The South African government is taking a decisive step to restore accountability in the construction sector, announcing the immediate establishment of restriction committees across all levels of state to aggressively blacklist non-performing contractors and professionals. The move, endorsed at the 2025 National Construction Summit, is a direct response to the abysmal success rate of public projects, with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) and the Auditor-General finding that as many as 70% of public projects are unsuccessful due to delays, major cost overruns, or compromised quality.
Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Dean Macpherson confirmed that professionalisation programmes are being drafted, and enforcement will be handled by these new restriction committees. The committees, which will be established in all national and provincial departments, will work directly with the CIDB to compile and submit lists of defaulting companies, preventing repeat offenders from securing new state contracts. This database will serve as a definitive reference for those blacklisted, ensuring that firms that have “failed the state once… will not be given a second chance to waste public funds,” Macpherson stated.
The Minister highlighted a dramatic change in enforcement, noting that since June 2024, the CIDB has already blacklisted 40 contractors—a stark contrast to the single blacklisting that occurred between 2002 and 2023. Macpherson stressed that the previous situation was “completely unacceptable” and undermined public trust in the state’s ability to act. Blacklisting, he added, sends a clear signal that the department is serious about cleaning up the industry and ensuring public money delivers quality, reliable infrastructure. The department is also refining processes to ensure swifter blacklisting and to recover funds from non-delivering contractors.
The South African Construction Action Plan (Sacap), which was fully endorsed at the summit, places accountability as its first action. Macpherson lamented that underperforming contractors have long operated with impunity, often failing on one site only to resurface in another province under a new name. He vowed that this practice would now cease, explaining that the new measures are not about punishment but about restoring integrity and embedding accountability from the project site all the way to the boardroom. The declaration, which Macpherson described as a unified commitment to accelerate delivery and turbocharge SA’s construction industry, is seen as a significant step to rebuild capacity and restore confidence. He cited momentum already gained, including 130,000 new jobs created in the third quarter.
Other key elements of the summit declaration include publishing a unified performance improvement framework by June 2026, accelerating the B.U.I.L.D Programme to train thousands of contractors and beneficiaries, and implementing an integrated social facilitation framework to address site disruptions. Further reforms involve enhancing sustainability through a national building information modelling framework, digitalisation of project management, and centralising all built-environment legislation and regulation under the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure. The rollout of Sacap reforms will also introduce digital dashboards, procurement war rooms, and the ring-fencing of project budgets to prevent delays and cost overruns, marking a new phase of implementation for the sector.