Support infrastructure addressed at Strategic Planning Symposium

THABAZIMBI – At the Strategic Planning Symposium held on 17 and 18 October in Thabazimbi and co-funded by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, it became clear that the nub of the current challenge in Thabazimbi can be summarized as the huge external development thrust in the municipal area, which is not (and probably cannot be) matched by the affected municipality in terms of: Support infrastructure (hard services such as water, sanitation, electricity, roads, storm water, drainage and solid waste disposal) and management support (ranging from IDPs that pro-actively address this external development thrust to an accommodating Spatial Development Framework to the rapid approval of building plans – and many more). The reasons for this mismatch could be: The absence of a proactive visionary approach to these development thrusts and, as result, also no executable strategic plans; the subsequent absence of realistic forward planning for municipal services e.g a water services development plan, an integrated waste management plan and a road grid or transportation plan; that, even if such plans do exist, the affected municipalities do not have the risk profile to borrow the loan funds required, nor do they have the reliable revenue streams to service such loans; that most of these municipalities do not have adequate staff with the requisite technical, administrative, financial or management skills, nor are they likely to attract such staff and that administrative processes, procedures and systems are either lacking or inadequate or inapplicable. These reasons are also unlikely to be fully addressed in the short term due to factors such as: Most municipal councilors inherently are short term orientated (surviving from one election to the next); more basic issues within a limited reference framework being prioritized e.g renaming of streets, quickfix vote catching matters, nice to haves, such as – community halls, fencing cemeteries, celebratory types of events e.g the youth, HIV & AIDS, women, the disabled; existing staff simply do not have the ability or capacity to manage the diverse challenges that face their municipalities, nor are they likely to be able to do so in the foreseeable future, Clearly a solution is called for, which solution would in all probability require a solution beyond the internal capacity of the municipality. It is for this reason that a Strategic Planning Session was arranged for the Thabazimbi municipality with the purpose of engaging with all role players towards a solution to the existing constraints.