South Africa: Infrastructure projects get R23.7bn boost

South Africa is set to see new infrastructure projects funded with R23.7 billion from the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the bank said on Monday.

The bank approved a total of R27.5bn, of which 86.3% was dedicated to South Africa for infrastructure projects in the fiscal year ending in March 2012, the bank said in a statement.

The infrastructure funding would be spent on a number of projects throughout the country.

The DBSA was working with the National Treasury and the energy department to assist in the creation of independent power producers.

It approved 29 projects, representing about 1416mw of the target of 3.725mw power production. Another 30 projects were approved in a “second round” to make up the rest of the target.

The DBSA also took responsibility for the implementation of a R9bn “Jobs Fund” to create more employment in South Africa and result in 150 000 new jobs.

The bank had approved R1.8bn for the fund. The DBSA said it was also working to help municipal infrastructure, which was a continuous challenge.

“Institutional capacity constraints, weak governance, ageing infrastructure, flawed and inadequate maintenance affected the ability of many municipalities to fulfil their constitutional obligations,” the bank said.

The DBSA had trained almost 19,000 officials and councillors from municipalities in South Africa in skills, capacity building and knowledge-sharing.

The bank had also sent its own employees to municipalities to assist with service delivery and had made R8.7bn in funding available for this.

Source: iafrica.com