The priority projects in the Western Cape’s newly announced single integrated infrastructure pipeline currently consist of 52 projects to the value of R132-billion, says Western Cape Infrastructure Minister Tertuis Simmers.

The province this week held its inaugural Western Cape Infrastructure Ministerial Roundtable in Cape Town, where it unpacked the pipeline and the science behind it to the private sector.

Simmers said 11 projects from the list – valued at more than R20-billion – had been identified for release to the market as they reach maturity.

“This Ministerial Roundtable is not intended to become another annual conference,” he noted.

“It is a permanent platform for collaboration – a place where government, municipalities, investors, financiers, engineers, planners, contractors, researchers and communities work together to build our future Western Cape.”

Simmers also announced the release of seven government-owned land parcels, set to produce an estimated 10 018 housing opportunities in well-located land in Cape Town, as part of the Western Cape government’s goal of spatial transformation and redress.

Three of the projects are currently in procurement stage and will be presented to the market in the next couple of months.

The remainder are at various stages of enablement, including the acquisition of the requisite development rights.

This week’s roundtable also saw the signing of memoranda of understanding between the Western Cape Department of Infrastructure and the Infrastructure Financing and Implementation Support Agency, Infrastructure South Africa, the Economic Development Council of South Africa, and the University of Cape Town.

The Western Cape Infrastructure Virtual Platform, also launched on the day, integrates National Treasury rules; national, regional and local legislative and regulatory prescripts; as well as international investor and ISO 9001 standards, and automatically evaluates projects and their progress, while it also builds investor-ready business cases.

As part of this platform, the Western Cape Department of Infrastructure introduced EVE, the platform’s specialised AI Infrastructure assistant, designed to enhance governance, speed up project approvals and facilitate interaction with an understanding of the prescripts of the State.

EVE functions as both an AI agent and a chatbot.