Transport infrastructure investments and economic transformation in South Africa: The case of integrated public transport network in the Gauteng Province

• Assess the impact of transport infrastructure on economic transformation. • IPTNs create job opportunities and reduce poverty. • Main beneficiaries include workers, SMMEs, and bus manufacturers. • Challenges include construction mafias and lack of skills. • Increase investment and develop SMME skills. With the unemployment in South Africa reaching 32.5 %, rising inequality, poverty, and low growth rates, investment in infrastructure projects like the Integrated Public Transport Network (IPTNs) is a strategic tool in the hands of government to transform the economy. This article examines the IPTN infrastructure project in the Gauteng Province to analyse its contribution to local economic transformation and skills development. The research is designed as a deep-dive case study in which pertinent data are collected from multiple stakeholders through semi-structured interviews, and triangulated through available internal and external documents. The research sample comprises IPTN planners, contractor and sub-contractor small-, medium- or micro-enterprises (SMMEs), an executive from a bus manufacturing firm, and representatives from the transformed taxi industry. The main findings from the study reveal that infrastructure investments in IPTNs have been instrumental in fostering job creation, driving skills development, supporting SMME growth, and spurring a surge in local bus manufacturing. The case study for successful vehicle operating companies (VOCs) suggests that further investigation into other manufacturing opportunities and skills development is needed to provide additional evidence of infrastructure investment spillovers.