Government looks to standardise public participation and eliminate infrastructure delays

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08-07-2026
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Eyewitnessnews
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It aims to do this by professionalising the work of social facilitators. 

The Department of Public Works is looking to minimise community conflict over infrastructure projects because of a lack of consultation and public participation.

It aims to do this by professionalising the work of social facilitators.

A new policy adopted by Cabinet last week will require that communities are consulted right from the onset of a project’s conception and throughout its life-cycle.

Minister Dean Macpherson detailed the framework at a briefing at Parliament on Tuesday, saying it is the next step in the fight against so-called construction mafia activity.

The Integrated Social Facilitation Framework is intended to standardise and institutionalise community engagement in infrastructure delivery across all spheres of government, state-owned entities and infrastructure development stakeholders.

Macpherson said that this framework has been designed particularly to address community protests, project disruptions, vandalism, delays and security risks by promoting structured community participation for the project’s duration.

By professionalising and accrediting social facilitators, government is hoping to prevent construction stoppages.

"In many cases, self-styled community liaison officers step into the vacuum and claim to speak on behalf of communities, without any accountability, standards or ethical obligations. That vacuum has been exploited by extortionists. "

The policy requires that communities be engaged before a project starts so that they understand what is being built, why it is being built and what opportunities exist.

"When there are lawful channels to resolve concerns, it becomes far harder for criminal groups to exploit confusion, frustration or exclusion, to disrupt a site."

The policy also provides for community profiling to determine who are legitimate members of that society and establishes a project liaison committee to deal with their concerns.