IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN R800-BILLION FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICY PACKAGE

The extraordinary budget by Minister Mboweni must be supported by an extraordinary public infrastructure system where suitably qualified, professionally registered technical staff are appointed by all organs of state; thus also ensuring that public tender systems will consist of professionally registered service providers from the engineering and built environment.

Part of the R800Billion is meant for infrastructure development. If this is again invested into the current broken system, it will yield the same unintended outcomes: 

• Leakages and wastage of taxpayer’s money (manifested by unspent budget, irregular expenditure and/or excessive cost overruns/variation orders)
• Increased unemployment in general, and among engineering graduates and practitioners specifically
• Poor infrastructure
• Poverty
• Inequality
• Crime

Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Engineers have to be involved from the feasibility stage, through planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance for any infrastructure project to be successfully executed. Only engineers can effect the change that will impact the livelihoods of communities and ensure economic growth through services infrastructure development.

Courtesy of ChangingThingsSA

Picture Source: @TreasurySA/Twitter