B4SA’s mammoth post-Covid plan can unify the sector, but some of the country’s most critical challenges are underplayed or simply lostAlmost as soon as the lockdown was announced, Business For SA set to work crafting a plan for economic recovery in a post-Covid world. The result of its efforts was released on July 10.
Having said all that, the document is not all one might wish, and there are a number of ways in which the laudable desire to be inclusive and comprehensive has meant that some of the most critical challenges SA faces are underplayed or simply lost in the welter of detailed diagnostics. That said, neither document makes any real effort to prioritise, except at the broadest possible level, among different kinds of infrastructure, or even makes much of an attempt to define principles to use when having to choose between different kinds of infrastructure delivering different kinds of services to different sets of beneficiaries.
Borrowing vast sums to fund infrastructure projects — whether the borrower is the state or a private party — has the potential to create systemic risk if the infrastructure that is delivered does not generate an increase in economic activity of sufficient magnitude to fund repayment. Just ask anyone who has looked at Eskom’s books or who thinks seriously about the e-tolls fiasco.