Keynote address by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the National Construction Summit 2025, Birchwood Hotel, Gauteng
Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Mr Dean Macpherson;
Deputy Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Mr Sihle Zikalala;
Executive Mayor of Ekurhuleni, Cllr Nkosindiphile Xhakaza;
Ministers and Deputy Ministers;
Premiers and MECs;
Mayors;
Industry leaders;
Representatives of the Construction Industry Development Board;
Representatives of business, academia, labour and civil society;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen;
Good morning.
It is my pleasure and an honour to address this National Construction Summit.
We are a gathered here not just to talk about building an industry, but to build a nation.
We are gathered here to share a dream and determination to build a country that works for all its people.
A country where everyone has water, sanitation and electricity.
Where there are roads and railway lines to take people to work and goods to markets.
A country where there are enough classrooms for all children, enough wards for all patients, and enough accommodation for all students.
Where no child has to swim across a river to get to school.
Where all schools have safe and appropriate sanitation.
That is why we are here.
From a social development perspective, infrastructure provides people with what they need to thrive. It improves the quality of life and can play a key role in reducing inequality. Through reliable infrastructure we can boost productivity and reduce costs of living.
It provides countries with what they need to grow and develop. Infrastructure facilitates trade and commerce. When we boost infrastructure through the construction industry we attract investment.
The roads we build, the bridges we construct, the schools and hospitals we erect are the foundations of opportunity and hope.
Infrastructure is the engine that drives economic growth and social transformation.
We know how inadequate infrastructure can hold a country back.
We have seen how decades of apartheid spatial planning left vast swathes of our country without any meaningful economic capacity.
We saw how the denial of basic services to the black majority robbed many generations of both opportunity and dignity.
More recently, we have seen how the lack of investment in our roads, rail lines and ports have hampered the growth of industries such as mining, agriculture and manufacturing.
We have seen how a lack of municipal maintenance has left communities without water or electricity, and has driven businesses to relocate.
But we have also seen how infrastructure can transform societies.
The massive investment in electricity, water, sanitation and housing provision that followed the advent of democracy fundamentally changed the lives of millions of people.
The construction industry has a multiplier effect that spans manufacturing, mining, transport and services.
Infrastructure is the backbone of development because, among many other reasons, it bolsters economic competitiveness and sustainability. Without infrastructure economic growth slows down, inequality deepens and the quality of life declines.
The construction industry supports the Sustainable Development Goals by enabling resilient infrastructure and sustainable urban development.
We are beginning to witness the recovery of our construction industry.
Infrastructure is poised to once again become the flywheel of the economy.
Infrastructure investment is one of the most effective levers for stimulating economic activity.
This is evident in the employment figures released by Statistics SA earlier this week.
The Quarterly Labour Force Survey indicates a decrease in the official unemployment rate from 33.2 percent in the second quarter of this year to 31.9 percent in the third quarter.
Employment increased by 248,000 in the third quarter.
Construction was the biggest contributor with 130,000 new jobs.
These statistics reflect an upswing in the industry.
Earlier this year, at the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium, we showcased over 250 fully-funded projects valued at more than R230 billion.
These investments in water, energy, transport and digital infrastructure are transforming communities, creating jobs and laying the groundwork for a more inclusive and prosperous South Africa.
That momentum needs to be sustained.
That is why Government has committed R1 trillion in infrastructure spending over the medium-term.
As the Minister of Finance indicated in the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement yesterday, we are shifting the composition of spending from consumption to investment.
Capital payments are the fastest growing expenditure item in our national budget. They are expected to increase at 7.5 percent over the medium-term.
Alongside the increase in public infrastructure spending, we are taking measures to enable far greater private investment in infrastructure.
These include amendments to the regulations on public-private partnerships and new guidelines on unsolicited bids.
The purpose of this Summit is to ensure that these investments and reforms do indeed turn the country in a building site.
We want to see cranes and construction vehicles in cities, townships, villages and rural areas.
When visitors travel by road or rail or air, they must see a country at work.
We will not let anyone derail these efforts.
We will not negotiate with construction mafias. We will not yield to cable thieves or those who vandalise infrastructure.
The law enforcement agencies will deal with those who break the law.
As part of its contribution to accelerated infrastructure development, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure recently announced the South African Construction Action Plan.
It is a framework for collective and individual accountability, a plan that sets measurable targets, real timelines and enforceable consequences.
The plan outlines actions to prevent underperforming contractors from securing new contracts from the state. It aims to fix cash-flow constraints and use technology to track construction projects in real time.
Every Public Works department will establish a Procurement War Room to identify blockages, speed up evaluations and ensure that projects move from bid to site without unnecessary delay.
The plan includes actions to strengthen audit and governance outcomes and
professionalise the built environment in the public sector.
In essence, this plan will ensure that projects are started and completed on time, within budget, and with no wastage.
In just over a week from now, we will host the first G20 Leaders’ Summit on African soil.
We commend the work of the G20 Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group.
Through this work, we have placed on the global agenda the need to ensure that infrastructure is built to withstand extreme weather events and that countries have the resources needed to rebuild in the wake of natural disasters.
In doing so, we have placed infrastructure at the centre of economic progress and human development.
We look forward to the outcomes of this National Construction Summit, confident that it will place infrastructure development on a new trajectory.
Confident that it will turn plans into projects and confident that it will accelerate progress towards a South Africa that works for all.
I thank you.
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