Unfinished bridge shows how South Africans suffer for fake transformation

Says IRR strategic engagements manager Makone Maja: “Unfinished infrastructure projects are the direct consequence of public procurement rules that undermine merit-based appointments. What you get under the current system of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), in which recipients of public procurement contracts, rather than the public, are the target of the government’s empowerment programme, is fake transformation. True transformation would ensure that services were delivered speedily, competently and efficiently to citizens who are most reliant on them.”

News reports reveal that, because the bridge in Emfuleni is unfinished, residents in need of emergency healthcare, for instance, must travel further to reach a tarred road in order to meet the ambulance. Coincidentally, this tarred road ends a mere three houses away from Emfuleni Speaker Sibongile Soxuka, who has been a councillor since 2011.

Infrastructure projects compromising the upliftment of communities is not new to South Africans. The Auditor General’s Report of 2024-2025 found that of 152 audited infrastructure projects, 109 were marred by delays and that the average delay lasted 41 months, or three years and four months. Some delays reach up to 10 years, or even, as in the case of the Rietspruit River bridge, two decades and more.

Maja argues that this reveals a deep-seated culture of deferred development and one which thousands of communities are encumbered by.

“Public officials, including President Cyril Ramaphosa himself, insist that South Africans must tolerate this in the name of ‘transformation’ – proof of the extent to which politicians are removed from the reality experienced by millions of South Africans that BEE has not only never reached but only worsened. That is fake transformation.

“Genuine transformation and empowerment take place when children are able to travel safely to school and receive quality education; when ambulances are able to quickly reach patients and deliver quality healthcare to them; when access to public goods is not stymied by corruption, malfeasance and maladministration, and when the condition of public goods enables citizens to improve their quality of life.”

Maja concludes that the IRR’s Value for Money Bill shows how these goals can be met if the recommendations of Chief Justice Zondo are adopted. The bill codifies the Zondo commission’s recommendation that public procurement be implemented on a value-for-money basis. Adopting the bill would make it law.

Media contact: Makone Maja, IRR Strategic Engagements Manager Tel: 079 418 6676 Email: makone@irr.org.za

Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za