation is the process of ensuring a project is feasible, appropriate, and potentially successful before the project has begun. This is a timely endeavour that incurs costs that prohibit many projects from moving forward or being taken up. This bid window aims to rectify this by supporting projects early on, Dean Macpherson, minister of Public Works and Infrastructure says, “The launch of this project turbocharges infrastructure investment in South Africa, ensuring that more infrastructure projects are ‘shovel-ready’ while increasing private sector trust and investment into state infrastructure projects.” The gains of infrastructure investment are invaluable, a 1% increase in investment can contribute to economic growth of between 0.4 – 3%. This project aims to be part of the “economic delivery unit” first envisioned by Minister Macpherson when he was appointed.
The Department of Public Work and Infrastructure and Infrastructure South Africa launch new bid window
Who can apply and for what?
The ISA states that projects submitted must meet minimum requirements, the project’s capital value must be R1 billion or more and have the potential to crowdfunding from a variety of sources such as multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, and others. “Blended finance models have seen a lot of success, and we hope to leverage its power for catalysing infrastructure projects” says Masemola. The priority sectors for this project are:
- Energy
- Water and sanitation
- Transport (major roads, airports, ports, and freight)
- Human settlements (excluding student accommodation)
- Municipal Infrastructure (focusing on projects that can attract private sector funding)
- Industrial Development Zones, and Special Economic Zones.
More in-depth guidelines can be found here. This new bid window follows the earlier project preparation support on 12 major infrastructure projects. These projects benefited from the initial R179 million set aside by the National Treasury.
- Project Ukuvuselel – valued at R7 billion
- Durban Containment Terminal Pier 1 – valued at R38 billion
- Ngqura Port liquified natural gas (LNG) – valued at R2.1 billion
- LNG import terminal- Richards Bay – valued at R2.7 billion
- Reinstatement of Mosselbay GTL Refinery – valued at R4.3 billion
- Eskom Tubaste Pumped Storage Scheme – valued at R35.9 billion
- Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works Phase 2 – valued at R1.24 billion
- Amatola Water Bulk Supply Augmentation – valued at R6.83 billion
- Nkomazi Special Economic Zone – valued at R8.4 billion
- Namakwa Special Economic Zone – valued at R3.5 billion
- Health Infrastructure Programme – TBC
- Education Infrastructure Programme – valued at R15.6 billion
.
