Johannesburg - Government has identified 18 infrastructure
projects to take place in South Africa in the next 10 to 20 years, Economic
Development Minister Ebrahim Patel said on Friday.
He said 645 projects were identified by the Presidential
Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission and these had been streamlined to 18
strategic infrastructure projects.
The projects were estimated at R4 trillion over the next 15
years.
Patel presented the government plans to the delegates at the
Presidential Infrastructure Investment Conference in Johannesburg and
emphasised that partnerships between government and the private sector were
crucial in seeing these projects come to life.
One of the projects would be the unlocking of the northern
mineral belt, with Waterberg as the catalyst in Limpopo.
The multi-billion rand project entailed unlocking mineral
resources, and the development of rail, water pipeline, energy generation and
transmission infrastructure.
Patel said the area had 18 billion tonnes of coal, 6323
tonnes of platinum, 5,5 tonnes of chromite and 3611 tonnes of palladium lying
untapped.
Government would build a Durban-Free State-Gauteng logistics
and industrial corridor to strengthen the logistics and transport corridor
between South Africa's main industrial hubs.
A total of 122 nursing colleges would be built nationally
and two new universities would be built in Mpumalanga and Northern Cape.
Six hospitals would be built to improve the public health
system.
Other projects would include improving road infrastructure, housing development, information technology and linking rural infrastructure with cities.