Akani Mabunda

Independent Development Trust

The IDT is a Schedule 2 state owned entity which manages the implementation and delivery of critically needed social infrastructure programmes on behalf of government. The organisation reports to the Minister of Public Works who is the Shareholder representative. The IDT National Office is located in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, and has regional offices in all of the country's nine provinces. Our organisation was established in 1990 as an independent, grant-making trust. At its inception the organisation was allocated a grant of R2-billion by government, to support education, housing, health services and business development projects in poor Black communities. As a grant-making organisation the IDT supported approximately 8800 community upliftment projects during the first decade. After 1999, the IDT was reconfigured and listed as a Schedule 2 programme implementation agency as prescribed by the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) (Act 1 of 1999). Since it establishment the IDT has delivered a combination of social infrastructure and social development programmes in predominantly rural communities across the country. The IDT is mandated to support all spheres of government with social infrastructure management and programme implementation. The social infrastructure programmes managed by the IDT cut across national, provincial and local government. The IDT portfolio of programme is broadly categorized into social infrastructure programmes and social development programmes. Social infrastructure programmes entail the provision and maintenance of infrastructure facilities that enable government to deliver social, basic and community services to its citizens. Social development programmes on the other hand, entail initiatives and development interventions that primarily facilitate job creation, poverty eradication, community enterprise support and community empowerment.