South Africa is embarking on what government describes as the largest infrastructure build in our history, with R1.07 trillion in public-sector infrastructure investment planned over the medium term.

That creates an opportunity that extends far beyond construction.

Start with the required properties

Before asking ‘which product should we procure?’ or ‘where should we import it from?’, perhaps the first question should be: what properties and performance do we actually need to meet our infrastructure requirements, not just for now, but for the next 30 years?

Fire resistance, durability, impact resistance, moisture performance, corrosion resistance, structural capacity, maintainability, speed of installation and local repairability.

Then ask: which South African manufacturers already possess materials, processes or production capabilities capable of delivering them? That is property-first discovery. It could bring manufacturers into infrastructure markets they have never previously served.

Capability beyond the current product

Having worked with fibre cement for many years, it’s a strong example among others for consideration. Its properties could warrant investigation across bridges, permanent shuttering, rail infrastructure, substations, water-treatment facilities and utility structures.

A wood-panel manufacturer, for example, may possess fibre-processing, resin-formulation and continuous-pressing capabilities that could potentially be engineered towards infrastructure applications such as technical utility panels or specialised formwork.

However, the proposition is much bigger than fibre cement or wood-panel manufacturers. South Africa has sophisticated capability across cement, polymers, composites, steel, timber, chemicals, textiles, minerals and advanced manufacturing. Local production also brings something an imported specification cannot automatically provide: the ability to adapt, trial, scale, modify and manufacture for South African conditions.

Qualification before cost

Cost matters, but cost should follow qualification, not define it.

Define the problem, define the required properties, then discover who in South Africa can make the solution.

Two sleeping giants

Our infrastructure programme could become an infrastructure programme and an industrial-development programme: two sleeping giants that would support each other’s growth.