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Residents of Phumla Mqashi informal settlement near Lenasia South in Johannesburg fetch water from a truck.
Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina says the water challenges faced by several municipalities across the country are not an issue of water supply but a result of infrastructure damages.
Majodina was speaking ahead of the two-day National Water and Sanitation Indaba at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Gauteng.
The Indaba seeks to address the provision of water and water security in the country.
The gathering which will be attended by various stakeholders comes at a time when South Africa is battling a water crisis as result of ageing infrastructure, vandalism and corruption.
Majodina says her department plans to clamp down on water tankering and extortion mafias, as well as corrupt officials.
“The leaks, the illegal connections, the wrong billing – those are the three major things (including) the vandalism of infrastructure and water tankering through the (construction) mafias. We are working with the SIU (Special Investigating Unit) and we are going to (make) arrests. We’ve already recouped R459 million that was defrauded out of water and we are still going to ensure that all those mafias and those who are collaborating as officials with those mafias are going to be arrested.”
Debt owed by municipalities
Majodina says municipalities across South Africa owe the country’s water boards a combined R24 billion.
She says failure by municipalities to pay the water boards will have a negative effect on South African communities.
“And the danger is that those water boards will collapse. Can you imagine when water boards collapse it means no water is going to be purified and then we are putting the country at risk. What we have done already is to withhold the equitable grant or share for them so that we can pay these water boards. But that is not the ideal situation because if we withhold that, other services suffer.”
Majodina elaborates in the video below:
Issues in the Free State
Lack of access to water has been at the core of service delivery challenges facing many communities in the Free State.
In Winburg, poor infrastructure is the core reason for residents being without water.
