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The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (Saice) has backed the government’s proposed overhaul of local government but says the success of the reforms will depend on whether municipalities are equipped with the technical capacity to deliver essential infrastructure. In its submission on the draft white paper on local government, Saice argued that while the policy correctly identifies the causes of municipal failure, stronger implementation measures are needed to address deteriorating water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure.“The white paper correctly identifies what is broken, and with the right implementation architecture, it has the potential to become the document that finally changes things on the ground,” Saice CEO Sekadi Phayane-Shakhane said.The submission comes as municipalities grapple with mounting infrastructure failures. The latest Green Drop report found that 47% of municipal wastewater treatment systems are in a critical state, while 47.3% of treated water is lost or goes unbilled before reaching consumers, costing municipalities an estimated R9.9bn a year.Saice said municipalities should no longer retain infrastructure functions solely because they are constitutionally assigned to them, arguing that responsibilities should be linked to technical capability.“Transferring a mandate without transferring the means to deliver it simply moves the failure to a new address,” Phayane-Shakhane said, adding that engineering expertise, maintenance budgets and operational systems should accompany any transfer of functions.Read: 25 municipalities flagged for irregular senior manager hiresThe engineering body also wants professional registration through the Engineering Council of South Africa to become a prerequisite for senior municipal technical appointments, saying qualified leadership is critical to improving infrastructure delivery.While supporting proposals to strengthen accountability, Saice said oversight should extend beyond auditor-general findings and include real-time measures such as infrastructure condition, maintenance backlogs and technical vacancies.It has also called for lifecycle costing to become mandatory before infrastructure projects are approved.“The construction of new infrastructure is only the beginning of its story. What determines long-term value is the commitment to maintain, refurbish and eventually renew that asset over its full operational life,” Phayane-Shakhane said.Saice estimates that more than 7,400 technical posts in municipal water services remain vacant, a shortage it says continues to undermine service delivery despite successive policy interventions.
