South Africa’s unemployment problem may find part of its answer in the country’s crumbling roads, water systems and power networks, according to construction law specialist Methembeni Moyo, who argues that fixing the infrastructure deficit is itself a jobs programme.
Moyo, Head of Africa Practice at law firm NSDV, says capital spent on roads, water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure does more than restore service delivery. In her view, it also drives economic growth and job creation, making infrastructure investment a central lever for tackling the unemployment crisis.
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The backdrop is grim. Data released by Statistics SA earlier this week showed the unemployment rate edged up to 33.7% in the third quarter, a slight increase that underscores the pressure on policymakers to find workable interventions.
Her case rests on the practical character of the construction sector. She describes it as highly labour-intensive and accessible to workers without advanced qualifications, which positions it to absorb large numbers of people, including young South Africans with limited skills and qualifications.
“When you talk about the infrastructure deficit in South Africa, I see a massive opportunity. As a construction lawyer, when you see an infrastructure deficit, you are thinking of massive opportunities for construction and infrastructure companies and then the downstream industries they employ. And then also just the labor. It’s a very labour-intensive sector, and it doesn’t need highly skilled and highly qualified workers. So, all those people with matrics, with no matrics, and this massive youth employment gap we’re talking about can be solved by massive infrastructure capital expenditure,” Moyo said.
The argument links two of the country’s most persistent challenges: the gap in physical infrastructure that constrains service delivery, and an employment market that has struggled to accommodate young entrants. In Moyo’s framing, the same capital expenditure addresses both, since construction activity generates demand for firms, downstream industries and workers at the same time.
Her remarks were carried by SABC News, with reporting by Tshimangadzo Ntsumbedzeni, and the broadcaster also published a video clip of the interview in which she urges government investment in infrastructure as a job-creation tool.
For an economy recording an unemployment rate above a third of the labour force, the proposal shifts attention from abstract policy debate to concrete delivery: what gets built, how quickly, and how many workers the building itself employs. Whether government responds with the scale of capital expenditure Moyo describes remains the open question, but her analysis makes clear that, in her assessment, the opportunity is already visible in every unfixed road and undelivered service.