Communities as assets in leading SA’s construction boom
5 min read
As President Cyril Ramaphosa doubles down on the promise to turn South Africa into a ‘construction site’, one factor in the infrastructure development equation has become increasingly vital to the success of government’s plans: meaningful community involvement.
Notably, South Africa’s infrastructure development has seen strong growth over the past few years. More homes have been built in rural and urban areas every year, more people have received access to clean potable water and flushing toilets, waste services have improved, hundreds of kilometres of paved roads have been laid, and essential community buildings, hospitals, clinics and education centres have been built.
As government statistics have revealed, 88.5% of South Africans are now living in formal dwellings, with only 11.2% living in traditional or informal homes; while over 60% of people were satisfied with public housing services.
Meanwhile, in the past 10 years alone, 12 new hospitals have been built. The proportion of the population with no schooling reached a low of 7% in 2022, partly due to increased and improved educational facilities. Additionally, five-million subsidised housing opportunities were delivered to persons in need in the 30 years leading up to the 2022 census.
Community involvement as a lynchpin for project success
As these figures demonstrate, laudable progress has and is still being made to address the country’s urgent infrastructure priorities. However, some challenges remain in closing the gaps in infrastructure and service delivery inherited by the nation’s democracy, such as ensuring every household has access to piped running water, safe and dignified sanitation, and proper waste management.
And with urban populations expected to grow from 67.85% in 2021 to 71.3% by 2030, the pressure to deliver effective infrastructure solutions is only mounting.
But to successfully bridge the gap between technical planning and community needs, maximising citizen satisfaction, projects must actively involve communities from the outset. In Gap Infrastructure Corporation’s experience, the most impactful projects are those that co-ordinate early with communities and local authorities, both of whom possess valuable insights into each region’s concerns and dynamics.
In places where road construction is approached in a purely technical manner, for example, engineers may focus on vehicle traffic counts, ignoring the fact that many residents rely on walking or cycling to get around. A community-minded process, by contrast, would examine the actual footpaths children use to reach schools or clinics and then integrate safe crossings, sidewalks and lighting.
In another example, when water infrastructure is built purely to meet set quotas, like laying out a certain number of pipelines, residents may end up with communal taps placed in inconvenient locations, or distribution points that overlook where growth is likely to occur.
Instead, by placing taps closer to clusters of homes, the daily routines of households can be significantly improved. Parents can fill containers without walking several kilometres, children can spend less time hauling water and more time studying, and the health risks tied to unclean water sources can be decreased considerably.
Closing the infrastructure gap
So, as these examples demonstrate, communities not only deserve to be directly involved in decision-making regarding projects that affect their daily lives but can add very real value to the outcomes and results of these projects. Here is where the private sector has the biggest role to play, as it is contractors’ and subcontractors’ responsibility to engage with and include residents throughout the project planning and implementation phases.
This approach also has the benefit of motivating communities that have helped shape projects to take ownership of the resulting infrastructure. In turn, this encourages households and citizens to protect instead of misuse or damage essential structures and safeguards the longevity of infrastructure investments.
Ultimately, only by committing to community-centred development can we finally and permanently close the gap in infrastructure and make sure infrastructure investment delivers on its promise to improve the daily lives of all South Africans.
Roelof van den Berg
