Abstract:
South Africa is a water scarce country with climate change impacting water security
for the worst. Its economy is also struggling, causing its infrastructure spend to
decline. There is currently a historical backlog in water infrastructure spend, with a
lack of critical skills in the sector to utilise the little money that is available.
Public private partnerships (PPPs) is a proven method for emerging economies to
address their infrastructure backlogs by utilising the support from private
organisations. This has been done for decades throughout the world and in the past
20 years, in many sectors in South Africa. National treasury developed world-class
PPP guidelines in 2004 but there is little evidence of it bearing much fruit in aiding
the water sector of late.
This qualitative study focusses on establishing whether PPPs should be pursued for
water infrastructure projects, when compared with other financing and development
models and also on what the limiting factors could be that stifle this method of
infrastructure development. Interviews were held with 13 experts on both sides of the
PPP spectrum.
It was found that PPPs are a highly advisable option to consider in order to solve for
the infrastructure backlogs in the South African water sector. PPPs can offer
elements that can kick-start a virtuous cycle of economic growth. Furthermore, it is
found that the main reasons for the lack of PPPs lie with government and more
specifically in a the lack of political will, onerous processes and legislation, and a lack
of able resources that can manage PPPs.
