Infrastructure investment is key to government’s efforts to grow the economy, create jobs, empower small businesses and provide services to its people.

This was the view of newly elected President Cyril Ramaphosa during his maiden State of The Nation Address (SONA).

Ramaphosa said the state has invested heavily in new roads, power stations, schools and other infrastructure but the challenge was that some of these projects were taking too long to get started.

“As some of our projects are taking time to get off the ground and to enhance our efforts, I will assemble a team to speed up implementation of new projects, particularly water projects, health facilities and road maintenance,” the president said.

Ramaphosa added that government has learned some valuable lessons from its experience in building new infrastructure, which will inform its way ahead.

“We will focus on improvements in our budget and monitoring systems, improve the integration of projects and build a broad compact on infrastructure with business and organised labour,” he said.