Mahlobo blames SA’s water woes on negligence

Minister David Mahlobo addresses the 2026 Unisa Water Imbizo in Roodepoort, Johannesburg.

Water and Sanitation Deputy Minster, David Mahlobo, has agreed that years of negligence are the root cause of South Africa’s water crisis.

He was speaking at the 2026 Unisa Water Imbizo in Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg.

Mahlobo has confirmed that municipalities need around R400 billion to address water challenges.

He adds that, that amount of cash is not currently available in the government.

Mahlobo says Gauteng loses billions of rands’ worth of water to leaks, ageing infrastructure and system abuse.

“On the issues of system failures, one of the biggest things that I need to indicate is that the resolution of the water problem is going to take time. For example, the current assets are old and are leaking. We give them more than 5 billion litres of water. They lose about 2.5. In other words, dealing with the water losses is an immediate issue, but to deal with a water loss, what does it mean? It means those assets that are old, like the pipes … we need to start to replace them,” says Mahlobo.