Angelo Coppola

Johannesburg - Direct government investment in infrastructure has plummeted from 48% of total spend over the past decade, to just over 12%, due mainly to a change in focus to social spending.

This is according to Mike Schüssler, the chief economist at T-Sec, who was speaking at a post-budget briefing hosted by Mastercard and the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce.

"It almost appears from the lack of infrastructure investment that the government has no confidence in the country," says Schüssler.

The government shouldn't expect the private sector to be the main driver of this form of investment, he said.

It should be involved and invest in infrastructure development and upgrades, and the national road network is a very clear example of where investment is required.

This investment will increase productivity and efficiency and benefit the country, over the long term, said Schüssler.

'Eating away at capital base'

Dawie Roodt, chief economist at The Efficient Group, says that the government is simply eating away at the capital base of the country, instead of maintaining it. His analogy is that the government is eating the proverbial cow, as opposed to milking it.

As things stand, the private sector accounts for an astounding 73% of all infrastructure investment, and the public corporations account for 14% of the expenditure.

These public corporations include Eskom, Transnet, Safcol, Airports Company South Africa, the National Roads Agency, and more recently the Gautrain project.

The problem, says Schüssler, is that at this stage South Africa already has one of the largest populations that receive some form of income and support from the state, with 26% of the population or 12.4 million people in the net.

This has to be a long-term policy shift, says Schüssler because the number continues to grow, specifically after the announcement yesterday that the child grant age will be increased to 15, and the retirement age for men will be brought down from 65 to 60, over the next couple of years.

The issue really is that is will be extremely difficult to wean people off the social security net, says Schüssler.

Roodt concurs, and he says that even at present levels, the expenditure on social spending in unsustainable. In essence, the government is over-doing it, says Roodt, and there is no doubt in his mind that it is for political gain only.
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"Не успеваешь сделать одно, как тут же не успеваешь сделать другое"."Бывает - проснешься,как птица,крылатой пружиной на взводе и хочется жить и трудиться,но к завтраку ето проходит."- СКОЛЬКО ЕЩЕ НЕ СДЕЛАНО... А СКОЛЬКО ЕЩЕ ПРЕДСТОИТ НЕ СДЕЛАТЬ.....