|
The Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) is a conditional grant to support municipal capital budgets to fund municipal infrastructure and to upgrade existing infrastructure, primarily benefiting poor households. The MIG gives effect to earlier Cabinet decisions and policy positions on the establishment of a single consolidated funding mechanism to support municipal infrastructure. The MIG has been set up to merge the following funding programmes in a phased manner: - Consolidated Municipal Infrastructure Programme, in support of internal bulk, connector infrastructure and community facilities to poor households;
- Water Service Capital Fund, in support of bulk, connector and internal infrastructure for water services at a basic level;
- Community based Expanded Public Works Programme, in support of the creation of community assets in rural, historically disadvantaged communities;
- Local Economic Development Fund, in support of planning, and implementation of job creation and poverty alleviation;
- Building support for Sport and Recreation Programme to sustain sport and recreation facilities within disadvantaged communities; and
- Electrification funding in support of addressing the electrification backlog of permanently occupied residential dwellings that are situated in historically under-supplied areas.
The MIG is a new infrastructure transfer mechanism and is geared to making the system of transfers to municipalities simpler, more certain and direct. Its conditions are more flexible, designed to support the capital budgets of municipalities, and to facilitate integrated development planning. The MIG will not fund specific projects, but is designed to complement the capital budgets of municipalities (similar to the provincial infrastructure grant). Reporting on spending will therefore be on the entire capital budget of municipalities, which also has to ensure that there are sufficient operational budgets in the future to fund such capital expenditure. Individual national line departments will continue to lead the monitoring and support of implementation in their specific functions and priorities. |
