A business-led initiative is under way to set up a new “vehicle” to enable the public sector, especially under-resourced municipalities, to tap “latent” private sector skills in a way that helps address gaps in the planning, execution and maintenance of infrastructure.
Business Leadership South Africa’s (BLSA’s) Andre Lamprecht reports that the model will seek to address the shortcomings of previous efforts to draw in retirees and other private-sector talent to support municipalities.
Envisaged is a ‘shared-services’ arrangement that allows municipalities to draw on a pool of technical and financial skills that have been vetted to work within specifically defined structures and protocols.
Speaking at a South African National Energy Association meeting, Lamprecht, who chairs BLSA’s Work Group on Infrastructure and who is co-chair of the Presidential Infrastructure Task Team, revealed that the concept had been canvassed at the October 24 Presidential Business Working Group.
He added that business planned to table an implementation plan and operational model at the next meeting of the Presidential Infrastructure Task Team.
“There is an enormous amount of latent skill available within the private sector, but without a proper methodology to utilise it,” Lamprecht argued.
“The idea is to create a vehicle into which we can draw private sector skills from all sources – specifically people who might have reached the end of long and successful careers, but not confined to such individuals.”