{"id":755233,"date":"2024-02-27T10:19:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T08:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=755233"},"modified":"2024-02-27T10:26:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T08:26:04","slug":"government-turns-to-the-private-sector-to-help-fix-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/755233\/government-turns-to-the-private-sector-to-help-fix-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Government turns to the private sector to help fix South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s government is increasingly turning to the private sector to help mitigate some of the country&#8217;s biggest problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>National Treasury has now opened two proposed amendments for public comment, with the aim of making it easier for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to be set up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the CEOs of over 100 of South Africa&#8217;s most prominent companies, including Standard Bank, FNB, Woolworths and MTN, announced a partnership to fix South Africa&#8217;s three biggest issues &#8211; crime, energy and logistics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Increased private-sector participation has already been seen in the energy sector, with over 5,000 MW of private generation keeping load shedding at lower levels during the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of logistics, Transnet has also seen increased private-sector participation in upgrading Pier 2 of the Durban Container Terminal to improve private investment in equipment and enhance technological capability and operational efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the 2024 Budget last week, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced that third-party access will also be given to Transnet&#8217;s freight rail network in May of this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"b3dcI6sFCk\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/budget-speech\/753839\/private-sector-to-the-rescue\/\">Private sector to the rescue<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Private sector to the rescue&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/budget-speech\/753839\/private-sector-to-the-rescue\/embed\/#?secret=poZ2XJuOEV#?secret=b3dcI6sFCk\" data-secret=\"b3dcI6sFCk\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>National Treasury has also drafted amendments to key regulations regarding the Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) framework. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Treasury has now opened the amendments to <a href=\"https:\/\/static.pmg.org.za\/240219proposedamendmentstreasuryregulations.pdf\">Regulation 16 of the Public Finance Management Act<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/static.pmg.org.za\/240219municipalpublicprivatrpartnershipreg.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Municipal PPP Regulations<\/a> for public comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The amendments aim to reduce the processes required for planning and producing PPPs, resulting in simpler regulations that align with a project&#8217;s size and complexity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, the new regulations make provisions for the setting up two pathways for PPPs &#8211; one for high-value projects and a simplified arrangement for low-value (R2 billion) projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new regulations also clarify the institutional arrangements over who is responsible for what during a PPP project cycle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Treasury added that the amendments make it easier for the private sector to engage with investment opportunities while accounting for all the risks of PPPs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are also amendments to improve the discipline in project execution by restricting the ability of accounting officers to cancel good projects while providing greater security to investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Written comments can be submitted to CommentsPPPDraftLegislation@treasury.gov.za by 20 March 2024. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Lobbyists Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) has welcomed the Treasury&#8217;s decision to reform infrastructure financing and delivery mechanisms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Economists often cite investment in infrastructure as a sure-fire way to kickstart GDP growth, which South Africa&#8217;s economy is in desperate need of as it is only <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/749518\/economists-agree-on-one-thing-and-its-not-good-for-south-africans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expected <\/a>to grow by a paltry 1.0% in 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/755217\/eskom-heading-in-the-right-direction-but-expect-some-setbacks-ramokgopa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Eskom heading in the right direction \u2013 but expect some setbacks: Ramokgopa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African government is attempting to make public-private partnerships a lot easier as it taps the private sector to pull the economy out of a hole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":701847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26,3796],"class_list":["post-755233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline","tag-national-treasury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755233"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":755311,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755233\/revisions\/755311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}