Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson returned to the same example later at the symposium, framing it as evidence of a broader pattern: that a small, well-targeted investment in technical preparation can unlock hundreds of millions, and sometimes billions, of rands in infrastructure investment. He set the Matjhabeng project alongside R9.39 million ISA had committed to packaging strategic water projects in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, worth a combined R7.3 billion, as part of R131 million ISA has committed to local government infrastructure support over the past 18 months.

The symposium itself  now in its sixth edition and drawing more than 1,000 delegates, including African ministers, mayors and infrastructure professionals  served as the backdrop for the release of the third edition of the ISA Construction Book, a public inventory of funded, procurement-ready infrastructure projects. This edition lists more than 170 projects worth R264 billion expected to reach the market over the next 12 to 18 months, part of a national Strategic Integrated Projects portfolio that Ramaphosa said has grown from roughly R340 billion in 2020 to more than R1.67 trillion today. 

A network past its design life 

Behind the headline figures cited from the podium sits a detailed technical and financial case built over nine months by Ntiyiso Consulting Group, the service provider appointed by Matjhabeng Local Municipality  under project sponsor Thabang Tladi  to prepare the business case between July 2024 and March 2025. 

The numbers in that business case explain the urgency. Matjhabeng’s reticulation network extends to roughly 1,700km, and about 36% of it is more than 40 years old  beyond the design life of the asbestos-cement and galvanised-steel pipes that make up much of the system. The material has degraded to the point of posing a health hazard, according to the business case, while non-revenue water losses run to an estimated 91.9 megalitres a day against an average bulk supply of 161.6 megalitres a day from the water board  close to 57% of the water the municipality receives is lost before it reaches paying customers. The result, the document notes, is a high frequency of pipe bursts, service interruptions and property damage that undermine both public health and the municipality’s own drive to attract investment and grow local industry. 

Ntiyiso’s team modelled two responses: a full replacement of the ageing network, estimated at approximately R2.44 billion phased over three years from 2026, and a partial replacement estimated at roughly R2.03 billion over the same period. A cost-benefit analysis found both options economically sound, with benefit-cost ratios above four and internal rates of return above 29%  comfortably ahead of the 10% discount rate used in the modelling  even after sensitivity testing against higher capital costs, higher operating costs and reduced benefits. The bulk of the projected benefit comes from two sources: additional municipal revenue from reduced losses and improved billing, and lower bulk-water purchase costs from Vaal Central Water, the regional water board Matjhabeng currently owes several billion rand. 

The business case also built out a socio-economic impact assessment using input-output and social accounting matrix modelling, estimating that the capital spend could add roughly R3.5 billion to Matjhabeng’s local GDP  and R7.46 billion nationally once indirect and induced effects ripple through sectors such as mining, finance and government  while supporting close to 3,700 jobs locally and over 16,000 nationally. 

From technical report to a financing deal 

That modelling fed directly into the funding structure the DBSA has put on the table. The proposed arrangement links the bank’s contribution to conditional municipal infrastructure grants  the Municipal Infrastructure Grant and the Water Services Infrastructure Grant  which together provide a discounted value of around R712 million over six years to underpin repayment, alongside a R200-million co-funding commitment submitted as part of the application to National Treasury’s Budget Facility for Infrastructure. It is this pairing of a credible technical case with a grant-backed repayment structure that ISA and the Presidency have pointed to as the model worth replicating elsewhere. 

 It has not been a straightforward process. Ntiyiso’s own project documentation records that an earlier submission to the Budget Facility for Infrastructure was sent back with substantial reservations: assessors found the original needs analysis incomplete, the cost-benefit methodology insufficiently rigorous, the procurement statement inadequate to show the municipality was ready to go to market, and the implementation plan too high-level to demonstrate the project was genuinely shovel-ready. Addressing those gaps  strengthening the demand analysis, rebuilding the cost-benefit case, and setting out clearer institutional arrangements, including a proposed strategic-partner model with Vaal Central Water and independent monitoring by ISA  became the core of the preparation work completed by March 2025, on the timeline originally contracted. 

  A municipality under strain 

 The scale of preparation required is itself a signal of how financially stretched Matjhabeng is. The business case cites the municipality’s own 2022/23 financial statements, which show total liabilities of more than R12.7 billion against total assets of roughly R8.5 billion  a deficit of about R4.2 billion  with auditors flagging material uncertainty over the municipality’s ability to continue as a going concern. Matjhabeng owed Vaal Central Water roughly R5.4 billion and Eskom roughly R5.6 billion as of that year, while expected revenue losses on outstanding customer receivables had climbed to 80%. Water and sanitation capital budgets have also gone consistently underspent in recent years, a pattern the business case attributes to possible procurement delays, capacity constraints and budgeting weaknesses. 

 The municipality has separately faced legal consequences over its service-delivery record: a Free State High Court declaratory order in 2024 found it had failed to meet its constitutional obligations on essential services, and in 2025 the municipality and its acting municipal manager were found guilty of contempt of court and fined over the handling of sewage spillages. That backdrop is part of why national and provincial officials have treated Matjhabeng’s water infrastructure as a case requiring external technical support and close monitoring rather than a routine municipal capital project  hence ISA’s proposal for independent oversight of contracts and participant performance, with quarterly reporting to National Treasury and the Department of Water and Sanitation, built into the implementation model. 

 Part of a bigger push 

For the Presidency, Matjhabeng is one illustration of a wider strategy playing out at SIDSSA 2026: shifting the national infrastructure conversation from announcements to delivery. Ramaphosa told delegates that Infrastructure South Africa’s R600-million project-preparation facility has supported 26 projects to date, and that the Presidential Adopt-a-Municipality pilot programme is preparing projects across four municipalities in four provinces to unlock a further R7 billion in water, sanitation, energy and waste-management investment. Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa, also speaking at the symposium, argued that municipal trading services such as water, electricity and sanitation need to be understood as economic infrastructure in their own right  reliable services underpin business confidence, investment decisions and local competitiveness, while unreliable ones erode all three. 

Whether Matjhabeng’s R800-million facility translates into pipes actually being replaced on the ground will be the real test  one Minister Macpherson himself set at the symposium, telling delegates that the outcome of SIDSSA must be judged by what is financed and built, not by the value of the announcements made in Cape Town this week. 

 Sources: President Cyril Ramaphosa, address to SIDSSA 2026 (The Presidency, 25 August 2026); Minister Dean Macpherson, SIDSSA 2026 remarks (SAnews.gov.za, 25 August 2026); Infrastructure South Africa, Construction Book: Projects 2025 (Edition 2); Ntiyiso Consulting Group / Matjhabeng Local Municipality, Matjhabeng Replacement of Asbestos Cement & Galvanized Steel Pipes  Project Preparation Progress Update, August 2025; Matjhabeng Local Municipality financial and governance records as cited in the above business case.