The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) says Gauteng’s water crisis is driven by failing infrastructure, poor maintenance and weak municipal accountability rather than an absolute shortage of water.
Speaking in Johannesburg at the release of its inquiry report today, Commissioner Dr Henk Boshoff says all nine municipalities had to be subpoenaed to participate, submitting its written response only after the hearings.
The inquiry follows persistent complaints of water interruptions and sewage pollution across the province.
Boshoff says the commission has made eight overarching recommendations to improve water and sanitation services and protect residents’ constitutional rights.
“All water services authorities must ensure that unauthorised, irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure is dealt with in accordance with section 32 of the Municipal Finance Management Act. Each municipal council must within three months of the publication of this report, in other words early 2027, submit a progress report to the auditor general setting out the steps taken to address outstanding unauthorised, irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure.”
Meanwhile, the SARHC says water tankers, which are meant to provide emergency relief during water outages, are increasingly becoming a regular source of water for some communities in the province.
Boshoff has warned that this growing dependence risks entrenching an inferior level of service, with communities exposed to unreliable deliveries, accessibility challenges and possible exploitation.
He says water tanker services in Gauteng are being used to serve the interests of corrupt municipal leaders and service providers rather than communities.
“Water tankering has become a brazen form of corruption and financial mismanagement. Road-based water distribution network refers to the recurring delivery of potable water by vehicle either directly to communities or to static communal tanks as part of the municipality’s ongoing system for providing access to water. It operates alongside the conventional articulated network of treatment works.”
-Report by Musa Mhlongo