The South African municipal infrastructure is grossly inadequate, poorly located and undermaintained. To overcome this triple challenge, infrastructure planning must be systematic and targeted to close gaps while maintaining and upgrading what is existent. Chapter 5 of the Municipal Systems Act (Act 32 of 2000) introduces the Integrated Development Planning framework that enjoins municipal officials and politicians to plan together with the community. Prior to this approach, engineers compiled infrastructure masterplans that were used to prioritise and budget for the next financial year with nominal input from the community. The infrastructure master planning process continues to underpin the work of engineers, resulting in two competing infrastructure implementation plans, the IDP document and the infrastructure masterplan. The Integrated Development Planning framework has more agency because it is endorsed by the people who hold wa