Arrested development : a project management approach to service delivery in rural areas

Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 7-10 July 2014 "Leading Transport into the Future", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.Since the introduction of the national policy to provide basic services to all South Africans, the effectiveness of service delivery and returns on infrastructure investments have become a point of growing concern, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas as well as small rural towns. An increasing awareness of the discrepancies between what is expected and required of government in terms of service delivery and what is actually being provided is reflected in the public unrest erupting in local authorities suffering from service delivery blockages and failures. Questions over the reasons for under-delivery, the locus of backlogs in municipalities and the viability and ability of municipalities to deliver services have thus never been more acute. The paper profiles a variety of policy interventions that have sought to reverse the situation with mixed results. It singles out amongst other missing ingredients the importance of visionary leadership and strong management. With the help of a case study – the KSD Presidential Intervention Program – this paper argues for a project management approach undergirded by extensive training and capacity development to addressing service delivery blockages in municipalities characterized by capacity problems and governance issues.This paper was transferred from the original CD ROM created for this conference. The material was published using Adobe Acrobat 10.1.0 Technology. The original CD ROM was produced by CE Projects cc. Postal Address: PO Box 560 Irene 0062 South Africa. Tel.: +27 12 667 2074 Fax: +27 12 667 2766 E-mail: [email protected]

KSD IRTP : planning & delivering more integrated & sustainable rural access systems

This paper revolves around the data-driven development of an integrated rural transport plan (IRTP) for King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality (KSD) in the Province of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. The IRTP's departure point is that there is a high socio-economic price to pay if the travel and transport needs of the poor rural majority are not adequately provided for. This realization compelled KSD to seek to craft an inclusive intervention regime with a view to not only to improving access to socio-economic opportunities, but also stimulating sustainable economic development. The KSD IRTP was thus structured around four strategic pillars, as follows: ? Establishing and strengthening KSD?s spatial logic through spatial reorganization by way of coordinated development of an interlinked network of rural service nodes and transportation linkages ? nodal and linkage development ? Improving access to socio-economic opportunities through not only integrated planning but also development of a responsive, balanced and sustainable transportation system ? Widening economic choices by ensuring that the plan stimulates and oils not just the mainstream economy, but also facilitates and entrenches KSD?s ?second economy?, and ? Establishing and nurturing a community-based service delivery agenda, especially given KSD?s privileged position not only at the epicentre of a relatively impoverished rural region, but also at the coal face of development endeavours. The KSD IRTP provides both strategic direction and operational guidance to the development of transport for sustainable rural development in KSD. As indicated above, it does this through the medium of strategic intervention pillars undergirding it. These pillars find expression in and are supported by the KSD IRTP Action Agenda. The KSD IRTP Action Agenda is an amalgam of proposed policy positions, supported by intervention options, which are in turn, buttressed and made operational through detailed specific action items. Finally, a selection of projects (which seek to find a balance between focusing on investment for economic growth and investment in social redistributive measures to ensure development endeavours also reach poor households in KSD) are drawn complete with indicative costs ? providing a blueprint for plan implementation.Paper presented at the 35th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 4-7 July 2016 "Transport ? a catalyst for socio-economic growth and development opportunities to improve quality of life", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.The Minister of Transport, South AfricaTransportation Research Board of the US

Building a sustainable platform for low-cost mobility in South Africa

Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 8-11 July 2013 "Transport and Sustainable Infrastructure", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.The transportation burden faced by developing rural and urban communities on a daily basis in South Africa is real and substantial. Many rural communities for example are still not connected to the main rural network or are only provided with unreliable access to socio-economic opportunities. This lack of mobility and accessibility of goods and persons has had the effect of limiting their participation in the mainstream economy thereby entrenching their isolation. No wonder this lack of access is regarded as one of the most significant determinants of poverty. The problem is not transitory, that is, given time it will pass away. Thus, the challenge for transport policies is clearly to achieve a much better level of general mobility and accessibility, at a much lower cost. Non-motorized transport modes provide that option. In this regard, the need for a concerted, deliberate and systematic effort to redress this problem cannot be over-emphasised. Making use of largely secondary data, this paper will seek to showcase as well as assess the work of the Department of Transport running the gamut from demonstration projects, workshops, design fiestas, to a non-motorized transport policy with a view to determining the gaps in the current approach in terms of type and intensity of intervention options as a departure point for crafting a much more robust implementation framework.This paper was transferred from the original CD ROM created for this conference. The material was published using Adobe Acrobat 10.1.0 Technology. The original CD ROM was produced by Document Transformation Technologies Postal Address: PO Box 560 Irene 0062 South Africa. Tel.: +27 12 667 2074 Fax: +27 12 667 2766 E-mail: nigel@doctech URL: http://www.doctech.co.zamv201

Road provision for poverty reduction and improved service delivery in rural South Africa

Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 8-11 July 2013 "Transport and Sustainable Infrastructure", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.Besides access to the national road network leading to major urban nodes in South Africa boasting higher order goods and opportunities, benefits of rural roads include better access to local markets, educational and health facilities, employment opportunities as well as local sources of food, energy and water. Given the national imperatives to provide basic services to all South Africans, rural roads certainly represent the fulcrum of government’s service delivery agenda, and for that reason, the effectiveness of service delivery (or the lack thereof) and returns on transport infrastructure investments have become the focus of national attention particularly where they grab the headlines by way of violent service delivery protests. Despite massive backlogs in terms of maintenance and provision of new infrastructure occasioned by a multiplicity of factors, least of which include narrow capacity and skills base, inadequate funding, weak integrative planning, and political will, this paper highlights the important role played by rural roads (and transport services) especially with regard to impacting the MDGs. The paper further asserts that the centrepiece of integrated planning – information – for example, about the network of rural roads, needs to be generated and fed into decision-support systems that allow transport authorities to make informed decisions about infrastructure investments given the severe constraints on funding sources. This stems from the realisation that framing rural roads as assets in their development and management as well as in terms of rural communities’ productive, social, and locational assets provides impetus for and commitment to protracted action. It then gives an overview of the efforts of the Department of Transport to assist selected district municipalities to develop such decision support systems in their jurisdictions – Rural Road Asset Management Systems – with a view to heightening service delivery.This paper was transferred from the original CD ROM created for this conference. The material was published using Adobe Acrobat 10.1.0 Technology. The original CD ROM was produced by Document Transformation Technologies Postal Address: PO Box 560 Irene 0062 South Africa. Tel.: +27 12 667 2074 Fax: +27 12 667 2766 E-mail: nigel@doctech URL: http://www.doctech.co.zamv201

Utilizing transport to revitalize rural towns : the case of Mthatha

Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 7-10 July 2014 "Leading Transport into the Future", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.Mthatha, located in King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality (KSD) is a rapidly growing rural town. Its sphere of influence is geographically much wider than the administrative boundaries of KSD. Mthatha is thus a regional rural town servicing a hinterland characterised by significant structural problems that tend to impede rural communities from fully accessing services, resources, markets and information. In order for the regional rural development agenda to take root, the paper argues that KSD needs to carve out a pragmatic and proactive leading role for Mthatha in support of shared growth for KSD and the region. It further contends that KSD needs to nurture and accentuate the role of Mthatha as a regional centre offering not only higher order services, but also significant employment opportunities to a potential growth region underpinned by appropriate investment packages. Transportation necessarily plays a decisive role in this vanguard role for town. However, from a transportation perspective, the paper observes that poor planning for this growth has led to failure symptoms such as severe road traffic congestion, conflicting vehicle-pedestrian movements, increased number of uncoordinated small-scale freight vehicles and severe parking shortages. Productivity in Mthatha is thus negatively impacted by this ever-present congestion, exacerbated by road infrastructure conditions (it has been determined that 90% of Mthatha’s surfaced road network has deteriorated beyond pothole repair requirements especially in the central business district [CBD]). Thus circulation (and by extension doing business) within the CBD is decidedly cumbersome, while movement through town is interminable – generating a relatively significant carbon footprint for a town of its size. Using primary data collected in KSD between 2011 and 2012, this paper enumerates and assesses the transportation challenges impeding productivity in Mthatha with a view to determining the gaps in the current approach in terms of type and intensity of intervention options as a departure point for crafting a much more robust implementation framework. This framework will be underpinned by a transport model for the Mthatha (CBD). With a few modifications, the proposed model could be customized for other small towns in South Africa.This paper was transferred from the original CD ROM created for this conference. The material was published using Adobe Acrobat 10.1.0 Technology. The original CD ROM was produced by CE Projects cc. Postal Address: PO Box 560 Irene 0062 South Africa. Tel.: +27 12 667 2074 Fax: +27 12 667 2766 E-mail: [email protected]