President Jacob Zuma says the government has spent R1 trillion on public infrastructure over the past five years.

During his State of the Nation Address, the president said that infrastructure was identified as a major job driver in 2009. Since then, government has invested R1 trillion rand in public infrastructure. Furthermore, the National Infrastructure Plan, led by the President through the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission, was unveiled in 2012.

Zuma says many of the projects implemented in the past five years are completed or are nearing completion. Some of these include:

• the Rea Vaya system in Johannesburg
• a 700 kilometre fuel pipeline from Durban to Gauteng  to transport 4 billion cubic litres of petrol, diesel and jet fuel a year
• the construction of 1 500 kilometres of new roads or lanes
• the Gautrain
• the building of two large new dams ‒ De Hoop in Limpopo and Spring Grove in KwaZulu-Natal
• three power stations ‒ Medupi in Limpopo, Kusile in Mpumalanga and Ingula near Ladysmith

Zuma says the government has prioritised infrastructure development. However, developments in the United States economy have led to a rapid depreciation in the emerging market currencies, including the rand. He says the weaker exchange rate poses a significant risk to inflation and will make the infrastructure programme more expensive.