The 4th Annual National Local Government Asset Management Indaba was held under the theme “Realising integration in Municipal Infrastructure Asset Management – The Road Ahead.” on 25-26 November 2021 at Elangeni hotel in Durban, KwaZulu Natal.
The Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) was represented by Ms Pati Kgomo, a Deputy Director General leading the Infrastructure Delivery and Management Support (IDMS) branch, and she made a presentation Strategies to Address Infrastructure Asset Management gaps.
The two-day event which was hosted by the Centre for Municipal Asset Management (CMAM) was attended by key stakeholders such as the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), National and KwaZulu Natal Provincial Treasury, the University of Cape Town (UCT), Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (IMESA) and Southern African Association for Asset Management (SAAMA) to mention a few.
The indaba was attended by around 200 delegates from various sectors across the country with key objectives to bring together stakeholders to discuss mechanisms and share success stories of how municipalities can enhance integration in asset management across various departments like finance and admin, technical and engineering services; To provide perspective from all stakeholders engineers and technicians, accountants, municipal leadership, expert consultants; To share local and international best practices and experiences on integrated asset management and to; Create a platform for the showcasing of asset management solutions available on the market.
Speaking to Dr Emmanuel Ngcobo the founder and the Director at CMAM which has been hosting the Local Government Asset Management Indaba since 2018, he said “having been involved in the local government space for the 15 years, particularly in the asset management field, I realised that there is a great need to bring all stakeholders together with an aim of creating a common understanding of the challenges being faced and come up solutions to those identified challenges.”
When asked about his envisaged future in local government asset management he said “my wish is that it becomes standard practise in municipalities to manage infrastructure in an effective and efficient way, not performed in an ad hoc manner or reactively. To also ensure that there is a holistic plan which looks at the lifecycle of all assets.”
Dr Emmanuel Ngcobo led reflections on the 2020 indaba and took the meeting through key points that were discussed. Some of the points which were discussed is the need to raise profile on asset management within local government so as to truly break down silos and change the thinking from compliance to full cycle management of assets for sustainable service delivery.
What came up repeatedly throughout most presentations was the need for asset management planning which should look at the maintenance plan and funding for a full lifecycle of all assets; Design plans and budget which will consider the value and not cost containment; Usage of assets that will be climate resilient; and how to take advantage of some positive factors that came with COVID-19 which allowed for some budget allocations to be used towards repairs and maintenance.
During his presentation, Mr Gundo Maswime from UCT’s Department of Civil Engineering, acknowledged that there is a gap in the academics when it comes to asset management in the municipalities. To address the gap, the university has developed professional courses for municipal officials. It is also envisaged that in July 2022 UCT will launch the institute of Urban and Public Infrastructure.
He continued to say, “With the success of #Data4MIA, the department has also decided to infuse some components of municipal asset management into Civil Engineering curriculum.”
#Data4MIA is a project run by MISA with UCT’s Department of Engineering and Built Environment and other partners.
During her closing remarks, Ms Kgomo said that MISA will be joining many more future indabas as they tie in with the mandate of and the work done by MISA. As a takeaway to all attended, she cautioned against the neglect of infrastructure by saying “We build infrastructure to eradicate backlogs and provide services. We are reversing the gains by neglecting the very same infrastructure.”