- With South Africa’s GDP growth is projected at around 1.6% in 2025[1], this modest recovery depends heavily on improvements in infrastructure, governance, and institutional capacity
- The 2025 National Budget allocated an additional R46.7 billion for public infrastructure projects over three years[2], signalling increased government commitment to infrastructure development
- Despite increased investment, institutional capacity gaps persist, particularly in technical skills and project management, affecting infrastructure delivery efficiency.
21 May 2025: Institutional capacity challenges remain a key constraint on economic growth and service delivery. South Africa faces ongoing shortages of skilled professionals, especially engineers, which continues to undermine institutional capacity within the infrastructure sectors. According to The Engineering Council of South Africa, there is only one engineer for every 3,166 people[3], a ratio far below international benchmarks and insufficient for a country’s infrastructure needs.
Studies show that not all municipalities can perform their functions optimally, with the majority hampered by institutional capacity problems such as poor consequence management, lack of internal controls, and inadequate response to performance issues. According to a municipal capacity and skill study, both the National Development Plan (NDP) and the Municipal Demarcation Board have identified capacity issues as a leading challenge undermining the effectiveness of local government and service delivery.
One of the key drivers of infrastructure failure is the erosion of technical skills in the public sector, especially at a municipal level. Many government organisations are still led by people with little experience and who lack the correct skills required to properly plan, develop, oversee the operations and maintain infrastructure, resulting in poor to no planning, lack of implementation of the correct projects by area and lack of infrastructure maintenance.
South Africa’s infrastructure crisis is deeply rooted in institutional capacity challenges: manifested in a shortage of skilled professionals, inadequate mentorship, fragmented skills development, delays in professional registration for graduates, due to lack of structured guidance and project exposure, as well as a lack of technical decision-makers in government.
The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE), particularly through the SAICE Professional Development and Projects (SAICE PDP) and the SAICE Future Leaders Panel (FLP), is uniquely positioned to address these root causes and drive meaningful, sustainable reform.
The mentorship ecosystem provided by SAICE PDP through mentorship programmes with the public sector and local government entities ensures that experienced engineers transfer knowledge to younger professionals, providing hands-on support which addresses the loss of institutional memory as senior engineers exit the system and accelerates the readiness of the next generation for senior roles.
By consistently advocating for the inclusion of registered professionals in key infrastructure decision-making roles, SAICE works with local government to provide technical expertise to guide the procurement, design, and implementation processes.
With skills transfer being an issue for many organisations, proper mentorship and skills transfer initiatives need to be put in place for each project planned and implemented, with each being proactively monitored and measured to ensure success throughout the project lifecycle.
In addition, some government policies prove to be stumbling blocks that hinder decision making for technical people with those organisations, instead of resolving some infrastructure challenges.
“There’s a need for changes to policies that prevent key infrastructure departments from functioning effectively to plan, implement and maintain infrastructure. While there’s been a shift in some sectors, like water, where the government is changing legislation to enable opportunities for public private partnerships to assist in resolving infrastructure challenges, more change is needed,” stresses SAICE’s Advocacy Team.
SAICE assists professionals in all stages of their careers, especially at mid and expert levels through targeted CPD programmes, endorsing leadership courses and sector-specific training, as well as supporting career mobility and retention, through technical networks and recognition platforms like the annual SAICE Awards.
SAICE creates platforms for emerging leaders to engage in national discourse, fostering a pipeline of technically strong, ethically grounded professionals who can champion reform from within. Through these and other initiatives, SAICE is building a leadership pipeline that is technically strong, ethically grounded and future-oriented.
SAICE CEO, Sekadi Phayane-Shakhane concurs and adds, “Strengthening technical capacity and professionalising the sector, SAICE’s interventions yield broader economic and social benefits. Better-trained professionals result in more reliable infrastructure and improved service delivery as well as increased economic growth and investor confidence, due to stable, well-maintained infrastructure. In addition, quality infrastructure directly improves housing, sanitation, mobility, and public safety, enhancing quality of life for all South Africans.”
By building a technically competent, future-ready, and ethically driven engineering workforce, SAICE is helping to transform not just the sector, but the nation’s prospects for sustainable development and inclusive growth.
For more information, visit https://saice.org.za
[1] https://www.moore-southafrica.com/news-views/february-2025/south-africa-s-2025-economic-outlook
[2] https://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/National%20Budget/2025/ene/FullENE.pdf
[3] https://www.ecsa.co.za/news/Research%20Outputs/Identifying%20Attrition%20in%20the%20Engineering%20Skills%20Pipeline.pdf