Legal clarity. Trusted advisors. Enabling better infrastructure outcomes.

Social Infrastructure

Social Infrastructure

Social infrastructure is at the heart of inclusive development. Unlike economic infrastructure, these projects almost always need direct government support and a clear underpin from the Ministry of Finance, yet a number of African countries have shown that PPPs can deliver schools, hospitals, universities, housing and other community assets. With decades of experience across South Africa and the region, we guide clients through the full lifecycle, from feasibility and affordability assessments to procurement, contracting, delivery and long-term performance management, structuring projects that are financially sustainable and aligned with public service mandates.

Our sub-sectors: government buildings and public facilities, hospitals and health care, universities, schools and student accommodation, affordable and social housing, prisons and defence.

Government Buildings and Public Facilities

We have been at the forefront of government accommodation and precinct-development PPPs across Southern Africa for more than two decades, from feasibility and procurement through construction and operations to end-of-term handback.

Selected experience (7 matters) ▾
  • The project company on end-of-life issues for the SADC Headquarters Office PPP in Botswana
  • A bidder on the Kopanong Precinct PPP (Gauteng Provincial Government)
  • A consortium bidding for the Bhisho Provincial Government Precinct PPP (Eastern Cape)
  • The design and construction subcontractor on the Department of Environmental Affairs Head Office PPP
  • A consortium bidding for the Statistics South Africa head office PPP
  • Legal transaction advisor to the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform on its office accommodation PPP
  • The National Metrology Institute of South Africa on its head office and equipment PPP

Hospitals and Health Care Facilities

Hospital PPPs combine clinical complexity, operational precision and long-term public service delivery. We have helped shape South Africa’s academic hospital PPP market, including co-location models, and advise on the central role of medical equipment: specifications, lifecycle planning and technology refresh. In private hospitals, we structure projects that reflect specialist rental income alongside patient revenue.

Selected experience (3 matters) ▾
  • Legal transaction advisor to National Treasury, the DBSA, the National Department of Health and provincial health departments on feasibility studies for the King Edward VIII, Nelson Mandela Academic and Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital PPPs
  • Legal transaction advisor to National Treasury on the review and renegotiation of the Universitas Academic Hospital and Pelonomi Hospital Co-location PPP
  • Legal support to USAID on the Health Electrification and Telecommunications Alliance (HETA) programme, providing off-grid electricity and water to 10,000 clinics across Africa

Universities, Schools and Student Accommodation

Education PPPs must reflect how schools and universities are funded, how they generate revenue and how learners and students use the services. School PPPs depend on a per-learner subsidy from the provincial treasury, and parental contributions vary widely. In student housing, PPPs work where students’ accommodation fees flow to the operator and the university underwrites the arrangement.

Selected experience (4 matters) ▾
  • Gauteng Schools Programme: the Gauteng Provincial Government, through the Gauteng Infrastructure Financing Agency, on greenfield and brownfield projects across 440 schools
  • GautengOnline: equipment supply agreements between the Gauteng Department of Education and a hardware supplier
  • Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe: a feasibility study for a schools PPP, piloting 100 schools with a view to extending it to 2,056 nationwide
  • Student Housing Infrastructure Programme (SHIP): appointed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa to develop procurement documents for four procurement models and support student accommodation projects for 12 universities and training colleges

Affordable and Social Housing

Housing is one of the most highly regulated and socially significant sectors in South Africa, sitting at the intersection of constitutional rights, public finance, land use and community development. We advise on affordable housing, social housing and blended-finance models.

Affordable housing serves means-tested households: government releases land and provides a subsidy, and the developer recovers the balance from an eligible purchaser. Social housing provides rental accommodation to low-income households through Social Housing Institutions accredited by the Social Housing Regulatory Authority, with around 70% of capital cost funded by government grants and 30% by debt or equity.

Selected experience (5 matters) ▾
  • Infrastructure Fund of South Africa: a social housing funding platform providing blended-finance gap funding
  • National Treasury and the National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC): a R1 billion NHFC loan to International Housing Solutions for an affordable housing development fund
  • NHFC: implementing the Finance-Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP) to secure lender funding, and its investment in the Brickfields Housing Development PPP
  • Housing Development Agency (HDA): the legal documentation for its establishment, including enabling regulations and intergovernmental protocols, and intergovernmental arrangements for major projects including Cornubia, Thubelisha, Joe Slovo Park, Lephalale and Zanemvula
  • Gauteng Partnership Fund: an equity fund for affordable housing PPPs and the Inner-City Property Fund

Prisons

Prison PPPs are among the most complex forms of social infrastructure. They rest on a cost-per-prisoner model, must embed constitutional and treaty standards of prisoner care, and allow little third-party revenue, so the financial model relies on government payments. We advise public and private clients on project development, lender advice and bid support for maximum security facilities.

Selected experience (2 matters) ▾
  • The project company on the Louis Trichardt Maximum Security Prison PPP (Department of Correctional Services)
  • Lenders to a consortium bidding for five maximum-security prisons to be procured as PPPs
soldiers in truck

Defence

Defence PPPs need full government balance sheet support, because access to sites is tightly controlled and third-party revenue is limited, apart from some training facilities. We advise the Department of Defence on designing, procuring and managing projects that balance operational readiness with financial sustainability. We were legal transaction advisor on four feasibility studies.

Selected experience (4 matters) ▾
  • The Marine Sea Safety Training Centre PPP, Simon’s Town
  • The Head Office and Naval Mess PPP
  • A Military Health Services Building and Hospital PPP
  • The Defence Training Institute PPP