Having analysed the Draft White Paper on Local Government, professional body the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) notes that the paper has correctly identified systemic flaws, with SAICE noting that, with the right implementation architecture, the document has the potential to “finally change things on the ground”.

One of the most important areas that the White Paper gets right, SAICE CEO Sekadi Phayane-Shakhane explains, is its diagnosis of Constitutional autonomy as a structural barrier, noting that under the current framework, municipalities hold constitutional protection over infrastructure functions, including water, sanitation and electricity distribution, regardless of whether they have the technical capacity.

The result is a system that protects dysfunction, rather than the delivery of Constitutional rights to the residents.

“Part of the answer is structural. South Africa’s current two-tier system, where district and local municipalities often hold overlapping powers in the same area, has frequently produced competition rather than cooperation,” Phayane-Shakhane elaborates.

This could potentially result in bulk infrastructure, such as treatment works, being planned by one entity while the associated pipe network is planned by another.

The outcome, she highlights, is infrastructure that does not reach the people for which it was built.

As such, SAICE supports the White Paper’s move toward a single-tier model with clearly assigned mandates, paired with a performance-linked system in which a municipality that cannot manage a function, such as water reticulation, does not retain it indefinitely.

Single-Tier Model

“Every five years, communities are promised that this time will be different. As engineering professionals, we want to give people more than a promise. We want to give them a structure that makes the promise possible to keep,” says Phayane-Shakhane.

SAICE’s message to policymakers, she elaborates, is one of clarity, not alarm. The diagnosis in the White Paper is largely correct, however, what is needed is implementation architecture that matches the ambition of that diagnosis: a single-tier model with performance-linked powers.

Other needs include genuine technical handover; professional registration for senior technical roles; real-time accountability backed by project-readiness certification; life-cycle costing as a non-negotiable planning requirement; ring-fenced maintenance revenue; a digital backbone treated as engineering governance; communities and traditional leaders engaged as genuine partners; and a dedicated funding stream for climate resilience that reaches the municipalities that need it most.

South Africa has the policy expertise, Phayane-Shakhane explains, however, what has been missing is the implementation architecture to “turn good policy into good infrastructure”.

“The White Paper is the opportunity to break that pattern. Civil engineering professionals have worked in this sector long enough to know the difference between a document that changes things and one that does not,” she emphasises.

South Africa needs policies that survive contact with reality and with the right implementation architecture, the White Paper can be exactly that, Phayane-Shakhane concludes.