Bridging public works project performance gaps in South Africa

The construction industry’s role in terms of infrastructure development cannot be overemphasised. However, shortage of skills, poor productivity, accidents, time overruns, rework, cost overruns and corruption have marginalised infrastructure development in the developing world, and Africa in particular. Regardless of these shortcomings, the importance of the industry in terms of nation building motivated the South African government to embark upon continuous funding of infrastructure projects that are underpinned with appropriate fiscal policies in order to increase the pace of service delivery. This paper is a synopsis of performance-related barriers and interventions relative to infrastructure projects. Based upon a survey of the literature and a quantitative survey conducted among Eastern Cape-based consulting engineering firms, civil engineering contractors and selected public sector client organisations, performance gaps were identified in South African public works projects. The research findings indicate that there is major scope for performance improvement in South African public works construction projects, especially in terms of availability of technical and managerial skills in the infrastructure sector.