Civil Engineering January-February 2022 | Vol 30 No 1

14 January/February 2022 Civil Engineering is clear that a significant portion of the currently available civil infrastructure was built between 1946 and 2000 (see Figure 4). The responsibility to implement civil infrastructure and services is, to a large extent, carried by municipalities. Investment spending in South Africa fell from an average of almost 30% of GDP in the early 1980s to about 16% of GDP by the early 2000s. Public infrastructure spending is also at low levels by historical standards. In effect, South Africa has missed a generation of capital investment in roads, rail, ports, electricity, water, sanitation, public transport, and housing (NDC, 2011). Furthermore, between 2015/16 and 2018/19, most cities spent below National Treasury’s 8% benchmark on maintenance (see Figure 5), with Cape Town being the only city to spend 8% or more (SACN, 2020). According to the South African Cities Network (2018:20), “several factors adversely affect the ability of munici- palities to carry out their capital budgets, including weak multi-year budgeting, limited planning, poor asset manage- ment and poor contract management.” Aging infrastructure and prolonged underinvestment in maintenance has led to major challenges, as articulated in SAICE’s Infrastructure Report Cards. In 2017, SAICE, in collaboration with the CSIR, awarded South Africa’s public in- frastructure an overall grade of D+ which indicates a risk of failure. The unfortunate 1904: Population 265 881 Built-up area 23 km 2 Gross density 115 persons/ha 1946: Population 631 427 Built-up area 86 km 2 Gross density 73 persons/ha 1970: Population 1 335 435 Built-up area 256 km 2 Gross density 52 persons/ha 2000: Population ± 3 000 000 Built-up area 774 km 2 Gross density 39 persons/ha Figure 4 Cape Town’s built-up area (Gasson, 2002) Figure 5 Maintenance as a percentage of property, plant and equipment (SACN, 2020) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Johannesburg Cape Town eThekwini Tshwane Ekurhuleni Nelson Mandela Bay Mangaung Buffalo City Average Msukaligwa 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 Maintenance as a % of property, plant and equipment