Our Viewpoint | Investing in social infrastructure

The urgent need for economic integration, inclusive growth and investment in rural development and social need was laid bare at Monday’s infrastructure symposium.

“Without social infrastructure, the centre will not hold,” said Vasu Gounden, founder and CEO of African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (Accord), addressing the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa (Sidssa).

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While public infrastructure is seen as the key to economic growth, Gounden stressed that it cannot come at the expense of neglecting the crucial need for social investment, especially in poverty-stricken rural areas. “If we don’t close the gap between urban and rural, conflict will follow,” he said, citing Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa’s July 2021 unrest as examples.

Investing in social infrastructure such as schools, clinics, libraries and inclusive agriculture systems, Gounden said, was pivotal to prevent instability and full-scale urban warfare within a generation. Job creation and economic growth will not fix the poverty problem without first addressing economic inclusion.

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As deputy minister for Public Works and Infrastructure Sihle Zikalala commented at the summit, poverty resides in rural areas; which is where investment should be focused on, by building infrastructure to create economic hubs. Zambia’s minister of local government and rural development shared the country’s strategy of shifting its resource allocation to focusing on rural areas.

He argued that cities consume a disproportionate share of national resources and stressed the need to capitalise on rural areas as well. It is counter-productive to have formal and informal economies competing against each other. Gounden’s proposed solution is to fix the problem at its roots: inequality.

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When the lens is shifted to social infrastructure and development in South Africa, the glaring inequality on every front makes Gounden’s predictions more believable and pertinent for South Africa. The warning has been issued. Now, it is up to our leaders to act — before the centre no longer holds.

As South Africa takes centre stage at this year’s G20 summit, it has both the platform and the responsibility to drive this conversation forward.

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