This case study outlines how Kagiso Trust has partnered with the Makana Municipality to tackle some of its developmental challenges.
The aim of this development agency is to work with municipalities to ultimately drive local economic development. They focus on capacity building programmes that help municipalities collaborate with communities, offering institutional and social support with the eventual aim of fostering economic inclusivity.
Developed in 2012, Kagiso Trust initially focused on supporting municipalities with revenue management, which entailed developing credit control procedures, and cleaning data to ensure it was validated before being entered into revenue collection systems. It developed an online data validation tool that was made available to all municipalities and the South African public. During this time, it developed relationships with many stakeholders, gaining a deeper understanding of the developmental challenges facing municipalities, and how to address these.
After supporting local government in this way for five years, the Board of the Trust realised that municipalities can only deliver sustainable impact by increasing the control they have over developmental imperatives within communities. The Board decided to introduce interventions outside revenue management and credit control – those that could be driven by municipalities themselves. It structured its support for local government so that interventions would focus on local economic development, indigent management, and community engagement. For these interventions to be sustainable, systemic change was necessary – a capacity-building programme was designed to help local municipalities understand the need to collaborate with communities, as well as take ownership of existing challenges as a first step towards finding practical solutions.
Partnering with Makana Municipality
In 2019, Makana Municipality was identified as a distressed municipality due to severe cash-flow problems, inadequate levels of service delivery, and poor infrastructure. Challenges aside, a few opportunities were identified in Makana. Aside from having a world-class university, several top schools, a TVET college, a thriving private sector and a large legal fraternity – all committed to playing a role in the growth and success of the municipality – it had a strong management team willing to collaborate. Kagiso therefore developed a pilot project to create a platform for social dialogue, built on the understanding that the municipality and stakeholders like ratepayers, business owners and civil society shared a desire to see their communities thrive.
By championing dialogue, Kagiso Trust believed it would be able to facilitate practical, mutually beneficial relationships prioritising the wellbeing of ordinary South Africans. Several challenges existed, however – not least the fact that existing programmes were managed outside the municipality, leading to asymmetrical information and misaligned priorities. There was also an urgent need for social partners and other key stakeholders within local government to contribute to the development of human capital.
Kagiso Trust introduced strategies designed to enable people to do more within their current roles, acquire the skills needed to contribute to existing interventions, and position both the municipality and its human capital for the future.
Kagiso Trust believes that systemic change can be brought about through financial support, skills development, and implementing sustainable socioeconomic development models. These models create practical ways of building leadership and contributing to local economic development within local municipalities. They also foster greater social cohesion within target communities and should eventually attract investors.
In its initial phase, the Makana pilot project set out to identify stakeholders. By starting at the individual level and going all the way up to the institutional level, it encouraged buy-in and made it possible to assign different roles and duties, culminating in the establishment of working groups. These groups have since evolved into clusters divided into three main sectors: education, local economic development, and community welfare.
Because education is a key driver of the local economy, Kagiso Trust works with the education cluster to develop strategies through which Makana can improve outcomes, with a focus on pass rates in all schools under the municipality. Improving university intake and enhancing opportunities for career development for both unemployed youth and local government staff is also vital, as is supporting internship programmes within Makana Municipality. These internships provide youngsters with the opportunity to gain practical experience through technical skills and professional development, driving youth employment while creating sustainable local municipalities.
The Makana pilot project focuses on job creation based on the understanding that, if people have sustainable sources of income, they will contribute to the economy. If the municipality does not contribute to creating more jobs and increasing the tax brackets of its constituents, it will continue to face challenges in collecting revenue for basic services such as water and electricity.
Key achievements and lessons learnt
- By creating a platform for community members and local government to engage and work together to tackle the issues affecting Makana, Kagiso Trust has increased social cohesion in the municipality. It has therefore achieved its initial objective and believes its model can be replicated in other parts of the country.
- The pilot project revealed an important lesson – that preconditions need to be met for similar partnerships to be effective, including having a capable municipal management team committed to good governance, transparency and accountability. Also required is an active citizenry that is energised and equipped to hold government to account. Finally, the private sector must be committed to local economic development and willing to play its part in improving the well-being of the communities in which it operates.
- While it is still too early to quantify the overall outcomes of the Makana project given it is still in its pilot phase and still needs to be replicated in other municipalities across the country, Kagiso Trust believes it has an important role to play in facilitating dialogue among key stakeholders at local government.
