The ANC government’s focus so far has been mainly on the looting of the fiscus and not on the maintenance of the country’s infrastructure and other state assets.
Proper infrastructure is the lifeblood of the economy and ensures that residents have access to roads, bridges, schools, water and many other services. Without proper infrastructure maintenance, no country can survive economically. No international investor will come to invest money in South Africa while infrastructure is not being renovated and maintained
In South Africa, the onus is on the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to do this maintenance. Not only is the department the custodian and manager of the state’s real estate assets, but also the creator and maintainer of South Africa’s infrastructure
However, this does not happen and just like the government, this department failed the people of South Africa. The focus was mainly on looting and the implementation of harmful policies such as affirmative action (RA) and black economic empowerment (BEE) and the country’s infrastructure is in a bad condition.
Some of the many examples of this are Vereeniging where the infrastructure has completely collapsed and sewage is flowing through houses while the road between Viljoenskroon and Paris in the Free State has become virtually unusable.
According to the SA Institution of Civil Engineering’s 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, an overall grade D + for public infrastructure was awarded to South Africa which means it is about to fail or collapse.
The same applies to developments in areas such as Brickvale and Daggafontein in Gauteng that have been done on unsafe dolomite land. This is a disaster waiting to happen and developments must be stopped without delay.
The Telkom Towers building in Pretoria cost more than R1.6bn to renovate for the police. The building now stands vacant while it costs the taxpayer about R500 000 a month to security services to secure the building.
The ANC has repeatedly shown over 25 years that it is unable to govern or govern. He is unable to create new infrastructure while destroying existing assets. De FF Plus will constantly work to call on the government to do so.