The Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) was established as Government Component within the Ministry for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA). It is a Schedule 3 entity regulated in terms of the Public Service Act, of 1994, as amended. This initiative is an integral part of the Department of Cooperative Governance’s programme towards improving municipal infrastructure provisioning and maintenance for accelerated service delivery, in line with the objectives of Local Government Turnaround Strategy.
According to the Proclamation Notice No R29 MISA is mandated to:
- Support municipalities to conduct effective infrastructure planning to achieve sustainable service delivery;
- Support and assist municipalities with the implementation of infrastructure projects as determined by the municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs);
- Support and assist municipalities with the operation and maintenance of municipal infrastructure; and
- Build the capacity of municipalities to undertake effective planning, delivery, operations and management of municipal infrastructure
MISA interventions are executed through the provision of technical capacity deployments (engineers, town planners, project managers, and other built environment fields) in various municipalities. The support is managed at provincial level with the assistance of Provincial Programme Managers, who are also responsible for stakeholder management and coordination. Going forward, the deployment of support will be managed at district-level, to ensure that the Cabinet resolution to prioritise some of the struggling districts is implemented. The district-wide model will also assist in co-ordinating and managing other collaborative efforts from state institutions and private sector.
Whilst MISA’s core mandate is on building and providing technical capacity to municipalities, the reality is that most municipalities require a holistic intervention, to include issues of governance, infrastructure procurement and financial management. These realities are well-articulated in the Back to Basics strategy document and pillar 2 becomes relevant for MISA.
