Investments in social infrastructure such as water, electricity, sanitation, schools, colleges and housing will be increased.

During his address on the 20 Year Review, President Jacob Zuma pointed out that the provision of public health services and basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity and waste removal used to be prioritised in white residential areas. This has caused a legacy of enormous backlogs in the infrastructure needed to deliver these services. Despite this legacy, government has recorded progress in socio-economic transformation.

According to Zuma, government has placed increasing emphasis on economic infrastructure such as ports, rail, dams and power stations since the mid-2000s. This was due to an increased demand for this type of infrastructure owing to the growing economy and rising standards of living. “Over the past five years, investment in this infrastructure has dramatically increased further. Central coordination of infrastructure delivery, through the Presidential Infrastructure Coordination Commission has improved delivery and assists to remove bottlenecks faster,” the president said.

He said investments in infrastructure will increase further, and will include investment in much-needed social infrastructure such as water, electricity, sanitation, schools, colleges and housing.

“With regards to basic services, it is impressive that a number of municipalities which had little or no pre-existing institutional foundations, have been able to deliver basic services to thousands of people who did not have them before in the past two decades,” said Zuma. The focus is now on reaching communities that are still waiting, particularly in informal settlements in urban areas and in remote rural areas.

There is also a focus is on improving the technical and management expertise of municipalities to improve their functionality and enable them to maintain key infrastructure that supplies water and electricity to communities amongst other services.