Developing Pathways out of Poverty: The Role of Labour Intensive Road Construction

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Developing Pathways out of Poverty The Role of
Labour Intensive Road Construction Maintenance
Methods in the Political Economy of a Democratic
South Africa

• By
• James Mlawu

Presented by Simon Oloo
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Outline

• Historical Perspective
• Funding Prioritization of Rural Transport Needs
• KZN Emerging Contractor Programme
• Zibambele programme
• Conclusions

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Historical Perspective

• Apartheid the Pre 1994 Era
• 40 of households account for only 10 of total
  consumption while 6 consume gt 40
• Blacks confined to townships homelands lacking
  basic facilities. In KZN 30 of rural districts
  have HDI lt Rwanda
• Massive investment in rail road infrastructure
  used to address white poverty
• Dedicated fuel levy used to fund expansion
  maintenance of infrastructure

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Historical Perspective..

• Bantu education excludes blacks for technical
  education. In 2000 only 3 of engineering
  graduates were black.
• Powerful white groups emerge to lobby govt. on
  transport needs for urban, commercial and mining
  communities. No lobbies for rural blacks.
• Results Poverty poorly developed rural
  transport infrastructure

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Historical Perspective..

• Democracy Post 1994
• National drive to create jobs address rural
  poverty
• National drive to address inequalities in
  infrastructure provision
• KZN Dept of Transport puts in place strategies
  to address poverty lack of transport
  infrastructure in rural areas

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Funding Prioritization of Rural Transport Needs

• Funding
• 1994 R3 million (US 375 000) allocated for
  Community access roads ( 1 of budget)
• 1995 1996 5 of budget for CAR
• 2000 25 of budget for rural projects
• Prioritization
• 1994 1996 small development sub-directorate
  created to address rural transport needs. CARNS
  study initiated.

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Funding Prioritization of Rural Transport
Needs..

• Prioritization
• 1997 2000 Full fledged development
  directorate. RRTFs created as rural development
  lobby groups.
• 2001 on Development directorate fills client
  role in restructured department to address equity
  in infrastructure provision.

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Emerging Contractor Program

• Aim promote support development of emerging
  contractors in the transport infrastructure
  sector.
• Form staged advancement
• Stage 1 contract limit R200K, labour small
  tools only
• Stage 2 contract limit R400K, labour some
  plant
• Stage 3 contract limit R600K, labour all plant

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Emerging Contractor Program

• Growth none in 1994 to 911 contracts worth R160
  million in 2000/2001 FY. Projects R1.6 billion
  over next 3 years
• Problems Solutions
• Lack of appropriate training. Dept. assisting
  with formation of emerging contractor
  associations to streamline training. Dept. to set
  aside 10 of contract value for training.

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Emerging Contractor Program

• Problems Solutions
• Sourcing of construction plant. Dept. setting up
  pilot plant support schemes involving
  private/public sector partnerships. Dept. to
  guarantee repayments while manufacturer to
  guarantee maintenance and management of plant
  depots.
• Lack of credit facilities. Dept. to encourage
  ECAs to form co-operatives through which plant
  and materials can be sourced. Dept. to award
  multi-year contracts to help build credit
  worthiness

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Emerging Contractor Program

• Problems Solutions
• Lack of exposure to range of construction
  activities. Dept. planning to finance large
  contracts packaged to allow collaboration between
  established and emerging contractors

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Zibambele Programme

• Zibambele Doing it ourselves adaptation of
  lengthman system of road maintenance
• Households rather than individuals contracted
• Poorest of the poor women headed households
  targeted.
• Training provided on life skills in addition to
  labour intensive maintenance methods.
• Plans underway to assist zibambele to gear up
  savings through investment portfolios or small
  enterprise developments.

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Conclusions

• Dept. firmly committed to addressing historical
  imbalances in infrastructure provision.
• Emerging contractor programme has had tremendous
  impact in nurturing black entrepreneurship.
• Zibambele programme has improved prospects for
  rural families through access to credit, training
  and by extension nutrition, and schooling.
• The document Road to Wealth Job Creation
  identifies wide range of possible employment
  opportunities by linking provision of road
  infrastructure to agriculture and tourism.