Small-Town Regeneration Insights #5

Partners in Action: The CITEPLAN and DCOG teams, with members of the Municipal and Community Task Teams in Modimolle, working together to implement the Small-Town Regeneration Strategy on the ground

Who Holds the Work Together? Understanding the Teams Behind Small-Town Regeneration

Funding, technical plans, and infrastructure aren’t the most crucial things that will help a small town come back to life. It’s the people; how they are organised, how they interact with each other, and how they work together over time.

In the Small-Town Regeneration Strategy (STR), Phase 1: Lay the Foundation begins by putting in place two key teams: the Municipal Task Team (MTT) and the Community Task Team (CTT). These aren’t symbolic or advisory structures; they are the backbone of the work.

When these teams are put together carefully, given a clear mandate and the tools to lead, regeneration gets off to a good start and keeps on track when problems come up.

The Municipal Task Team (MTT): Coordination from Within

The MTT anchors the STR process inside the municipality. It is convened by the municipal manager and includes senior officials from planning, infrastructure, local economic development (LED), finance, housing, and other relevant departments. The team is responsible for ensuring that regeneration is not an add-on but is integrated into the municipality’s core operations.

The MTT leads the technical coordination of STR across departments and ensures that the strategy is aligned with existing planning and budget cycles. This includes:

• Reviewing existing strategies (IDP, SDF, precinct plans)
• Assigning internal responsibilities
• Identifying available municipal resources
• Supporting the establishment of the Community Task Team

At the centre of the MTT is the STR Project Manager, a designated official who drives the day-to-day coordination of STR in the town. This role is critical. The process risks fragmentation without someone focused on linking tasks, partners, and timelines.

A well-functioning MTT creates alignment inside the municipality, reducing duplication and ensuring that departments are not working in silos.

The Community Task Team (CTT): Legitimacy Through Representation

While the MTT ensures institutional alignment, the CTT brings in the voices, concerns, and energy of the community. This group includes respected community members, such as youth leaders, small business owners, civic organisations, traditional authorities, retired professionals, and religious or cultural figures, who reflect the town’s social fabric.

The CTT is not a duplication of ward councillors or formal political representation. Instead, it is deliberately designed to bring in those who often don’t have a seat at the table. Its purpose is to:

• Represent different community networks
• Serve as a sounding board for engagement and messaging
• Support planning, decision-making, and accountability
• Co-lead specific activities such as outreach or pillar-based working groups

CTT members are identified through stakeholder mapping, not political appointment. This helps build trust and ensures that the process is seen as community-owned rather than top-down.

A strong CTT provides legitimacy to the regeneration effort and ensures that plans reflect lived experience, not only technical priorities.

Shared Leadership: EXCO and Working Groups

While the MTT and CTT operate as distinct teams, their leadership is brought together in a joint Executive Committee (EXCO). This structure provides a space for shared decision-making, joint planning, and collective leadership across government and community actors.

In towns where STR has gained momentum, EXCO has played a critical role in:

• Holding a unified vision of what regeneration means
• Coordinating the sequence of activities across phases
• Addressing breakdowns in communication or delays
• Mobilising support and partnerships

To further support delivery, both the MTT and CTT can establish working groups focused on specific development areas, such as skills, public spaces, infrastructure, or local business development. These groups allow more detailed planning, involve relevant stakeholders, and ensure that the work is distributed.

This structure prevents burnout, deepens community participation, and allows towns to work in manageable clusters of action while staying aligned to the overall regeneration path.

Political Support and Community Buy-In: Why Alignment Matters

Even with well-structured teams and clear plans, regeneration efforts can struggle if political leadership is disengaged. In the STR pilot towns, momentum was often strongest where mayors, councillors, and senior officials actively supported the process, not as figureheads, but as participants. Political will unlocks access to internal resources, helps secure external funding, and gives STR the visibility it needs to matter across departments.

Equally important is community buy-in. Residents are more likely to participate, and stay involved, when they see that their voices shape decisions, not follow them. The CTT plays a central role in this, but buy-in is broader than attendance. It’s about building shared ownership and trust from the outset.

The STR Strategy promotes an apolitical approach to regeneration. This doesn’t mean the absence of political leadership, but rather a deliberate effort to keep the process people-centred and inclusive, avoiding the fragmentation that can arise from political posturing. When regeneration is seen as a shared town mandate, not a party agenda, it builds staying power across electoral cycles.

Team Culture Matters as Much as Structure

Beyond names and roles, what holds these teams together is culture. In towns where regeneration efforts have stayed the course, there’s a shared ethic of showing up, listening across difference, and solving problems collectively.

This doesn’t happen automatically. It’s built over time, through transparency, shared wins, and learning together. When MTT and CTT members begin to see themselves not as separate sides but as a shared team, the work deepens.

Regeneration is long-term work. Structure gives it shape. Culture gives it staying power.

Regeneration Is a Team Sport

Small-town regeneration isn’t driven by a single leader or department. It moves when a town is able to bring together committed people from inside and outside of government, organised into teams with real mandates and real trust.

Getting organised in Phase 1 isn’t just administrative, it’s strategic. The teams formed in this phase carry the work forward across every step. They build continuity in changing political climates. They hold relationships through disagreement. And they remind everyone that regeneration doesn’t belong to one actor; it belongs to the town.

Key Takeaways

For More Information

STR Implementing Agent: CITEPLAN (Pty) Ltd | Technical Manager: Istell Orton-Nightingale at istell@citeplan.net or Communication Contact: Eriva Nanyonjo at eriva@citeplan.net
Project Sponsor: Department of Cooperative Governance | Project Manager: Prabin Govender at prabing@cogta.gov.za or Communication Contact: Moferefere Moloi at mofereferem@cogta.gov.za