Government doubles down on private sector participation

TimesLIVE

21-05-2025

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana stressed that while economic development spending of R289.8bn has remained in his budget since the February tabling, the private sector had a vital role to play in catalytic investment.
Godongwana tabled a budget on Wednesday for a historic third time in a calendar year. This was due to the last-minute postponement of the first budget in February due to a proposal for a two percentage point rise in VAT and a legal challenge to the budget tabled in March.
Tabling the budget at a joint sitting of parliament in Cape Town , Godongwana said regulations for public-private partnerships (PPP) gazetted last year were on track to take effect next month.
'These will reduce the procedural complexity of undertaking PPPs, increasing the deal flow and allowing government to leverage its limited resources to fast-track infrastructure provision. The National Treasury has developed enabling guidelines and frameworks to support the new regulations.
'The minister said the unsolicited proposals framework would create clear rules for managing proposals from the private sector. Today, R52.9bn in additional funding has been unlocked through the budget Facility for Infrastructure.
'The framework for fiscal commitments and contingent liabilities will strengthen fiscal risk governance. These guidelines and frameworks will be published in the next few weeks.'
He said the private sector participation unit of the department of transport and Transnet was making progress in engaging the market on private sector participation (PSP) projects.
'The PSPs will resolve and improve some of the critical logistic bottlenecks in the rail and port networks. In March, a request for information was issued for the ore, chrome, and manganese lines. In April, a request for qualification was issued for the establishment of an independent rolling stock leasing company.'
Briefing journalists before the tabling of the budget, deputy finance minister David Masondo said 97 operators have applied to get involved in rail infrastructure operations.
The department of transport has released a request for information in port infrastructure and later this year this should move to requests for proposals through the public-private partnership unit in the department, he added.