Political Administrative Interface in The Built Environment

This report is the result of a research process by the SACN Built Environment Integration Task Team. It aims to provide insights on the current political administrative interface in South African cities in relation to the built environment. It seeks to look at how the interface plays out in operating contexts, what it means for practitioners going about their work, and how it affects built environment projects. The report includes a description of the current political administrative interface, shares some strategies that administrators and MMCs have used to unblock project blockages and identifies some longer terms issues that need to be dealt with.

The research process consisted of a high-level literature review and nine semi-structured interviews with former local government senior managers and mayoral committee members, covering five of the metros. These interviews form the basis of the findings and tools that are presented here. All interviewees left management or leadership roles in municipalities between 2011 and 2018. Additional inputs are taken from discussions at the Built Environment Integration Task Team on 29 October 2018.