at the tail of the african continent is a country rich in history and home to the great
man nelson mandela the country has developed quickly socially and economically in recent
years and has even greater plans for the future putting it the head of development on the
continent south africa is known for its differing topography natural beauty and cultural diversity
it has a population of about 60 million people and is one of the most developed african countries
south africa is the third biggest economy in africa and has shown a great deal of interest
in mega construction projects to become more economically and socially advanced the country
is addressing its overwhelming affordable housing needs improving the infrastructure
keeping up with the pace of growth of technology and reaching sustainable development goals
by undertaking some of the most incredible mega projects on the continent the south african
government has secured funding for several strategic infrastructure projects part of
its effective economic recovery plan today we would take a look at the 10 most impressive
mega projects in south africa
10. LANSERIA SMART CITY It is aimed at creating the first post-apartheid
city in South Africa based on ‘best practice’ in urban sustainability and the principles
underpinning the smart city. The city will be built surrounding the Lanseria
International Airport, north of Johannesburg, in a project which is expected to take around
25 years to complete. Sitting in the centre of the development, the airport will be the
main economic driver for the city’s growth. Strong residential growth in the surrounding
areas is expected which would be supported by improvements to existing roads in the area.
The Lanseria Smart City will feature rainwater harvesting and solar energy to limit its carbon
footprint. And would cost $6 Billion. The city aims to move urban sustainability
beyond existing paradigms of planning, engineering, and urbanization to increasingly appropriate
levels of sustainability and innovation. It will be a 24-hour smart city zone that will
offer retail, conference, and business facilities. It will also host the Lanseria luxury hotel.
9. MOLOTO ROAD PROJECT In the Thembisile Hani Municipality of Mpumalanga,
the Moloto road make-ups will include construction of Tweefontein and Kwaggafontein access roads
The two roads are expected to create over 600 job opportunities for the locals. Moreover,
the minister said that there was also upgrading of four priority intersections in Mpumalanga
of which three were converted to traffic circles and one to a butterfly intersection. In the
current financial year, three more construction work packages for Limpopo and five more for
Mpumalanga will be rolled out. The parts to be upgraded on this notorious killer road
which ships over 50,000 road users daily will be done in Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
The entire roads upgrade project is set to yield approximately 12,500 jobs over its five-year
period. The first phase of the project, which includes the construction of temporary bypasses
and upgrading the main carriageway between Siyabuswa and Marble Hall in Limpopo.
8. BRICS CABLE PROJECT The BRICS Cable is a planned optical fibre
submarine communications cable system that carries telecommunications between the BRICS;
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The cable was announced in 2012. The project
aims to provide bandwidth around the Southern Hemisphere of the globe, and to "ensure that
developing nations’ communications are not all in the hands of the nations of the North".
The cable is approximately 34,000 kilometres long and contains a 2 fibre pair with a 12.8
Tbit/s capacity. The cable will be the third-longest cable in the world by the time of its completion.
It will interconnect with the WACS cable on the West coast of Africa, and the EASSy and
SEACOM cables on the East coast of the continent. The BRICS cable is intended "to circumvent
the U.S. and NSA spying through ports in Russia, China, Singapore, India, Mauritius, South
Africa, and Brazil. It is estimated to cost $1.5 Billion.
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7. MOOIKLOOF MEGA CITY Mooikloof Mega City is located off Garsfontein
Drive. The development has a total project value of over $8 Billion and is one of the
62 Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) that were gazetted at the end of July.
The first phase of the project is residential developments, and some 50,000 sectional title
units are planned. The project will also feature schools, shops and offices.
Steve Brookes from Balwin Properties says that Mooikloof Mega City will be as green
as possible making it more affordable. The buildings would be fully green-classified
and would get solar and backwater harvesting as well as other green features.
Balwin said it plans to build an initial 16,000 apartments. This may be extended to up to
50,000 apartments. Apartment prices will range from R499,000 to R799,000.
Commenting shortly after the launch of the project, SAIBPP president Tholo Makhaola said
that black companies need to get into the entire value of supply chain management. “The
government should have spelt out transformation imperatives to Balwin Properties to allow
it to partner with black companies in delivering such huge projects,” he said.
6. SPACE INFRASTRUCTURE HUB $215 Million This project falls under the Digital Infrastructure
sector and was selected as one of the Strategic Infrastructure Projects. The Space Infrastructure
Hub is declared as SIP 22, implying that it is of national importance and a priority.
Estimated at $215 Million, it will include satellite builds (Earth observation and space
science missions), a new ground station, an expanded data segment and a new data visualisation
centre. In addition, the Space Infrastructure Hub also includes other projects for which
separate ring-fenced funding has already been secured.
The global space sector was valued at $360 billion in 2018. The African space industry
is currently worth $7.37 billion and is projected to grow to over $10.29 billion in the next
five years, according to the 2019 African Space Industry Annual Report.
In a 2017/18 study commissioned by the Department of Science and Innovation, South Africa had
approximately 30 space companies in the upstream segment. SANSA is currently refining the details
of each aspect of the deliverables within the Space Infrastructure Hub and will be hosting
various engagement workshops with the local space stakeholders over the coming months.
5. SQUARE KILOMETER ARRAY TELESCOPE The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an intergovernmental
radio telescope project being planned to be built in Australia and South Africa. Conceived
in the 1990s, and further developed and designed by the late-2010s, when completed it will
have a total collecting area of approximately one square kilometre sometime in the 2020s.
It will operate over a wide range of frequencies and its size will make it 50 times more sensitive
than any other radio instrument The SKA will be built in the southern hemisphere,
with cores in South Africa and Australia, where the view of the Milky Way Galaxy is
the best and radio interference at its least. Four precursor facilities are already operating:
MeerKAT and the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) in South Africa, and the Australian
SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) and Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Western Australia.
The SKA was estimated to cost $2.1 billion. There have been numerous delays and rising
costs over the nearly 30-year history of the intergovernmental project. Initial construction
contracts began in 2018. Scientific observations with the fully completed array are not expected
any earlier than 2027. 4. DURBAN POINT WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT
The eThekwini executive committee is set to break ground on the Durban Point Waterfront
project, which will see the city’s coastal skyline changed by skyscrapers and high-rise
developments. According to a report by Iol, infrastructure roll-out for the development
is set to start in June 2016. A total of 750,000 square metres will be developed,
including high rise skyscrapers above 55 storeys. Other infrastructure upgrades include the
extension of the promenade and all surrounding roads, public transport networks and water
and electricity channels. And would cost $2.4 Billion
The development is being headed by the Durban Point Development Company. UEM Sunrise modelled
the development partly on schemes in Miami, Cannes, Copa Cabana and Surfers Paradise in
Australia. 3. REDSTONE CONCENTRATED SOLAR PROJECT
Redstone concentrated solar thermal project is a 100MW integrated CSP plant. The South
Africa Department of Energy awarded the contract to develop the CSP project to the consortium
of SolarReserve and ACWA Power, in January 2015.
Estimated at $798 Million Redstone is the first of its kind to be developed in Africa
and is expected to produce 480,000MW of clean energy a year. It is expected to electrify
approximately 210,000 South African households during peak demand and is also anticipated
to create more than 3,500 jobs. The project will feature ThermaVault technology
developed by SolarReserve, which will combine solar thermal technology with molten salt
energy storage technology. The CSP technology will be capable of storing thermal energy
for 12 hours, which enables the plant to generate electricity through the night in addition
to daytime operations. Auxiliary infrastructure includes two molten
salt storage tanks, air-cooled condensers, a water purification system, sewage treatment
facility, an evaporation pond, emergency diesel generators, electrical switchyard, step-up
transformers, and associated facilities. 2. GREATER CORNUBIA DEVELOPMENT
Cornubia City is a new mixed-use development that broke ground in 2012, north of Durban,
South Africa between Phoenix, Ottawa, Mount Edgecombe and Umhlanga. It is bordered to
the east by the N2 Freeway, to the west by regional route R-102, and is 7 kilometres
(4.3 mi) south of the King Shaka International Airport. The development project is a joint
venture between the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and Tongaat Hulett. 482 homes
were constructed in 2014 of the 24,000 residential units planned for the development; 15,000
of which will be low-cost homes. Cornubia is the first proposed sustainable
and fully integrated human settlement in the region and has been declared a national priority
project. It comprises 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres), with 80 hectares (200 acres) earmarked
for industrial development and the remainder for commercial, housing and other social and
public facilities including schools, clinics, police stations, post offices and multi-purpose
halls. The projected completion date is 2030 and is estimated at $1.7 Billion.
KUSILE COAL POWERPLANT The 4.8GW Kusile power station, which is expected
to be one of the world’s largest coal-fired power plants upon completion, is being constructed
by Eskom Holdings SOC in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The plant adopts supercritical-pressure
technologies for a more efficient generation of power than standard coal-fired systems,
resulting in a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions.
The construction of the power plant began in August 2008. Units 1 and 2 were synchronised
to the national grid in 2017. The third unit was synchronised by March 2019. The total
planned operational life of the power plant is 50 years. The plant will generate enough
electricity to power 3.5 million South African households, upon the commissioning of all
six units. In total, it would cost $8.2 Billion. Here we are at the end. We hope you enjoyed
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