PDG is a public sector consulting firm that supports decision-making in the public interest
Welcome
What We Offer
PDG’s core value offering is that of a mixture of high-level professional skills and experience that can be applied across a range of government processes and activities across several sectors. These services are organised into six practice areas.
Showcased Projects
Impact of Flood Hazard on Property Prices
In many rapidly growing cities in the Developing South, an increasing proportion of households live in areas prone to flooding. In this paper’s case study of Cape Town (South Africa), the impact of rapid formal and informal urban development on flood risk is amplified by pre-existing economic vulnerabilities. Mitigating the impact of flood risk on households presents an allocative problem for a fiscally constrained city government facing pressing economic, infrastructural, and social challenges.
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Legal impediments to providing water services to informal settlements on private land
The majority of South Africa’s backlogs in the provision of water and sanitation are those in informal settlements, which are concentrated in urban areas. One of the major barriers to providing services in these areas is the perception that there are legal impediments to municipalities providing water and sanitation on privately held land, particularly where the private landowner is unwilling to recognise the settlement.
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Assessment of Water Board Bulk Tariffs 2022/23
Every year Water Boards apply to the Department of Water and Sanitation, as the sector regulator, for increases to their bulk water tariffs. Section 42 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) 56 of 2003 requires water boards who intend to increase the price of bulk water to municipalities to consult organised local government (SALGA) and invite it to make written submissions on the proposed amendments. SALGA’s aim is to ensure that bulk water tariffs remain affordable to municipalities and users, but at the same time do not compromise the financial feasibility of the water boards.
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Claremont Spatial Vision
Claremont CBD was identified as a key urban node, featuring prominently as a Development Focus Area (DFA) in the Metro Spatial Development Framework (MSDF). It was also identified as a catalytic precinct with significant potential to support the City’s objectives for inclusive transit-oriented
development (TOD) as set out in the Catalytic Land Development
Programme (CLDP). The purpose of this programme was to unlock economic opportunity, achieve spatial transformation and address urban blight in under-performing parts of the City through Transit Oriented Development (TOD).
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PDG News
CONFERENCE ALERT
PDG Development Consultants will be presenting at the AWSISA Africa & Global South Water & Sanitation Dialogue tomorrow, 11 November 2025. The conference has been running since the 9th November and will conclude on 12th November 2025.
In collaboration with WRC South Africa, Kim Walsh will be presenting a piece on “Challenges and lessons with retail water services tariffs in a rapidly changing environment” and Lelethu Bodlani will be presenting some examples of innovative water services tariffs. They are looking forward to engaging on this interesting topic.
NEWS ARCHIVE – See previous posts here
Clients' Experience
"There is just something about PDG, like a worldview of how they see things, they have an ability to interpret and respond in term of the need and to respond in an intelligent way".
“I think their great strength is their understanding of municipal and governance systems, how municipalities work. They are very well clued up on tariff setting for water, electricity, rates etc.”
“I like them, I have peace of mind, they are one of those organisations."
“I was a little worried that they might not do the work within the budget that they indicated, but ended up thinking that we overestimated the cost. Definitely value for money.”
“Communication skills are very good and keep you abreast of what’s going on, always interim emails, to give you a sense of what is going on and not waiting for the formal forum.”
“There are limited consultancies understanding fully what had to happen, that understand the whole concept, assessing the worth and using the theory of change and M&E framework, and PDG understand this.”
“PDG comes on as a genuine partner, also willing to listen to the client and build that in. I really liked seeing was that PDG seemed to bring junior people in as capacity building too."
“The same attitude and work ethic comes through in all the projects, the tariff one was very good and the work is on the website for others to use.”
“PDG is a boutique, specially-focussed outfit with a real, obvious passion for working on South African governance issues. I would recommend them for issues pertaining to municipal governance without hesitation.”
“They bring value beyond a particular project and grapple with complex problems. The team was great to work with.”
“Their reputation, which becomes a circular argument, but it enabled us to get municipalities to engage and share information. That was great, they had a lot of relationships or networks established, and people trust PDG.”
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“Very good value for money, we got really good expertise, high performance, and they kept the project on track, and focussed on what it need to achieve.”