The Department of Transport and Public Works hosted the first Western Cape Infrastructure Framework (WCIF) Reboot Imagination Workshop at the Paarl East Thusong Centre on 23 February 2022.
The first WCIF was developed in 2013 to help ensure a holistic, systemic, and long-term approach to the provision of infrastructure in the province. Since then, there have been major technological advances. Also, other changes in the operating context have given rise to shifts in the needs and expectations of stakeholders.
Officials from various national, provincial and municipal departments, and representatives of the educational and private sector were invited to delve deep into their imaginations regarding the WCIF. Topics under discussion included developing a common understanding of the project’s context, challenges and opportunities, consensus on project governance, ways of working and logistics, and developing an agreed Citizen ‘Empathy Map’.
“Some of the key insights delivered by some of the stakeholders included that the previous Western Cape Infrastructure Framework didn’t deliver in terms of stakeholder expectations. It was literally a document that sat on the shelf somewhere,” said Nazeer Rahbeeni, Director: Infrastructure Policies and Strategies.
“And one of the takeaways is that we must use this reboot of the WCIF to become an implementing transition agenda that we can drive as a collective.”
The second Imagination Workshop will delve into a deeper level of detail on the Infrastructure Domain Map, a common “picture of future success” as set out as in a comprehensive WCIF Vision, and clarity on the way forward to collectively deliver a successful outcome for the people of the Western Cape.