Nelspruit and Dolphin Coast: Lessons from the first concession contracts

South Africa's first two long‐term concession contracts for water and sanitation were signed in early 1999. These complex public‐private partnerships (PPPs) in Nelspruit and Dolphin Coast will use private sector management expertise, as well as huge amounts of private capital investment, to address service delivery challenges in both areas. Especially important will be the extension of essential services to previously disadvantaged residents of both municipalities. The processes of preparing and negotiating these deals have been long and difficult. Councillors and officials have had to overcome a series of obstacles on their way to closing the deal, including fundamental misunderstandings about how such projects work on the part of unions, the general public, other government officials and even some members of South Africa's financial services community. This article provides an account of how and why these PPP projects were developed, and offers some of the key lessons learned regarding how to improve the process in the future.

Notes

Respectively, Chief Executive and Town Clerk, Nelspruit Town Council; Acting Chief Executive and Town Clerk, Borough of Dolphin Coast; Municipal Finance Adviser, Municipal Infrastructure Investment Unit (MIIU), Midrand. The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions to this article by several other ‘co‐authors’, including many of the municipal officials, councillors and consultants who worked on the Nelspruit and Dolphin Coast projects.