PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address was his best yet – in terms of both delivery and content. While there was the occasional stumble, Zuma’s delivery was brimful with confidence and panache – a far cry from the wooden, stilted performances of previous years.

And instead of a plethora of piecemeal promises, Zuma spelt out a plan of action that could kickstart the economy, provide many thousands of jobs and make doing business easier and cheaper.

He announced a massive infrastructure drive involving big projects in five geographical areas that could benefit every province.

Not all the projects are new; some, like damming the Umzimvubu River in the former Transkei, have been around since former president Thabo Mbeki’s time. Plans to develop a more efficient Durban-Free State-Gauteng corridor have also been around for some time, and Transnet announced last year it wanted to build a railway line linking Limpopo’s coal fields to power stations in Mpumalanga.

Investing billions in infrastructure – whether to build anew or refurbish the old – is exactly what governments should be doing if they can during an economic slump, as it creates jobs and makes the economy grow. So why didn’t work start long ago?

The answer lies in the capacity of the state: its ability first to plan, then to budget, and then to project-manage and manage those budgets properly.

Zuma’s assertion that there is an overarching plan, and that these huge projects form part of a sequenced pipeline, suggests more coherence of approach. That means people have started working together.

On Thursday night Zuma promised that the same expertise that made a success of the challenging 2010 World Cup projects would be used again. Many thought SA wouldn’t be able to deliver on the stadiums, transport and other infrastructure needed for that global spectacle, but it did.

This time around there will be no Fifa breathing down people’s necks or checking that tight deadlines are met – but why should that be a reason to believe we cannot pull it off again?