The DA has called for the department of water and sanitation to issue a temporary dispensation for a relaxation of Rand Water’s water license to ease the water challenges facing Gauteng communities.
The party has also called for national government to activate the emergency and disaster funding instruments available to address the water crisis.
“At the moment Rand Water is limited in the amount of water it is allowed to take out of the Vaal Dam. We’re specifically saying allow it to extract more when the dam level is above 100%, as it is right now. That will allow hundreds of millions of litres more per day to help the dire situation now, not forever,” said DA spokesperson on water and sanitation Stephen Moore.
On Wednesday the DA held a media briefing responding to the crisis that has seen Gauteng communities without water for weeks.
Moore said he was writing to water and sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina to request that she instruct Rand Water to communicate transparently with residents.
“I expect the minister will agree this is necessary, and she will do so. It’s beyond necessary. It should have happened years ago. It’s ridiculous that a public institution refuses to communicate properly and directly with residents. What we are saying is, should, for some wild reason, that be refused, we will consider legal options.”
Moore said while the water situation rested with municipalities, national government also had a responsibility to directly address the crisis.
With Rand Water failing to clearly communicate its challenges to rate payers and residents, Moore said Majodina’s role is unavoidable.
“The minister is the executive authority. She is empowered to instruct water boards, including Rand Water, to communicate properly, and she can demand honest communication from municipalities. If she does not act, we will consider legal steps to compel lawful transparency and decisive intervention. This is her moment to show us she puts the republic first, and it is also a moment of truth for the water task team chaired by the deputy president.
“We want concrete steps to stabilise the system while repairs are implemented. National and provincial governments must activate the emergency and disaster funding instruments that are available. They exist for infrastructure service disruptions. We also need to be clear on the rules. This cannot be a blank cheque or an avenue for corruption. It cannot be a bailout for general municipal cash flow. Any support will be ring-fenced for service delivery and reinforcement, and non-revenue water reduction and strict reporting are the keys,” he said.
Gauteng DA leader Solly Msimanga said he had written to President Cyril Ramaphosa to stress the water crisis demanded urgent intervention.
Msimanga said more sinkholes were developing in Centurion due to underground water leaks, and claimed sinkholes were also developing in parts of the West Rand.
“These are things we are raising in the letter [to the president], but we were met with absolute silence. You can try all you want, but if people are not willing to admit there is a problem, you’re not going to get the answers you seek,” he said.
Msimanga said municipalities were spending more on water tankers rather than fixing infrastructure.
Former Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink said other than the amount spent on water tankers by the city, there was the spend on emergency water tankers in places where people have taps. He said this was exploding in Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.
“What can be done? For informal settlements, the rollout of water towers, for example, so water tankers don’t come three times a week. It fills a water tower, and people have access to a tap immediately. You reduce the spending on logistics. But again, that’s not our major problem. The major problem is the incentive for water tanker operators to keep running. They’ve got contacts in the municipality.
“In the short term, obviously, you’ve got to tighten your checks and controls. If you get an invoice to pay for water tankering, it has to correspond with whether water was at that place. More immediately, municipalities must, like the City of Cape Town, have their own water tankering fleet. If you have your own trucks, you immediately eliminate the private sector incentive for tenderpreneurs to charge you for every kilolitre of water extracted from a municipal fire hydrant. There are immediate steps that can be taken to reduce the cost.
“I think it’s the lack of control in a place like Tshwane that has led to exploding water tanker provision,” Brink said.
He said water losses in Tshwane have increased from 32% to 40%, with 40l of 100l purchased from Rand Water wasted through leaks.
Brink said spending on water tankers as an emergency measure increased by 500% in the financial year of 2024/25. He said more is spent on water tankers than pipe replacements, fixing meters and repairing reservoirs.
Brinks said Tshwane’s financial records indicate the metro has exceeded the allocation for water tankers in this financial year.
“Escalating water losses point to a rapid deterioration in infrastructure. It shows Tshwane is heading in the wrong direction under its ANC coalition, and at this rate, if something isn’t done to improve the situation, communities must plan for more outages. You can’t blame communities for this, given that most leaks are within the hands of municipalities.
“Historically, metros like Tshwane have failed to reinvest revenue from water back into the underlying infrastructure. In the past year, bad budgeting and spending decisions have made the situation much, much worse,” Brink said.
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Lizeka Tandwa
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