Civil Engineering June 2021 | Vol 29 No 5

6 June 2021 Civil Engineering ceo’ S CORNER W hile our healthcare industry is hard at work dealing with the prevention and treatment of Covid-19, together with the vaccine rollout, it appears there are some glitches. We hope that as vaccinations ramp up we will gain comfort that all is under control – we do have the technology and resources to achieve this. The pace of the vaccine rollout will determine when restrictions can be lifted, thereby freeing all activities to resume to full capacity. Economic green shoots in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors give us hope and optimism as we look forward to the upward revised forecast of 3.1% GDP growth in 2021. A strong exchange rate does not assist our export-based economy, although it does signal confidence in our economy in comparison to others. This article serves to reassure leaders and decision-makers involved in infrastructure delivery and maintenance that we have created sufficient momentum in our pandemic response that we now need to transcend into our economic response. We can no longer let issues lie due to our worsening socio-economic circum- stances, laid bare in our current unemployment rate. ADDRESSING SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONCERNS Key socio-economic indicators in a developing economy are income, poverty, employment, health, housing, education, sustainability, mobility and safety. The average South African income increased by 3.1% between 2019 and 2020, indicating that salaries are not generally keeping up with infla- tion of 3.2%. In addition, 55.5% of our population, or 30.3 million people, are living in poverty, of which 13.8 million people are experiencing food poverty. Poverty is forecasted to increase by 9% in 2021. An alarming 2.2 million people lost their jobs between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020, with a recovery of about 550 000 to date. The housing backlog sits at 2.6 million units which will cost R800 billion to clear, and current debt levels and reduced revenues, exacerbated by lack of care for the public purse, will surely defer the backlog further into the future. Fiscal stresses are not the only constraint, with all three spheres of government facing serious capacity deficiencies. Travel advisories indicate that South Africa is designated as a high-crime, low-safety country. Based on a simple interpretation of the socio-economic indicators, it does not suggest that we are trending substantially in the direction we would like to. Empathy for those dealing with socio-economic strife has to serve as motivation for leaders and decision-makers to care for all of society. As much as engineers can assist with the implementa- tion of growth initiatives, engineers cannot do it alone. We need the cooperation of business, academia, labour, government and civil society to converge rationally on the developmental agenda. Fragmentation in business, politics and society remains the order of the day. While many forces are working against a collectivist approach, it is fundamental to progress socio- economic initiatives which include the immediate aggressive and coordinated rollout of public infrastructure. In so doing we need to remain surefooted in the belief that we can only succeed as a collective. The secret lies in our ability to leverage our technical diversity – something unique to South Africa. Socio-economic growth must be prioritised with the same vigour and urgency to overcome the effects of the pandemic that will segue into socio-economic urgency in a matter of months. Growth is high on the development agenda, however there ap- pears to be a lack of urgency in executing much-needed programmes. Our recent economic policies have not delivered materially on socio-economic indicators. While structural reforms proceed to deliver value in the medium and long term, a concerted and urgent focus on short- to medium-term objectives has to become the order for the day. It has to become a national imperative. Factors that have a strangle- hold on growth, namely corruption and theft, negligence and maleficence, and institutional capacity decay have to be Key focus areas for our Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan Our current vaccine rollout is the most important driver of our recovery from the pandemic. I am certain we will prevail, as we always do, ideally in good time to reach population immunity as fast as possible.