Admin
19 Jan, 2026
32 years of neglect: South Africa’s water crisis is manufactured
Statement by Zandile Phiri, Acting Secretary General of the United Democratic Movement South Africa is staring down a water emergency that has been decades in the making. The warnings now coming from within government itself confirm what communities have lived with for years: collapsing infrastructure, chronic leaks, failing storage systems, and a state that no longer plans for the future. The Director General of the Department of Water and Sanitation, Sean Phillips, has made it clear that the country’s water problems are deep, structural, and cannot be fixed quickly. This is not a sudden crisis. It is the predictable outcome of 32 years of neglect, mismanagement, and failure to invest in basic infrastructure. Gauteng residents are now being told to cut water consumption by as much as 40 percent, not because South Africa has run out of water, but because municipalities lack storage, lose vast volumes through leaking pipes, and fail to collect revenue. This is an indictment of governance. Households are being asked to sacrifice while billions of litres are lost every year through decaying infrastructure that was never maintained. The situation in Johannesburg is especially alarming. Despite having a technically sound water and sanitation turnaround plan, the City is unable to implement it because of severe financial distress. Contractors are not paid. Projects are abandoned. Funds generated by water services are diverted to cover other municipal pressures, despite National Treasury requirements to ring fence this revenue. This is not a lack of ideas. It is a collapse of discipline, accountability, and political will. The reality is that municipalities across the country are trapped in a vicious downward spiral. High levels of non-revenue water mean less income. Less income means poor maintenance. Poor maintenance leads to further infrastructure failure and even greater water losses. Communities pay the price through outages, rationing, and unsafe supply. Long term relief will only come when major supply projects are completed, but even here the story is one of delay and corruption. Strategic water projects that should have been completed years ago are now only expected late in the decade. South Africans are being asked to endure restrictions today because planning failed yesterday. What is emerging in Gauteng is already visible in other metros, including eThekwini, where leaks, limited storage, flooding damage, and excessive consumption mirror the same warning signs. Regions such as Nelson Mandela Bay and Knysna are facing drought conditions that place millions at risk. This is a national crisis, not an isolated municipal problem. Water has now replaced electricity as the main constraint on economic activity and daily life. Without reliable water, clinics cannot function, schools cannot operate, businesses cannot grow, and human dignity is stripped away. South Africa does not suffer from a lack of expertise. It suffers from a lack of consequence. The UDM has consistently warned that infrastructure cannot be wished into existence through speeches and plans that are never implemented. Maintenance, storage expansion, leak reduction, and disciplined financial management must happen together. Anything less is failure. The time for excuses has passed. South Africa needs urgent, coordinated action to protect water as a strategic national resource. The cost of continued failure will be paid not in reports, but in lost livelihoods, deepening inequality, and growing social instability.
Admin
22 Oct, 2025
UDM says Mayor Mchunu’s excuses insult the people of uMzinyathi: where is the water?
Statement by Remington Mazibuko, Councillor in the Inkosi Mtubatuba Local Municipality and UDM KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Chairperson The United Democratic Movement (UDM) in KwaZulu-Natal notes with deep concern the recent comments by uMzinyathi District Mayor Thembisile Mchunu, who has admitted that the municipality lacks the technical skills and resources to maintain its collapsing water infrastructure. These excuses come six years after the UDM first exposed corruption and maladministration in uMzinyathi, and two years after the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) confirmed that the district violated the Msinga community’s right to water under Section 27(1)(b) of the Constitution. The UDM in KwaZulu-Natal lodged the original complaint with the SAHRC in 2019 on behalf of the Msinga community, under the leadership of the then UDM KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Secretary, Mr Boysey Gumede. That complaint laid the groundwork for the Commission’s 2023 Final Report, which found that uMzinyathi’s failures stem from poor management, lack of planning, and corruption, not water scarcity. The SAHRC’s 2024 follow-up visits reiterated those findings and urged urgent implementation of the recommendations. Just last week, CoGTA Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa acknowledged that uMzinyathi had incurred R1.4 billion in irregular expenditure, calling it “a lost opportunity.” He pledged that his department would conduct skills audits and strengthen capacity. The UDM welcomes this admission but reminds the Minister that words alone will not fill a water drum. The people of Msinga, Nquthu, Endumeni and Umvoti have heard these promises before. Meanwhile, Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina continues to tout the progress of large-scale projects such as the Lower uMkhomazi Water Scheme while turning a blind eye to municipalities that have failed for years to deliver basic services. National leadership cannot boast about megaprojects while households in KwaZulu-Natal still rely on rivers and tankers for their daily water. The UDM in KwaZulu-Natal demands that: 1. Mayor Mchunu and the uMzinyathi District Council immediately table a public implementation plan for the SAHRC’s recommendations, with clear timelines and funding commitments. 2. The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs invoke Section 139 should the municipality fail to act within 60 days. 3. The Department of Water and Sanitation and National Treasury provide written updates to the SAHRC on corrective action taken since 2023. The UDM in KwaZulu-Natal will continue to monitor this matter closely to ensure that the SAHRC’s findings are implemented and that accountability follows where corruption and incompetence have stolen people’s right to water.
Admin
17 Sep, 2025
Service delivery in crisis: Merafong residents left to fend for themselves
Statement by Ndidi Gcalangobuthi, UDM Councillor in Merafong City Local Municipality The United Democratic Movement (UDM) in Merafong City notes with deep concern Merafong City Municipality’s poor governance and worsening finances that have resulted in residents enduring prolonged service disruptions. The recent case of a private individual drilling a borehole in his yard as a means of providing water after residents in Merafong have endured three weeks without, underscores a serious breakdown in the municipality’s duty to its residents. It is deeply concerning that residents are being forced to do what municipalities should. Currently, Rand Water is owed over R1.41 billion by the Merafong City Local Municipality which has resulted in an imposed 40% water restriction in the area, leaving taps dry for weeks. It can be agreed that the domino effect of chronic mismanagement has resulted in low revenue collection rates, operational losses, debt accumulation and escalating tariffs. A clear indication of municipal collapse. While these failures can be viewed as mere technicalities, residents in affected areas bear the burden of governance failures that undermine health, dignity and the right to water. Ensuring provision of basic services is municipalities’ legal obligation, yet residents are forced to bear the costs and risks of government negligence. The UDM in Merafong City further notes that this crisis is worsened by the growing culture of non-payment of rates and taxes. When people do not pay, the municipality loses vital revenue and service delivery grinds to a halt. At the same time, we cannot ignore that many families in Merafong are struggling with poverty and unemployment and simply cannot afford ever-increasing tariffs. This is why the whole system must be fair: those who are able to pay must do so, while government must create a safety net for those who genuinely cannot. Without this balance, Merafong will continue to sink deeper into collapse and ordinary residents will suffer most. We demand accountability from Merafong’s leadership and from provincial and national authorities tasked with oversight. The failure to act decisively will deepen the collapse of governance and further strip residents of their constitutional rights.
Admin
12 Sep, 2025
Water crisis in South Africa: a call for accountability and sustainable solutions
Statement by Zandile Phiri, Acting Secretary General of the United Democratic Movement The United Democratic Movement (UDM) notes with alarm Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s revelation that as of June 2025, municipalities collectively owe South Africa’s water boards R25.1 billion. This staggering debt is not a new phenomenon. It reflects long-standing financial mismanagement and poses a severe threat to the equitable provision of water services for millions of households. Water is a scarce and precious resource in South Africa. Yet instead of building capacity to deliver this essential service, many municipalities remain trapped in cycles of arrears, infrastructure decay, and disputes. These failures compromise both urban and rural communities and demonstrate a persistent breakdown in governance. The UDM cautions government against treating this crisis as merely a matter of debt collection. Punitive measures, such as slicing municipal budgets, may provide temporary relief for water boards but will ultimately deepen dysfunction in local government and compromise the delivery of water and sanitation services. Adding to the urgency, water boards themselves have faced severe dysfunctionality for years, driven by instability in leadership, poor governance, and weak oversight. Without stable boards, effective CEOs, and proper institutional controls, service delivery, financial management, and strategic planning remain compromised. The UDM believes that a sustainable solution requires that household water supply becomes a reality for every family, with local government fully supported and capacitated by national government. Infrastructure renewal and maintenance must be prioritised to address aging systems, avoidable losses, contamination, and service breakdowns. Clear national standards for water treatment and sanitation must be enforced to safeguard public health. A universal system of water charges, including a Basic Service Subsidy, must ensure access for indigent and poor households, with fair and transparent revenue collection ring-fenced for service provision. Capacity-building and skills transfer from national to local government are essential to ensure municipalities can meet their constitutional obligations. The UDM calls for a comprehensive stabilisation plan for water governance that balances financial accountability with capacity-building. Municipalities that deliberately withhold payments despite collecting revenue must face consequences. Equally, national government has a duty to strengthen the systems, skills, and infrastructure required for sustainable water delivery. The urgency of this crisis is visible in communities across the country. In Gauteng, families in Coronationville, Westbury, and Ivory Park, Tembisa, have clashed with police over dry taps. In the Eastern Cape, residents of Qunu have been forced to draw water from untreated rivers, exposing themselves to deadly waterborne diseases, a situation compounded by allegations that the town has had no proper running water since 2014. These incidents are not isolated; they are symptomatic of systemic collapse in water governance. Communities should not have to protest, blockade highways, or drink unsafe water to access a basic constitutional right. Water is a right, not a privilege. South Africans cannot be made to suffer for the failures of governance. The time for government to stop papering over the cracks and to decisively address the root causes of municipal dysfunction is long overdue.
Admin
22 Apr, 2018
Mother Earth Day 2018: SA’s water woes must come to an end
Media release by Mr Bantu Holomisa, MP and UDM President As we approach Mother Earth Day, on the 22nd of April, the United Democratic Movement (UDM) deems it necessary that we, as South Africans, must acknowledge and understand the interdependence that exists among humans, animals, plants and the planet we inhabit. Especially the role that water plays in that interdependence. South Africa’s years’ worth of drought, brought home the reality the we indeed live in a water scarce country. Water restrictions almost crushed some of our big cities – with those who live in informal settlements being hard-hit. The impact on our agrarian activities and industries as well as the ripple effect of job shedding as the drought continues, is devastating. The fact that our economy will take years to recover from the impacts of drought, not to mention other factors, is quite worrying. This brings into question one of the issues the UDM believes has not been properly addressed i.e. planned sustainable development. The local, provincial and the national governments must all shoulder the blame for the mess in Cape Town and elsewhere in the country. The backlogs still remain too large and the current infrastructure development is not keeping pace with rapid urbanisation, water storage and dam capacity. The UDM is of the view that all three ties of government should be working harder and together on managing arguably the scarcest resource in this beautiful country of ours: water. Some of the salient points in the UDM’s policies around water are that: • National and local governments, in particular, should work in concert. • That sustainable household water supply must become a reality for every South African family, even though this is a local competency, government at higher levels must budget more efficiently. • That national government must set standards for the treatment of water for human use and enforce these stringently. • The development of irrigation schemes has been neglected. • The catchment area research and large-scale infrastructure development in Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Eastern Cape must be commenced with as a matter of urgency. Currently vast quantities of water flow through the rivers of these regions, without being properly applied for agricultural or human needs. In the end environmental management and practice should contribute to sustainable socio-economic development in South Africa, leading to a better quality of life for all. The utilisation of resources should happen in a balanced manner to promote this continued growth. The involvement of all role players in the making and implementations of all environmental legislation and regulations should be at the top of government’s agendas
