The integrated development plan and budget community consultation empowers the communities to have a voice to choose based on their needs, associated with the priorities of service delivery such as water supply, access roads and so on.

Once the budget has been approved by councils, the municipalities begin the public procurement process of acquiring service providers to implement projects following prescriptive regulations.

Often, the process in some instances is alleged to have been corrupt. Having stated that the contractors will be appointed and introduced to communities, the steering committee will be established, and traditional councils or chiefs will demand the so-called “tribal construction levies” estimated at R10,000.

Not forgetting that the business forum will also require a lion share in the implementation of the project by subcontracting. When consensus is reached by the municipality, business forums and local leaders, the project would begin. 

Communities are constantly suffering, and no action is taken on the part of our municipalities for not being able to mitigate these risks associated with non-commencement and stoppages of construction work.

It is clear that municipalities lack the capacity and capabilities to learn from previous experiences when developing and designing new tenders to mitigate the risks.

This appears to be a self-created issue by the municipality as a result of their desire to benefit from these issues indirectly.

Communities are regarded as a pipeline for the advancement of some individual aiming at benefiting through project implementation. Community participation is regarded as a hogwash process to loot public purse and to meet legislative deadlines or to tick a checklist. 

A project progress report should not be a secret, to enhance democracy and enhance transparency, these reports must be published in the newspaper or on any accessible platforms for all to observe what is happening in the process of the project.

Dinyalo Elias Mampane, GaTisane, Limpopo