{"id":832076,"date":"2025-07-18T10:12:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T08:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=832076"},"modified":"2025-07-18T10:12:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T08:12:27","slug":"uk-to-lend-south-africa-a-helping-hand-to-fix-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/832076\/uk-to-lend-south-africa-a-helping-hand-to-fix-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"UK to lend South Africa a helping hand to fix infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an infrastructure partnership with the South African government to boost investment in Africa\u2019s biggest economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInfrastructure investment in both of our countries is absolutely key to driving productivity, economic growth and importantly job creation,\u201d Reeves said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pact, announced in the South African port city of Durban on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting, is designed to speed up the delivery of major infrastructure projects in the nation as it scrambles to clear a backlog that\u2019s hindering economic growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s economy has grown at less than 1% a year on average for more than a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the partnership, Reeves said, the UK will offer South Africa technical expertise to get a pipeline of projects ready for investment. She cited a similar program with Peru as a model for the collaboration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBritish expertise will be brought in to unblock these barriers on building, speeding up a pipeline of projects which British firms are well-placed to win tenders for,\u201d the UK Treasury said in a statement on Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will help growth and development in South Africa, and also help Britain get better return on its investments in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has estimated that the nation needs R4.8 trillion in public and private infrastructure investment by 2030 to meet its goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country\u2019s Treasury has allocated\u00a0R1 trillion<\/a>\u00a0to public infrastructure over the next three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s public infrastructure deficit ranges from inadequate water treatment and supply facilities to a need for investment in power transmission lines and the rehabilitation of rundown city centers in major metropolitan areas such as Durban and Johannesburg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country\u2019s minister of public works & infrastructure, Dean Macpherson, has stated that his department seeks to boost investment in cities through more private investment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has bemoaned the fact that many municipalities return infrastructure allocations to the Treasury because they lack the expertise to implement projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy injecting technical expertise and delivery support into stalled projects\u201d through the partnership, the department aims to use neglected buildings and vacant state land to boost economic growth and create jobs, Macpherson said in the statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At $7.7 billion in two-way trade, the UK is South Africa\u2019s seventh-biggest trading partner and one of its largest investors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also part of the Just Energy Transition Partnership between South Africa and some of the world\u2019s richest nations. Under that agreement $8.3 billion in climate finance could flow to South Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an infrastructure partnership with the South African government to boost investment in Africa\u2019s biggest economy.  \u201cInfrastructure investment in both of our countries is absolutely key to driving productivity, economic growth and importantly job creation,\u201d Reeves said. The pact, announced in the South African port city of Durban on the sidelines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":809911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[1571],"class_list":["post-832076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-infrastructure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832076","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832077,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832076\/revisions\/832077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}