a) Steps taken to improve service delivery capacities.
Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) has deployed built environment professionals to municipalities in accordance with the District Development Model (DDM) to provide technical support for infrastructure development throughout the product life cycle from inception, planning, design development, implementation, operations and maintenance. This aims to augment and build State Capacity. 103 Built environment professionals (86 of which are professionally registered with Statutory bodies as engineers and town planners). In the current financial year, 150 Young Graduates have been deployed to augment the technical capacity whilst pursuing professional registration. These technical professionals support municipalities to implement infrastructure grant programmes that include the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) administered by the Department of Cooperative Governance (DCOG), the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG) and the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG) which are both administered by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) as well as the Integrated National Electrification Programme (INEP) administered by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE). The budget allocations are published annually in the Division of Revenue Act (DORA). These technical professionals also support municipalities to employ and maximise labour intensive construction (LIC) methods where feasible, by incorporating the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) Guidelines during infrastructure development e.g. low volume roads, water, sanitation and electrification projects. The use of LIC methods during infrastructure development maximises the creation of job opportunities thereby alleviating unemployment. This will assist municipalities to meet the job opportunities target for the EPWP infrastructure sector administered by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI).
1. MISA is implementing capacity building programmes aimed at building the capacity of municipalities for infrastructure development. These capacity building programmes aim at the current cohort of municipal officials as well as unemployed youth by creating a skills pipeline.
2. MISA has implemented other capacity building initiatives for municipalities to provide infrastructure development viz. the building of internal built environment design development capacity so that there is less reliance on outsourcing to Consultants, the development of Public Infrastructure Unit Cost Guidelines as well as collaboration with professional bodies and Institutions of Higher Learning.
3. MISA is also contributing towards the eradication of basic services backlogs through its meagre budget by funding and implementing 39 borehole projects in this financial year in low and medium capacity municipalities.
4. MISA, through DCOG, applied for the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) program that was aimed at addressing the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the economy to an amount of about R700 million. An amount of R284 million was approved for MISA to implement the PES through the Innovative Solid Waste Management Program that was piloted in 25 municipalities across the 9 provinces.
The project commenced in December 2021. To-date the programme has created employment opportunities as detailed below as the programme ensured removal of municipal waste:
Province |
Number of municipalities benefitted |
Number of jobs created |
Amount spent |
Eastern Cape |
7 |
3 200 |
R51 252 295.00 |
Free State |
4 |
1 996 |
R38 134 654. 50 |
Gauteng |
4 |
1200 |
R20 488 113.15 |
KwaZulu Natal |
9 |
4 400 |
R64 977 015.00 |
Limpopo |
3 |
1 500 |
R21 854 087.7 |
Mpumalanga |
2 |
1 038 |
R14 569 391.90 |
Northern Cape |
5 |
1200 |
R23 458 589. 68 |
North West |
4 |
1 200 |
R26 426 925.00 |
Western Cape |
3 |
900 |
R22 496 929. 95 |
TOTAL |
41 |
16 634 |
R 283 658 001.88 |
The participants were employed for a period of (16 weeks) 3 months and received a minimum stipend of R102 per day for general workers, and R150 per day for coordinators.
End.