Billions needed to repair infrastructure

Business Days says the lack of maintenance is threatening South Africa's social stability.

Quoting the Engineering Council of South Africa's chief executive Ozzie Franks, Business Day says that the backlogs in maintenance are due, in part, to uncertainty over who will own and be responsible for the existing electricity infrastructure.

He says the real reason that municipalities are refusing to invest in existing infrastructure is that they are uncertain if they will own the assets in the years ahead after suggestions from the government that regional electricity distributors would be established.

This has since been abandoned after EDI Holdings was disbanded last year. It had been formed to drive the restructuring of the electricity distribution sector.

For more:

• Business Day: Poor infrastructure maintenance hurting SA
  
• Engineering Council of South Africa: Engineering Council of South Africa website