This policy brief assesses South Africa’s massive infrastructure drive to revive growth and increase employment. This comes after years of stagnant growth, and now facing a deep economic crisis, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This drive also comes after years of weak infrastructure investment, widening the infrastructure deficit. in the inequalities in infrastructure provisioning are particularly stark in communities where socio-economic conditions are characterised by over-crowding, deep levels of poverty and inadequate access to basic public services such as water and sanitation.