More than 1 200 delegates went to Cape Town on Sunday for South Africa's infrastructure symposium, among them seven African ministers, nine African mayors and 13 South African ones. Infrastructure South Africa used it to set out where the country's project list actually stands. Of 263 Strategic Integrated Projects worth a combined R1.99 trillion, 82 worth R502.7 billion are under construction, 54 worth about R206 billion have reached documentation and procurement, and 37 worth about R69 billion have been completed in the past 18 months.
The rest is still paperwork. Ninety projects worth R1.21 trillion sit at feasibility stage, and another 58 early concepts worth R337.4 billion are not ready for an investment decision at all, ISA head Mameetse Masemola said.
Energy is where the value sits. It accounts for R1.26 trillion of the portfolio, ahead of water at R255.1 billion, transport at R241.1 billion and human settlements at R176 billion.
Why projects stall before the ground is broken
Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson named the reasons directly: feasibility studies that are incomplete, approvals that are delayed, funding models that are unclear, and projects that are not packaged in a way investors can support. Projects are still announced, he said, before feasibility, land requirements, regulatory approvals, procurement routes and funding arrangements have been resolved. Government's own documents list six recurring bottlenecks, and funding is only one: weak preparation, slow environmental, water-use and land approvals, shortages of grid and municipal bulk capacity, thin technical capacity, poor coordination between spheres of government, and the difficulty of getting from feasibility to financial close. Twenty-one projects carry a red status and need intervention.
Water is the worst of it. Of 57 projects audited, 82% had run over scope and the average delay was 32 months.
The money the state is spending before construction
Rather than fund the whole build from the fiscus, ISA is paying for what comes first: feasibility studies, business cases, engineering designs, legal work and financial structuring, the work that turns a proposal into something a lender will price. Its third project preparation bid window is part of a R600 million commitment to delivery support, open to projects worth at least R1 billion that can show they could attract development or private funding. At municipal level it has committed R131 million over 18 months; in one case about R1.8 million spent preparing a water programme across roughly 1 700km of network helped unlock an R800 million debt facility from the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Regulatory unblocking, which fast-tracks permits and licences, is running at an 87% success rate, mostly on privately funded energy projects.
The fiscus cannot meet the requirement alone, Macpherson said, so public investment has to work alongside development finance and responsible private capital under clear public oversight. He set his own test for what the week has to produce: better-prepared projects, credible partnerships, identified blockages, clear responsibilities and implementation timelines that can be monitored. Ninety projects and R1.21 trillion are waiting on it.
