Turning SA into a construction site
Turning SA into a Construction Site
Infrastructure only transforms lives when projects move from paper to the ground, leaving behind schools, hospitals, roads, housing, water systems, and other assets that drive service delivery and economic activity. Beyond budget allocations, it is delivery on the ground where the real impact is made – this is where South Africa’s vision of becoming a “construction site” must take shape.
That vision demands a stronger, more consistent pipeline of construction projects. Getting the basics right at every level of government – national, provincial, metro, local, and within state-owned enterprises – is critical to achieving this.
A Contracting Pipeline
One of the biggest barriers to infrastructure delivery is the decline in tender activity. Delays in tender awards, frequent postponements, and outright cancellations continue to stall progress. In 2024, more than 500 projects were cancelled nationally, while between January and May 2025 an average of 22% of projects were either postponed or cancelled. These challenges deepen the already declining projects pipeline.
In 2025 alone, year-on-year tender activity in civil and general building works fell by 33% nationally. Provincial declines are even sharper: Limpopo (50%), Northwest (45%), Mpumalanga (40%), KwaZulu-Natal (36%), Eastern Cape (33%), Gauteng (31%), Western Cape (22%), and Northern Cape (14%).
Budgets vs. Delivery
While government allocates significant resources to infrastructure, underspending continues to limit impact:
- Municipalities, which hold nearly 26% of the government’s infrastructure budget, improved spending to 80% in 2023/24 (up from 74%), but still underspent by R27 billion.
- State-owned enterprises, with 30% of the budget, spent only 89% of their R85 billion allocation.
- National departments fared better, spending 91% of their budgets in the same period.
A Call to Action
If South Africa is to truly turn into a construction site, the public sector must improve performance dramatically. Restoring delivery levels last seen in the early 2000s is vital – not only to strengthen the construction pipeline, but to accelerate growth, create jobs, and ensure that infrastructure investments achieve their intended impact.
The 2025 National Construction Summit is the platform to address these challenges – join us online and add your voice to turning South Africa into a true construction site.
