If Gauteng wants to achieve its objective of becoming a global city region, government must partner with the private sector to deliver infrastructure, Human Settlements MEC Paul Mashatile said on Thursday.
At the Gauteng Infrastructure Funding Summit, in Midrand, he said collaboration between the various spheres of government and their agencies was imperative.
He noted that the province is still committed to, and focused on pursuing the implementation of the National Development Plan, which is one of the main drivers for infrastructure development in the province.
Mashatile highlighted that R10-billion a year has been budgeted just for human settlements, but that the funding the province was raising would not solely go towards housing programmes, but would be used for broad infrastructure development, including the development of roads and energy.
He noted that the Gauteng provincial government was focused on building new, toll-free roads.
“We also want to expand the Gautrain to Lanseria, Tshwane East and the South of Johannesburg to Soweto.He further stated that provincial government was planning to build schools, health institutions, light industrial zones and retail outlets.
“We are going to ‘go big’ with these development programmes and we are actively moving away from small, sporadic projects; we are focused on building new megacities.”
