Stop the bloated, endlessly delayed public works!

It has been widely acknowledged that South Africa’s transport infrastructure leaves much to be desired. One of the reasons for this, notes NICHOLAS WOODE-SMITH, is the painstakingly slow pace of delivery when it comes to public works projects…

Three countries want to build a highway: Germany, the USA and South Africa. Germany claims they will need two years to build the highway. They build it in one – under budget and with good quality. The USA takes a bit longer and goes a little over budget, but the highway is built. South Africa, on the other hand, goes way over budget and – if the highway is ever completed at all – it takes years past the initial deadline.

Although just a joke, this is indicative of the dire straits of our public works. Corruption and incompetence are a global government phenomenon, but there’s something special about SA’s brand of inadequacy.

In Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs, some major suburban arteries are being “upgraded” to absorb new MyCiti bus lanes and public transport infrastructure. The project has already been ongoing for well over 250 days (as of writing) with little progress – and work is planned to finish in 2027. This is likely optimistic, as 83% of public works projects in South Africa are completed late or never, with an average delay of almost three years. Capetonians will no doubt remember the Kalk Bay roadworks that took nine years to eventually complete.

Already, the MyCiti project along Imam Haron and Stanhope bridge is being granted 33 months to complete a quite rudimentary civil engineering job that should take no longer than 18 to 24 months. But at the current pace of work, this time will no doubt increase.

A handful of workers pick lazily at the ground, while barriers blockade small businesses and roadworks congest traffic, forcing cars down narrow suburban streets. There is no sense of urgency, even while cafés and shops have already needed to shut down due to the drop in customers, as parking has been replaced by ditches and barricades and even foot traffic is unable to enter many places of business.

A bus route to this area will likely improve commerce in the long run, but at what expense in the meanwhile? Extra customers after 2027 (and likely only over 2030) will not help the cafés and shops having to shut down now. The frustrating fact of the matter is that the work doesn’t need to be this slow. Yet red tape, tendering problems, corruption, construction Mafia groups, bad planning and general government incompetence ensure that it goes as slowly as possible.

In the case of this project – and many like it across South Africa – the work areas remain unnecessarily idle for far too long. Weeks have gone by without a single worker being seen on site. Often, the only workers present are dead-eyed flag wavers doing the job of an already existing and functioning intersection.

Public works are cited by many as being job programmes, yet only very few workers are actually on site, with a minority of them actually working. The goal should never be to maximise jobs. The goal should be to maximise productivity and value. Job creation follows value creation and leads to more opportunities overall. Yet public works in South Africa fail both tests.

When workers are present, it is often only a handful, with a single worker active at any time. It is no exaggeration to say that for the dozen workers present, just one will be working while others are “supervising” said worker.

Slackers need to be held accountable and stringent labour regulations that prevent the firing of slackers need to be abolished. If a worker is not fulfilling their job, they have no business receiving a pay cheque. On top of this, there is no logical reason why only a few square metres must be worked on at a time. If the project allows, as much of the work as possible must be done in parallel at the same time. This allows the work to be completed faster and leads to opportunities for more workers to be employed.

Unfortunately, lazy workers, corrupt tenderpreneurs and swathes of officials have a built-in incentive to let projects run over time so they can continue cashing monthly cheques. This perverse incentive must end. Rather, the solution, wherever possible, is to implement incentives to complete projects timeously. This could mean bonuses for completed work of a satisfactory quality within a reasonable timeframe or only paying contractors when a particular phase of work has been completed.

If South Africa wants better infrastructure, it must stop pretending that slow, bloated, endlessly delayed public works are inevitable. They are not. They are a choice, made every day through weak accountability, perverse incentives and an acceptance of mediocrity as normal. Roads do not take years to build because physics demands it. They take years because nobody is punished for failure and nobody is rewarded for efficiency.

Until public works are treated as projects that must deliver value – rather than vehicles for patronage, box-ticking and indefinite employment – nothing will change. Communities will continue to be strangled by half-finished roads, small businesses will continue to die behind barricades and taxpayers will continue to fund failure. South Africa does not lack engineers, skills or capital. It lacks urgency, discipline and consequences. Until these are restored, every new “upgrade” will simply become another long-running joke at the public’s expense.