Hon Speaker, hon member, the actual change in the quality of life of our people means that we provide more people with running water, electricity and gas, better roads and telecommunications, improved clinics and schools, parks and city buildings. These investments will give our people a better life and enable them to engage better, both as workers and as citizens. They are meant to correct the historic underinvestment and discrimination against black communities which, to this day, underpin poverty and inequality in our country.
You will recall that at the time of the transition to democracy, less than half of African households had piped water on site, or electricity. Similar disparities existed for investment in roads, telecommunications, schools, clinics, parks and other services. We have already spent billions to overcome underinvestment in our communities, and work is ongoing.
The Census 2011 results indicated that, amongst other achievements, access to basic services such as piped water, electricity and refuse removal more than doubled over the period 1996 to 2011. However, many more communities are still waiting for water, electricity, sanitation and other services, hence the importance of prioritising infrastructure development.
To make a meaningful impact amongst the poorest areas, the National Infrastructure Plan has identified 23 district municipalities, which are mostly in the former so-called "homelands", where poverty runs deep. Providing services is harder in these regions. For a number of reasons, the households are often relatively scattered, increasing the cost of network infrastructure like roads and water.
Unemployment is still highest in these regions, which were set up under apartheid deliberately to lack land and other productive resources. Our infrastructure investment will definitely change lives for the better.
The National Infrastructure Plan will reinforce industrialisation in two main ways: Firstly, it will provide a market for capital goods and construction materials. We expect a substantial boost, amongst others, to producers of bitumen, cement, structural steel products, generators and electrical equipment of all kinds, as well as rolling stock for Transnet and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, Prasa.
Secondly, infrastructure will improve the overall competitiveness of our economy and open new economic opportunities for both established and emerging enterprises. Key projects in this regard include the investments to open up the northern mining belt and improvements in rail and road transport between KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. They also include projects that will open new economic opportunities for people in impoverished rural areas, including the development corridors around the Eastern Cape and the North West.
Lastly, significantly, we also won the rights to share the hosting of the Square Kilometre Array, SKA, which brings a host of development opportunities for the country.
In addition, the Minister of Energy has also announced concessions on renewable energy. All these will add enormously to our infrastructure development successes. I thank you. [Applause.]