Finance minister Enoch Godongwana has announced that the government plans to spend R1-trillion on infrastructure over the next three years. South Africans should ask a simple question: will they get R1-trillion worth of infrastructure for that money?
The answer is no. BEE premiums are baked into public procurement, meaning the state routinely pays more than it needs to and gets less than it should. Nobody knows the precise cost because the Treasury has not calculated it. The Institute of Race Relations’ (IRR’s) legal division is pressing the Treasury to do so.
The fix is straightforward. The IRR’s Value for Money Bill would require public procurement to be done on a value-for-money basis. A recent IRR survey found 82% of South Africans support this approach, including 76% of black respondents.
One-trillion rand is a lot of money. South Africans deserve R1-trillion worth of infrastructure in return.
John Endres
CEO, Institute of Race Relations
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