The South African “Report Cards”—Tracking the Condition of Our Infrastructure 2006–2022

In 2006 the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) released the first ever “report card” of the condition of engineering infrastructure in South Africa. 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 2006 report card was so well received that SAICE, greatly assisted by its then research partner, the parastatal Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), published further report cards in 2011 and 2017—the CSIR was not involved with the 2022 report card, which was primarily the work of volunteers from the technical divisions of SAICE. The SAICE report cards have been invaluable in benchmarking the progress (or regress) of the condition of this infrastructure, and of government’s attempts to improve service delivery through improved infrastructure condition. The paper: • outlines the history of the South African report cards, emphasising why SAICE has put so much effort into preparing them; • identifies recurring factors that generally contribute to infrastructure condition in South Africa; and • identifies condition trends and the key factors which have determined this condition.