IMESA’s annual conference, hosted in partnership with the City of Ethekwini, has an apt theme: Balancing Service Delivery. The opening session on Wednesday 29 October, gave a substance to that theme at a far more intrinsic level than anticipated.

Hosted by Frank Stevens, it was also an opportunity to introduce newly inaugurated IMESA President, Duncan Daries. Eric Applegrin of Ethekwini Municipality chaired the session, which revealed the connections between municipal governance, infrastructure management and asset management.

Back to basics – COGTA’s municipal turnaround plan

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Deputy Minister, Andries Nel, was explicit about the fact the a substantial percentage of South Africa’s municipalities are failing and in need of urgent attention. COGTA’s estimates that 1/3^rd of municipalities are in good shape; 1/3^rd are adequate and 1/3^rd are failing were later contradicted by IMQS’s presentation, which painted a very different picture. According to IMQS’s findings, only 7 percent of municipalities are doing well; 31 percent need ICU, 30 percent are reasonably, whilst 32 percent are dysfunctional. Either way, the situation is untenable.

COGTA’s Back To Basics strategy has been well-publicised, and focusses on cleaning up local government, promoting integrated urban development and protecting municipal assets. “President Zuma has given more attention to local government than any other president”, observed Nel, adding that the Presidential Infrastructure Commission had recently convened the Local Government Summit, which included stakeholders from public and private sectors, including technical professionals. Nel indicated that the importance of the presence of engineers at the Summit was a key indicator that National Government is prioritising technical capacity in the public sector.

Cleaning up

Of concern wasn’t Nel’s acknowledgment of corruption and self-enrichment of the political leadership in failing municipalities, it was his suggestion that South Africa’s legal framework might be inadequate to root out this behaviour within a reasonable time-frame. The spectre of indeterminate suspensions, endless enquiries and torrid obfuscations served to highlight the seemingly pervasive failure of political will to place principles before personalities. Nel noted that COGTA would explore other means of cleaning up failing municipalities, such as asset forfeiture.

Priorities and pillars

COGTA has determined four key priorities:

• Cleaning up failing municipalities
• Improving the functioning of adequate ones
•  Empowering successful municipalities by broadening their scope and increasing their latitude
• Vigorously responding to corruption and fraud with zero tolerance.

Nel also mentioned that National Treasury would be engaged to review supply chain management and procurement policies for local government. The possibility of capacitating District Municipalities to assist and strengthen smaller municipalities is being explored. Unmanaged urbanisation is also a key concern and COGTA recently launched the Integrated Urban Development Framework.

 

Nel cited several pillars on which COGTA is basing its municipal turnaround strategy, including re-focussing local government leaders to be of service to their communities; efficient basic service delivery; improving governance; clean financials; commitment to ward meetings and council meetings, and strong reporting mechanisms.

Nel stressed that technical capacity is fundamental to COGTA’s goals, and engineering capacity at local government level is crucial to basic services delivery in all its aspects, including planning, finance and asset protection. The Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency, a component of COGTA, is already working with IMESA in finding capacity and training solutions to this challenge. Nel noted that IMESA’s training programmes are laying a solid groundwork for Asset Management and protection.

Nel concluded by thanking IMESA and congratulating Duncan Daries on his inauguration as the Institute’s President.

Balancing profiles – Engineers and leadership

Neil Macleod, formerly of Ethekwini Water and Sanitation, and highly respected, long-standing member of IMESA, was warmly introduced and received a strong

welcome from delegates. His contribution to the Municipal Engineering cannot be underestimated and his perspective on the status of engineers in political, public and economic life is of great importance.

Macleod began his presentation by noting that management and operational issues are increasingly dominating municipal activities, and in some cases, city engineers are not being replaced. The actual delivery of infrastructure and services needs must become the primary purpose of local government once more, and Municipal Engineers can play a central role in achieving that. Macleod noted that the raising of Municipal Engineers’ profile would be achieved by strengthening communication. This higher profile is not superficial or ego-based; it is critical for the public good. Enhancing the impact of engineers could serve to alter the national discourse, with political interest on delivery, rather than populism.  Macleod lamented that all too often, dysfunctional municipalities are characterised by disdain for customers, nepotism, corruption, lack of work ethic and incompetence, a situation that cannot be sustained. Macleod also noted that ecological engineering needs more prominence in the local government sphere.

Macleod noted that the ascendance of cost as a priority over quality in the current procurement and tender system is a result of an imbalance of interests, and that a more visible and leadership oriented engineer could do a lot to correct this. Investment in infrastructure is also out of balance, with replacement and new build receiving more attention than maintenance of infrastructure assets, leading to waste. “We need to stop the cycle of build>neglect>abandon>rebuild,” said Macleod.

Conclusion

The themes throughout the morning sessions drove home the central importance of engineers in South Africa today. Engineers in the public sector, especially, are the custodians of the nation’s assets, and more than that, have an incredible responsibility for the well-being of each citizen. It may be an unfair comparison, but the impact of a municipal engineer is far wider than medical doctor, and is capable of interventions that are life-saving. Right now, in the public sector, things seem very out of balance. Political power is accorded far more weight than technical expertise. We wouldn’t trust a politician with our physical health; it makes no sense. Why then, are the crucial planning and designing of our country’s infrastructure