SA's infrastructure crisis is self-inflicted — and fixable if politicians choose to act

Our country has a crisis of infrastructure management — caused not by a lack of funds, but by failing to maintain and modernise the critical power, water and sanitation systems that keep the country running.

Johannesburg has a water crisis, with many areas going without water for weeks on end. One of the key problems is that 60% of the city’s water infrastructure has exceeded its designed lifespan, while 2,600km of pipes need urgent replacement.

Nelson Mandela Bay has the highest level of “unaccounted” water losses in South Africa, running at over 60%.

This month, just as residents and businesses in a wide swathe of areas, including Summerstrand and Walmer, were counting the costs of a five-day power outage caused by a collapsed pylon, the lights went out again after another pylon on the same 132kV line collapsed.

In January, when a lengthy power outage caused by collapsed pylons hit large parts of the metro, officials blamed it on vandalism, despite visuals clearly showing extensive rust and botched repairs on the pylons. In the latest two incidents, officials put the blame on high winds and substations tripping.

Since January 2023, the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has recorded 203 unscheduled power outages across the metro’s commercial and industrial areas.

From Joburg to Nelson Mandela Bay, and in many other metros, cities and towns facing similar issues, officials have placed the blame for collapsing infrastructure on weather, vandalism, ageing infrastructure, contracts that were not renewed, staff vacancies and previous administrations that failed to act.

Even worse, officials shift the blame to consumers.

Rand Water says the reason for dry taps and water tankers in Joburg is over-consumption by consumers.

As Nelson Mandela Bay’s supply dams teeter just above 40%, the looming water crisis is being attributed to a combination of persistent drought and high consumer demand.

However, the reality is that the drought is not to blame, nor are consumers — not when more than 60% of clean water is lost to leaks, pipe failures, illegal use, meter tampering and inaccurate billing.

While water should be treated as a scarce resource and consumers must act responsibly to conserve water, it is very difficult for this message to land and to influence behaviour when people see leaks going unrepaired for weeks at a time.

Years of neglect

Decades of deferred maintenance and a refusal to fund essential upgrades have left our systems unable to cope with modern population demands.

When mayors say ageing infrastructure is the reason for water leaks, dry taps, blocked drains, sewage in streets, and power dips and outages, one has to ask: What has been done to ensure that infrastructure master plans are implemented?

Why are supply chain blockages preventing vital maintenance work from taking place? Why are hundreds of vacancies left unfilled? Why are municipal tools such as vehicles not maintained?

What was done to ensure that we don’t land in the crisis we now face?

Mayors and political leaders proudly showcase the workshops, seminars and meetings that they host to talk about the infrastructure issues — but all of this amounts to just talk and no action.

They expect gratitude from citizens when a power outage anticipated to last 10 days is resolved in five (as happened in Nelson Mandela Bay in January). They turn a blind eye to leaks in their own buildings, at government schools, clinics and hospitals.

The impact is far beyond inconvenience.

Oversight visit

Volkswagen Group Africa managing director Martina Biene, who is also president of the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers and a vice-president of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, recently explained this to a delegation of Parliament’s portfolio committee on trade, industry and competition who conducted an oversight visit to the Eastern Cape.

She highlighted how unreliable electricity and infrastructure challenges are eroding the competitiveness of local manufacturers, raising the costs of doing business and making South Africa an increasingly unattractive investment destination.

To put the impact of losing manufacturing plants in the country into perspective, automotive manufacturing is South Africa’s largest manufacturing sector, employing about 110,000 people, with a ripple effect into the surrounding ecosystem of suppliers, dealerships, service centres and parts retailers of up to 500,000 jobs.

Consider that each employed person supports between four and 10 dependents and that each employed person spends their income in the local economy. The impact of de-industrialisation and the loss of manufacturing plants is vast.

Lost production

Biene explained how, even if an unscheduled power outage lasts 20 minutes, the impact is in hours of lost production — 200 to 300 vehicles not built, as well as materials having to be scrapped — due to equipment shutting down unexpectedly, affecting its lifespan and taking hours to reset and restore.

This requires manufacturers to make investments in backup power and protection systems, further increasing their costs of doing business, which cannot always be passed on to consumers as they need to retain competitiveness of their products in the local market.

Automotive manufacturing has long decision-making and investment cycles, and as Biene bluntly states, VW’s global headquarters wants to know if South Africa really wants local manufacturing, before making decisions on investments that will see cars rolling off the production lines in 2030.

This applies not only to Volkswagen but to all other local automotive and component manufacturers, and across other manufacturing sectors as well.

Those investment decisions ripple out into other sectors — including retail, services, property, tourism and hospitality.

Underspending

And yet, municipalities are not spending the funds available to them to maintain and rebuild infrastructure.

The National Treasury released figures last week showing serious underspending by metros on water management.

South Africa’s eight metros collectively had spent only 31.5% of a R5.8-billion budget for treatment works, pipelines and reservoirs, bulk water supply infrastructure and network upgrades halfway through the 2025/26 financial year.

The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality had spent just 27% of its total capital budget midway through the financial year, according to its 2025/26 mid-year performance report.

The public-private partnerships through initiatives such as Operation Vulindlela that are improving electricity reliability and logistics, need to urgently be extended to municipal level to address the electricity, water and sanitation infrastructure management issues. The focus should be on identifying the root causes, aligning on an emergency plan of action and then implementing this fast in order to stabilise the situation.

Concrete action plans

It no longer matters how we got to this point. It is about acknowledging the issues and together taking action to solve them.

We need to collaborate to roll out concrete action plans, not just for emergencies but for the long term, and for business and civil society to play an oversight role in holding municipalities accountable for delivery and effective spending.

High levels of engineering and technical vacancies need to be filled. Contracts for capital projects and maintenance must be advertised and awarded timeously, without political interference or excessive red tape and delays.

Quality of life, ease of doing business, our country’s competitiveness and attractiveness as an investment destination — these all depend on urgently tackling the infrastructure management crisis.

The reality is that where the rubber hits the road is what matters the most. We need to start by getting the basics right. Ultimately, employment creation and the eradication of poverty depend on it.

Investing in infrastructure represents a massive opportunity to get the country’s economy moving forward, and to stimulate investor confidence.

It is all doable — if local government leaders and politicians have the will to take the actions which best serve the interests of our economy and the people who elected them. It is not too late to late to rebuild South Africa from the ground up. DM

Denise van Huyssteen is the chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber.