Government’s big ambitions to encourage job creation and improve service delivery calls for spending on infrastructure — but the actual companies that are in the running to undertake the ­construction work remain largely in the doldrums.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced in February that, as part of the national development plan, the government intended to spend R827-billion in the next three years on the building of new — and the upgrading of existing — infrastructure. About R400-billion would be earmarked for capital projects and would be funded by state-owned entities, and the rest would be allocated for the building of schools, hospitals, dams, sanitation schemes and commuter rail.This is excellent news for the construction sector, which has been battling to beef up its local order book since 2010 and should see investors rushing to invest in the sector. But, although the JSE continues to go from strength to strength, construction sector shares are underperforming.One of the reasons is that, based on previous experience, the market is not convinced that the government will be able to spend the money in the assigned time.Adding to the sector’s woes are the price-fixing and collusion probe by the Competition Commission and the threat of the criminal prosecution of senior executives, plus increased mining unrest and the poor performance of some mining sectors, which are key for ­private sector investment. DBSA does not believe that South Africa has the capacity to spend the R800-billion. In its State of South Africa’s Economic Infrastructure Report 2012, the bank said the government had failed to implement long-term infrastructure planning successfully. The situation was made worse by the lack of maintenance, late or non-payment of contractors and cancelled or often delayed public-private partnership projects.