This is one of the few periods in history where massive public investment in economic development is taking place, notes Geda's Barba Gaoganediwe. He admits that the 2010 World Cup was the catalyst that kick-started the R60 billion spend by the public sector on infrastructure (excluding money spent of hospitals, offices, schools, etc). The 2010 deadline has fasttracked the development so that projects that would have taken 40 years to complete will now be ready in 20 years. But he believes that critics who say that nothing at all would have happened if it wasn’t for 2010 are misinformed. One of the reasons given for waiting until now is the fact that the government had to turn the deficit it inherited in 1994 into a surplus by means that strictly adhered to good corporate governance. Gaoganediwe makes the point that the private sector has been making a profit all along and asks why they haven’t invested. He challenges them to match or better the public sector’s investment in economic development, particularly in this period when the entire world is experiencing an economic slowdown. “South Africa is no longer in isolation. The world needs a joint effort to respond to the high levels of poverty and economic development and therefore the owners of capital and the government need to work together to provide sustainable solutions,” he concludes.
