“No matter how good the team or how efficient the methodology, if we’re not solving the right problem, the project fails.” Woody Williams
Introduction
Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, we have experienced a massive rise of mega projects in housing, water, sanitation, electricity, energy, roads, airports, hospitals, social amenities, and sport stadiums, that cost billions of Rands.
Mega projects are large-scale infrastructure projects that require huge productive investments and research and implementation to achieve the final outcomes that will benefit the economy, increase employment, attract foreign direct investment, influence the establishment of micro-businesses, and add value to servicing the citizens of South Africa.
Although mega projects have been taken on with an almost unbelievable rate of recurrence in South Africa, many of these projects have suffered high-cost overruns, time consuming delays, and publicly displayed conflicts reported in the media.
Nevertheless, many mega projects such as the King Shaka International Airport, the five biggest green energy projects on wind farms and the Albert Luthuli and Cintocare Hospitals, have a transformational impact on society and communities.
Most mega projects require approximately between five to 10 years or more to complete, with a phased-in approach. Therefore, time clearly has a major impact on the eventual success of mega project, for example the construction of new cities.
Mega project’s guru Bent Flyvbjerg argues as follows: “Interestingly, our experience tells us that it is not the size or scope of the megaproject that makes it complex, but rather the time factor. The fact is that many megaprojects take upwards of 15 years to become fully operational and there are all sorts of unexpected changes that can and often do, alter the rules of the game in mid-development,” (Insight:2013).
Mega-challenges
In essence, if there are huge time gaps between planning and delivery, it is likely that new challenges and complexities will pop-up constantly during the project life cycle. The success of mega projects should include the quality of design, materials and workmanship of construction and the accomplishment of the expectations for functionality and performance.
Merrow (2011) explains that an industrial project can be a failure or success depending on the answers to the key questions below based on cost, time and quality limits:
Celebrating the benefits of new mega projects in South Africa
Last year Patricia de Lille, the current Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, announced that 50 projects and an additional 12 Special Projects were gazetted on Friday 24 July 2020 as Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) in terms of the Infrastructure Development Act.
It is difficult to quantify the benefits of the mega projects collectively and reliably, either on the country’s economic growth or societal change since the mega-status is much more complex than simply the project cost. However, the major benefits of these mega projects are that they provide opportunities for medium and micro businesses, increase employment opportunities for the semi-skilled and skilled personnel, providing access to the internet and affordable data to South Africans, providing improved and new infrastructure such as water, electricity, housing, roads, and essential services throughout the country.
Businesstech.co.za (Staff writer: 2020) reported the following with respect to government projects:
a) Energy
Three projects from the energy sector have been gazetted, its total investment value is R58 billion. For example, the emergency power programme involves the development, installation, and operation of a total aggregate of up to 2,000 megawatts of new generation capacity by independent power producer (IPP) projects.
b) Water
Collectively the Water and Sanitation projects are worth R106 billion in investment, spanning across all provinces with the potential for direct job creation being estimated at around 25,000. For example, the Mokolo Crocodile Water Augmentation Project (Phase 2A) will be used as a second source for the Medupi and Matimba Power Stations, and it will also help to meet the growing demand for water in Lephalale Municipality. Further downstream, the economic benefits are that it might improve the prospects for development of mineral resources in the Waterberg region. The proposed investment value of the project is R12.4 billion and the investment period is five years.
c) Transport
In the transport sector, a total of 15 projects to the value of R47 billion have been gazetted. The potential for direct job creation in this sector is estimated at 50,000 and the focus will be on upgrading roads throughout the country.
d) Human Settlement
In the Human Settlement sector, projects worth R138 billion have been gazetted, and these projects have the potential to create an estimated 190,000 direct jobs. One of the major mega projects is the New City – The Greater Cornubia which already started in 2016. The Greater Cornubia development is a mixed-use and mixed-income development, which consists of industrial, commercial, residential, and open spaces. The proposed investment value of the project is R25 billion, and the investment period is 16 years. Over the first 10 years, investing in the Greater Cornubia will on average support 11,254 jobs per year, of which more than half (57%) will be for semi-skilled and low-skilled labour. By 2027, employment opportunities will increase to 15,603 jobs.
e) Digital
The digital sector has a single gazetted project worth R4 billion, with the potential to create an estimated 700 direct and 1,000 indirect jobs. These include the Space Infrastructure Hub and Broadband – Project Thobela. The Space Infrastructure Hub will provide information that might be used to develop products and services that can allow targeted responses to the socio-economic and infrastructure challenges which South Africa may face. The proposed investment value of the project is R3.1 billion for the investment period of three years and on average, support 4,695 jobs per year.
The Broadband – Project Thobela helps our economy to benefit from the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and grant access to affordable broadband, especially in the rural areas. The proposed investment value of the project is R9.8 billion and the investment period is seven years and on average, this project will create 6,553 job opportunities per year, of which just over a quarter will be in the informal economy.
Conclusion
South Africa is mega in terms of projects on the African continent. We certainly do not want major project failures at the expense of the taxpayers. Therefore, it is always best for project risks that have the potential to impact adversely on the anticipated project outcomes are identified at the earliest stage during scoping, appropriately allocated to those best-placed to manage and control them with adequate resources during project execution.
"Get the right people. Then no matter what all else you might do wrong after that, the people will save you. That’s what management is all about." Tom DeMarco
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