Infrastructure to restore economic competitiveness must be put in place much faster

Under-investment in electricity, ports and rail infrastructure has increased the cost of doing business in South Africa and weakened the competitiveness of our economy. Fixed investment has fallen to 15% of GDP from nearly 25% in the early 2000s and is recovering far too gradually. The constraint is not finance but an inadequate project pipeline owing to corruption, poor State capacity and regulations that have granted monopoly power to public entities that lack balance sheets to drive the necessary investment programmes. Operation Vulindlela, now in its second phase, must ensure that the infrastructure needed to restore South Africa's competitiveness is put in place much faster in full collaboration with the private sector.