Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) Workshop

Pretoria, 29 July 2008 -

Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) – A crucial opportunity for effectively rolling out Thusong Service Centres in an endeavor to empower communities through integrated services and information.

Key sector departments in the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) programme convened on the 29th July 2008 at Farm Inn, in Pretoria, to the project registration workshop hosted by the Department of Provincial and Local Government. The purpose of the session was to explain the project registration process, address concerns related to the process and discuss possible proposed solutions.

The MlG programme, which was set up in March 2003, is a key component of government’s overall drive to alleviate poverty and attain the set Millennium Development Goals target of halving poverty by 2014. The fund is utilised to assist municipalities in delivering basic infrastructure to poor communities, in order to better their living conditions. This infrastructure is divided into three categories , namely household, public municipal facilities (P component), and institutions other than public municipal facilities.

Some of the projects covered under these categories includes the provision of water supply, sanitation, municipal roads, refuse removal, street lighting, emergency services projects, community-based public works programme, cemeteries, funeral parlours, childcare facilities, schools, and clinics, to name but a few.

Although funding has been identified as a major challenge hindering the effective and speedy delivery of Thusong Service Centres, to enable communities to access government services and information, a large percentage of Thusong Service Centres, since the inception of MIG, have been constructed through the fund. The programme falls under the P component of the MIG and there are a lot of similarities between the two programmes in terms of project identification, and approval processes as they both require high level of community participation and alignment to municipal Integrated Development Plans.

The other major challenges that have been identified with municipalities that still have to establish Thusong Centres within their localities, includes the following:

• Lack of awareness that the P component of MIG can be used for the construction of Thusong Service Centres; and
• Prioritisation of municipal services is highly focused on providing basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation, especially for smaller municipalities that cannot generate enough revenue to sustain themselves.

One of the resolutions taken at the workshop to address these challenges, is for DPLG and GCIS to embark on a joint communication venture about this opportunity. This will create awareness that Thusong Centres are covered by the second category of MIG. It will also assist municipalities to understand the benefits of Thusong Service Centres as part of the broader government strategy to create access to all South Africans, especially the poor and under-serviced communities.