Let’s invest more in fixing the economy

THIS COUNTRY’s history is decorated with examples of surviving adversity and building from it. And while it is easy to be fixated on the negativity, the doom and gloom and of course, the darkness – it is crucial to look at solutions and how we can resurrect this great nation.

Let us go back nine years. Who can forget? Kenako – Feel it, it is here. What a time to be alive! World Cup 2010. Even criminals appeared to take time off from their usual malfeasance. But let us talk about those massive structures that remain as construction marvels – symbols of South African pride and quality – yes our soccer stadiums.

Look at how quick we were to roll out the World Cup infrastructure; the stadiums, accommodation, ICT infrastructure and even the Gautrain – all were built within target and at blistering pace.

It showed that true South African can-do attitude. It also demonstrated our engineering prowess and the ability to self-sustain and build our own infrastructure.

It was a marvel for the world to watch, and is part of the reason now that nothing of consequence gets built anywhere in the world without some expertise from South African engineers. Now our expertise is sitting in the Middle East, in places such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, because there is not that much building going on here.

Fast-forward nine years and here we are: I am sure South Africans will agree, we are in dire need of another World Cup moment.

Economic growth slowed to 1.4 percent in the final quarter of 2018 and 0.8% for the year, when the latest figures put out by the World Bank have us expecting the economy to only grow by 1.3%. Most sectors that form the backbone of the economy such as agriculture, retail and mining are underperforming, which is a clear indication that our economy is distressed. The energy sector is distressed and is currently the subject of debate by government, business and society as at large.

Further, the security of energy supply is diminishing, making us an energy-insecure nation.

Both government and the private sector have moved beyond talk of potential retrenchments to publicly announcing concrete steps towards the realisation of the intended retrenchments.

This latest announcement by government and the private sector means the 27% official figure of unemployment rate is set to increase substantially.

Closer to home, large listed and unlisted construction companies employing a considerable number of employees, are going into business rescue while others have been liquidated. Growth statistics indicate that the sector shrunk by 0.7% in the third quarter of 2018 which indicates that there is a problem and a quick recovery plan should be implemented.

It is at times like these that we must remind ourselves that as South Africans, we are resilient and capable of turning around the decline. In due course the revitalisation of the economy will rely heavily on the construction sector through anticipated government infrastructure spending initiatives.

The construction sector will yet again be central to our economic revival and turnaround. To stimulate this economy, we need to start with building our public infrastructure to enable us to address service delivery issues which are fuelling a lot of unhappiness.

The government must allocate capital to address the challenges prevalent in the public sector.

As the private sector, perhaps it’s time to invest more in fixing and less on bashing. Right now we don’t have to cast our eyes very far to see problems. But as we do this we need to be calm, clear, and strategic about what opportunities are there and how what we build will be repaid.

Funeka is the chief executive of ISF Group – a leading diversified and integrated engineering, construction and project management company.