CESA CEO, Chris Campbell was interviewed on Power FM’s Power Business segment on Monday 24 June to discuss ‘South Africa’s infrastructure backlog posing a threat on any policy implemented to drive economic growth’. Before introducing Chris to listeners , the show’s presenter, Ron Derby, said “maybe we should look at the maintenance of South Africa’s infrastructure as a much larger problem than we care to admit and for so long our focus has been Eskom expansion and the bad job that was done with regard to the  build  of 2 power stations in the Limpopo province, but our overall infrastructure faces its own challenges, not least in that we can’t seem to agree in just how too fund them in the future”.

In his remarks, Chris said maintenance implies looking after what you have and we have seen through the actions that have been taken on the bridges in the City of Joburg, a rather necessary measure but possibly one that could have been averted had we paid enough attention to the maintenance in advance. Chris also mentioned that it should not be a one-time intervention but maintenance should be ongoing. “We should look at how do we take out in our infrastructure planning the feast and famine, way too much work at one stage and then almost nothing”, stated Chris when explaining the project pipeline post the 2010 World Cup. He also mentioned that this explains why our industry is at an absolute lull as construction companies go out of business, young graduates unable to secure employment because consulting engineering companies don’t have enough work to absorb them and the story goes on.

Chris also mentioned that what needs to happen is one needs to look at creating a steady state of these projects and while you won’t get the balance 100% right but if you can manage it so that you don’t have excess whether in surplus of deficiency then you’ve got a better chance of keeping that happy balance that feeds your economy. “We need to remember that construction is a driver of so many jobs and you need to look at the value chain in totality, starting with your consulting engineering industry, your construction companies and then your suppliers and manufacturers,” said Chris.

Listen to the full interview by clicking on the image below.