LAUNCH OF INFRASTRUCTURE DELIVERY SURVEY 

The abridged results of a three-province survey to look at infrastructure delivery were released at Nedlac yesterday. The provinces surveyed were Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Province. On the whole, the survey showed that whilst significant progress had been made since 1994 in improving service delivery to the majority of South Africans, there were still enormous challenges to overcome.

The research, which involved a 3000-household survey, as well as interviews with 60 government officials and private contractors, looked at delivery in the areas of health, welfare, housing, education, transport, water and sanitation and public works. The research was commissioned by Nedlac and conducted by the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) and the Norwegian-based Institute for Applied Social Science (FAFO). Funding of one million rand was provided by the Department of Provincial and Local Government.

Speaking at the launch of the report in Johannesburg yesterday, the Director-General of the Department of Provincial and Local Government, Mr Zam Titus, said that the research had been published at an opportune time, a time at which Government was looking carefully at what progress had been made in the issue of service delivery. He said the report emphasised the need for integration of service delivery, something that government was working towards. He would be presenting the report to all relevant Ministers and Directors-General. He said that the process of engaging with the Nedlac constituencies in producing this research had served to strengthen relationships between the Department and Nedlac, and that Nedlac should continue to engage in taking the issue of infrastructure delivery further.

The Executive Director of Nedlac, Phillip Dexter, thanked Nedlac's Development Chamber, which consists of representatives of labour, business, government and the community, for driving the project, and the Department for having the confidence in Nedlac to fund the research.