Every few years, a major event triggers urgent action by government departments responsible for infrastructure.
Fresh asphalt appears and streetlights come back to life. Pavements are hastily repainted and intersections cleared of rubble – all so visiting dignitaries and foreign investors will see a country in motion, not one stuck in a rut.
For most South Africans, the story is more familiar and less flattering. Power cuts still interrupt daily life and business, water shortages stretch on for days in some areas, and the roads and rail lines that connect us are steadily wearing away.
These are not isolated issues, but signs of an infrastructure system under strain. Against this backdrop, the sudden rush to repair and repaint ahead of major events feels less like progress and more like performance.
The façade: when optics drive maintenance
With the G20 Summit placing South Africa in the global spotlight, roads are being patched and repainted at a frantic pace. It’s a familiar story. We saw it before the 2010 World Cup and ahead of political rallies that put South Africa on the national/global stage, as well as during special presidential visits. It is maintenance by event, not by plan.
These pre-summit “make-it-look-good” campaigns create quick wins for prioritised areas, while diverting scarce resources from the systematic and consistent repairs that actually sustain a city. Once the motorcades have moved on, the fixes soon fade and the communities that needed real investment and rebuilding are left waiting – again.
In Johannesburg, our road network is deteriorating unevenly and unsustainably. Highways still hold, but local and urban routes are falling apart. Even after 150 days without load shedding, many of the city’s traffic lights remain dysfunctional, leaving informal “directors”, often homeless citizens or private sector players, to manage intersections.
This is not a power issue. It’s a systemic maintenance and leadership issue.
The fracture: a system built on silos and short-termism
Infrastructure decay is rarely caused by one catastrophic failure, but rather, it’s the slow erosion of planning, coordination and accountability.
South Africa does not suffer from a shortage of construction projects. What we lack is thorough asset management – the discipline of consistently maintaining what we’ve already built. Maintenance budgets exist, but are often the first to be used when new, high-visibility projects, political imperatives or emergency budget requirements arise.
The result is a culture of reactive maintenance, fixing things when they’re completely broken because of years of neglect, or worse, when they’re about to be seen by international guests. This stop-start approach wreaks havoc on budgets and long-term planning. Funds earmarked for systematic upgrades are diverted into emergency facelifts, while essential projects in other sectors are deferred to the following financial year.
Add to that a maze of overlapping agencies – provincial departments, municipal structures – each with its own mandate and procurement system. The consequence is paralysis. Even where funds exist, slow processes and fragmented governance make coordinated delivery almost impossible.
Our prioritisation is also often not fair, as wealthier suburbs raise their voices and rattle the system into response within hours, while poorer communities endure weeks or months without functioning infrastructure. When protests erupt, we dismiss them as service-delivery unrest. But at their core lies a simple, legitimate demand: accountability.
The fix: a master plan for genuine progress
South Africa needs more than another round of pothole blitzes and superficial improvements. We need a National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan that is adhered to: a framework that aligns budgets, responsibilities and timelines across departments.
This plan should be underpinned by an asset-management system capable of tracking the condition of every road, bridge, signal and drainage network. Only when we know the true state of our assets can we prioritise budgets rationally. Then, we can resurface the worst roads first, upgrade stormwater systems before floods arrive, and maintain lighting networks before darkness becomes a security threat.
Crucially, the plan must come with transparency and measurable performance metrics. When the finance minister announces billions earmarked for infrastructure, citizens should be able to see where and how that money is spent, and what outcomes it delivers.
Beyond roads, we must think in systems. A functioning rail network, for example, would keep heavy freight off our roads, prolonging their lifespan. Flood analyses and drainage studies must inform road design in an era of climate volatility. Maintenance should be seen not as an expense, but as an investment in productivity, safety and human dignity.
A call for leadership and accountability
Infrastructure is a mirror of governance. To fix our roads, we must first fix our systems and create a culture that rewards outcomes over optics. The fact is, if proper maintenance and a National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan were upheld, these urgent fix-ups wouldn’t be necessary and the maintenance budget could be allocated more sustainably.
Let the G20 not be another photo-ready illusion of progress. Let it be the moment we decide to build, and maintain, a country that works for everyone. DM