PRESIDENTIAL BUDGET VOTE BY JESSIE TAYLOR
South Africa exceeds goals for investment commitments
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outh Africa set out on an investment drive five years ago to raise R1.2-trillion in new investment in the economy. This goal was surpassed, with the country raising over R1.5- trillion in investment commitments, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in his recent presidential department budget vote speech “These commitments are steadily translating into investments in the productive economy, establishing new enterprises, expanding existing ones, providing opportunities to suppliers along the value chain and creating employment,” - H.E. Ramaphosa. CREATING JOBS THROUGH INVESTMENT The investment is a “significant achievement” in the midst of economic challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic and electricity crisis, the president said. The investment has been accompanied by focused support on small businesses and cooperatives, and in the last financial year, nearly 75 000 SMMEs and cooperatives received financial support through the Small Enterprise Finance Agency. These funding interventions created over 32 000 new jobs and sustained over 70 000 existing jobs.
“The recovery of our economy relies on a massive increase in investment. As we have reported before, we have been working to improve the capacity of government departments, agencies, stateowned enterprises and partners to prepare and implement infrastructure projects,” said President Ramaphosa. This work is starting to see results, with the Budget Facility for Infrastructure approving blended finance projects with a total project value of over R57-billion in the most recent round. These are mainly bulk water scheme projects, port development and housing projects. On the basis of a financial commitment of R210-billion, the Infrastructure Fund will engage with financial markets to enable investment in these projects by private investors to ensure that these investments are realised. This new investment comes on the back of R21-billion worth of projects completed last year, said President Ramaphosa, including upgrades to national roads and the development of small harbours. There are currently more than R300-billion in projects under construction, including energy,
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water infrastructure and rural roads projects. The energy sector remains a key area for investment, and the development of a pipeline of green hydrogen projects with a value of over R300-billion is underway. President Ramaphosa said that his administration is focused on reducing the “impact of load shedding on households, businesses, hospitals, water provision, food production and all aspects of people’s lives”. “Our overriding priority now is to end load shedding and achieve energy security. In July last year, I announced a detailed plan to address the energy crisis. I have since established the National Energy Crisis Committee to ensure that this plan is fully implemented and appointed a dedicated Minister in the Presidency to provide a single point of execution for the energy crisis response,” the president said. IMPROVING ENERGY SECURITY The government has made progress in implementing the measures outlined in the Energy Action Plan, including allowing the private sector to invest in electricity generation projects of
