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Community-based labour-intensive road construction: findings of an impact study Amadiba Road

The Amadiba community, which is nestled in the Mbizana Local Municipality, situated in the O R Tambo District in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, approached the CSIR through a local not-for-profit organisation for assistance to upgrade their road. Mbizana is considered to be one of the poorest local authorities in the entire country with unemployment levels standing at over 75 percent in 1999. The CSIR secured poverty alleviation funding from the South African National Roads Agency for a road, which, except for vehicles with a high clearance such as tractors, lorries and “4x4s”, was generally, impassable particularly in inclement weather. This paper briefly describes the community-based labour-intensive construction of the Amadiba road, which stretches for forty kilometres from a blacktopped provincial road (R61) to the Mtentu estuary. It unravels the impact this project has had on the Amadiba community, and speculates on key success factors for projects of this nature informed by lessons emanating from the project. The paper concludes by noting that while the balance of evidence suggested that the road has had a positive impact on the livelihoods of the Amadiba community, other sectoral interventions are required to permanently and positively influence the socio-economic trajectory of the community.