Finance MEC Jacob Mamabolo last night said there is a need to find innovative strategies to raise external funding for infrastructure development especially for local municipalities in the province. This will ensure that municipalities are able sustain infrastructure service delivery to communities.
The MEC was speaking at the 85th Conference of the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (IMESA). The IMESA Conference is an annual event which brings together professional engineers from different parts of South Africa, the continent and internationally to exchange knowledge and information on the latest developments and challenges in engineering, more specifically the infrastructure space.
Infrastructure development is central to government’s economic reconstruction and recovery plan. Infrastructure funding for local government mostly comes from government. In the current financial year, the combined Capital Budget of Gauteng municipalities is R15,4 billion. Metros, City of Johannesburg, City of Ekurhuleni and the City of Tshwane, account for the largest share of this budget.
“While there have been innovative ways around getting funding to resolve infrastructure challenges; financial constraints remain a challenge for infrastructure maintenance and operation on existing municipal infrastructure assets. Government and stakeholders such as IMESA must engage to come up with ways to see how we can address this challenge,” he said.
“When you look at the capital budget envelopes of our municipalities in Gauteng purely from the budgeting perspective, you can realise that there is a strong fiscal base to leverage from as a collective. The question becomes how best we can pull together from a balance sheet’s perspective the financial and economic opportunity that these resources present to us for the benefit of citizens,” he said
“We would like to collaborate with IMESA and partner with professional bodies to see how we can work together to improve the municipal infrastructure situation with a key focus on Infrastructure Municipal Budget design, proactive management of Infrastructure Master Plans,” MEC Mamabolo added.
The MEC raised several concerns about the engineering professional bodies on how they conduct their work and requested the conference to find solutions. “We are deeply concerned as government about the role of Professional Service Providers (PSP’s) or Engineering Consulting Firms for poor delivery of infrastructure,” he said.
“As government we intrust you in our delivery models to be our eyes and ears, to act on our behalf, and to ensure that contractors delivery work with oversight and guidance from the sector. However, we have shoddy work, poor quality, incomplete and abandoned projects. In some instances, we have cost escalation that cannot be justified, and timelines are not adhered to,” MEC Mamabolo said.
The MEC requested the engineering sector to deliberate on these concerns, help government and find solutions. “We need partnerships with yourselves, give us feedback, and we need your skills to grow this country’s economy,” he said.
Furthermore, the MEC said that another key challenge is the lack of skills within municipalities. “Many municipalities do not have suitably qualified or trained people in key positions to tackle challenges in municipalities, which is as a result of poor planning and budget allocation. A concerted effort is required to attract skills and apply them which will effectively put municipalities on a stronger technical footing. I hope this conference will discuss and assist in helping us resolve this challenge,” MEC Mamabolo said.INFO SUPPLIED
