Infrastructure SA (ISA) has launched a 24-month programme with three distressed municipalities aimed at improving the implementation and delivery of infrastructure projects.
The pilot involves Metsimaholo, uMngeni, and Govan Mbeki municipalities and is set to run for two years, during which ISA will assist in project preparation and planning, develop bankable business cases to attract private funding and streamline approvals and licences.
The technical support aims to improve project timelines and budgets, ultimately strengthening municipal infrastructure delivery.
“These municipalities are the first partners in what we believe will become a national movement to restore the state’s capacity to deliver municipal infrastructure, one municipality at a time,” public works & infrastructure minister Dean Macpherson said while signing memorandums of understanding with the municipalities on Friday.
“It’s a truly transformative [example] of what’s going to take place in those municipalities. So Infrastructure SA are working with municipal officials to make sure they are going to plan and prepare those projects in a way that is bankable and feasible. So we will assist them in the funding on that side and provide the technical expertise.
“The initiative will help us address the often chequered track record of infrastructure delivery at local government level across SA, to ensure that infrastructure budgets are properly spent, that projects are properly prepared, that project cost overruns are avoided, and poor workmanship addressed,” Macpherson said
“With this initiative, we are trying to change the narrative surrounding local government infrastructure projects and bring an end to the era of failing municipal infrastructure, as we see in many places across the country.”
Macpherson said the pilot phase would lay the groundwork for similar interventions in municipalities across SA.
“While we are launching the project in three municipalities, we intend to replicate the model countrywide in the months and years ahead,” he said.
“This initiative will play an important role in achieving our goal of turning the country into a construction site, with more infrastructure projects successfully executed to stimulate economic investment, grow the economy and, most importantly, create jobs,” he said.
A digital dashboard would also be developed on ISA’s website to enable the respective mayors, the minister and government officials to track progress.
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