Infrastructure as vehicle for vibrant economy

What is very clear to see, is that South Africa's high unemployment rate has been difficult to arrest and therefore drastic measures are necessary to reverse this joblessness situtation. At last count, more than around 4,2 million South Africans (23,9% Unemployment rate) were without work. President Zuma's 2012 State of the Nation Address to Parliament, showed that his governement is taking the unemployment challenge very seriouly.

During tough times, most countries have resorted to increased infrastructure investment to help stimulate their economies and thereby creating jobs. In my view, South Africa will need to follow this very same recipe. While, SA's infrastructure is among the best on the African continent, it is still far from world-class. Aside from using infrastructure to help create jobs, investment in crititical infrastrucure should serve as a stimulus to attract further investment to drive economic growth. South Africa can not and must not invest in infrastrucure merely to create jobs but there must a broader purpose to use such infrastructure to fundamentally alter the trajectory of South Africa's economy growth.

Improving our Transportation Infrastructure

Transportation plays a big role towards facilitating economic activity and South Africa would therefore need to ensure that there is a long term plan to invest in strategic transport sectors such as rail, road, sea and air. Rail is supremenly important in the transportation of both people as well as goods. While projects such the Gautrain are commendable, SA needs a modern and wide rail network that can be accessed by the masses. A rail network connecting major locations within the bigs cities and connecting big cities with small towns. South Africans are spending too much of their time driving on the roads (hence such high road fatalities).



Goods headed for the Durban harbour



By virtue of SA's geographic location, our sea ports should have capacity to allow them to become the global hub for goods moving from East to West and from North to South. The Suez Canal is an important gateway between Europe and the Far East but one that is slowly loosing its importance due mainly to the twin problems of it's limited capacity as well as the continuous threat of pirates in the seas along the East coast of Africa. Without sounding cynical, SA must take advatnge. Part of ensureing bigger port capacity means SA has to invest in state of the art port equipment and facilities to ensure that goods are loaded onto and off-loaded from docked ship in record time.

More of SA's airports ought to be of international standard, meaning foreign visitors ought to be able to land at more of our airports directly from foreign shores to allow for easier access for people and goods to various locations around our country. Imagine if Limpopo, Free State and Eastern Cape all had international airports, with proper passport control facilities. This alone would surely serve to help stimulate the development of tourism facilities and infrastructure in these provinces, which in turn would increase visitor interest.

Presdient Zuma and his Cabinet must be commended on a detailed job-creation plan, the challenge is always regarding the delivery of such plans.

Our Politicians must show willingness to create effective government!!