Infrastructure Dialogue- Infrastructure Legacy

The focus of this dialogue is on the anticipated legacy impacts of the infrastructure provided, both directly and indirectly, to support the hosting of the FIFA 2010 World Cup tournament.Mega events do hold all sorts of connotations and clearly instil hope for host nations. For South Africa and the African continent at this historical juncture, it is particularly important. Succeed and the dividends are magnificent, but be seen to hesitate or stumble, and the international community will very quickly turn their backs. From the outset the South African dream was for FIFA 2010 World Cup to showcase as well as to leverage maximum social and economic benefit for the nation.

The time-frames, scale and complexity placed serious demands on public capacity, in particular, funding.  Admittedly much of the public funding has been brought forward in the form of accelerated spend rather than being totally new allocations. For example big ticket items include the stadiums at R8,4 billion; transport at R9 billion; ICT at R2,5 billion with lesser amounts being allocated for items such as arts and culture related projects R150 million, and training of volunteers R25 million.In global terms the 2010 World Cup is an extraordinary opportunity. However, it is not without enormous challenges. Simplistically, FIFA provides the “greatest show on earth” while South Africa ensures the availability of the required infrastructure and facilities together with the necessary services. In this regard two sets of sometimes contradictory or conflicting requirements need to be met – the South African developmental imperatives of sustained improvements in poverty reduction and economic growth versus FIFA’s business requirements of increasing profitability for itself,  its shareholders and sponsors.

Although the stadiums and their immediate environments are directly important to the tournament and can be viewed as iconic and contributing to national pride; there are as well, many other facets of infrastructure which less directly ensure the overall success  and which are of equal if not greater importance from a long term legacy perspective.  Clearly the cities and the host cities in particular will benefit from new and refurbished assets; be it, for example, through improved energy security, modern public transport or state of the art ICT which undoubtedly will impact a wider community of beneficiaries or conversely from a narrower perspective, particular communities which will benefit from improvements to city precincts, the provision of housing and the resultant enhanced quality of life.

Never the less, the real defining factor for success will be the ability to ensure that the manner by which these programmes are executed is appropriate and that all stakeholders including the public, private, non-governmental and community sectors all have a better understanding of what they in a democratic developmental state can both expect as well as need to contribute.  It is, in short, how, through what means these billions are invested and used which will ensure that legacy outcomes meet the dream expectations.

Consequently, if the legacy is to match the dream it is crucial that public funding be used effectively, efficiently and equitably in attaining public value. Thus, to be reasonably assured that the impacts will be real, four dimensions of legacy should be used in the interrogation of investments. First, to what degree, can and will the provision of infrastructure create and sustain economic and employment opportunities. Second, are host cities likely to disproportionately benefit from the investments and with what implications. Three, even if infrastructure spend is accelerated to ensure and sustain services like public transport, can the same be said for the stadiums. Four, although government guaranteed the FIFA requirements would be met, it does not reduce the potentially important roles and responsibilities of other stakeholders but rather suggests opportunities for co-operation, collaboration and partnerships.

In conclusion, in addressing these issues, this dialogue will open up to scrutiny, and tackle in an accessible manner, the delivery of both tangible impacts as well as the intangible and frequently more obscure impacts flowing from infrastructure provision.

This dialogue provides the platform to review progress, debate constraints and identify opportunities for constructively moving forward.

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