An assessment by the engineering professionals of the condition of infrastructure in South Africa

In 2006 the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) released the first ever “report card” of the state of engineering infrastructure in South Africa. This report highlighted “the observations of the professionals responsible for the planning, construction, operation and maintenance of our nation’s life-support system”. It graded infrastructure on a scale from A+ through E-. The purpose of the report card was to draw the attention of government, and of the public at large, to the importance of maintenance, and to factors underlying the state of repair of infrastructure. The success of this report card was such that SAICE, with the assistance of CSIR, has prepared the next report card, to appear early in April 2011. It is anticipated that this next report card will be even more widely debated, because, since 2006, service delivery problems, particularly those attributable to operation and maintenance of infrastructure, have received heightened attention across the country.