DWS Q4 2022/23 Performance; Update on Cholera outbreak & upgrade of Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

Opening remarks

The Chairperson welcomed the members and the delegation from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), acknowledging the presence of the Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Ms Judith Tshabalala.

He said this was the last committee meeting for the term. He noted members had agreed that the Committee would have more physical meetings, but he received complaints from members questioning the reasons for the physical meeting as they had other commitments. The reality was that all members had agreed that they would hold their meetings in Parliament for five years and the fact that there was the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Parliament fire does not change the fact that they are still members of Parliament. Members should accept that they are working in Parliament in Cape Town. He said apologies would not be noted and all those who were not in the meeting would be marked as absent because if a member cannot attend a meeting, they are allowed to send an alternate member.

A moment of silence for meditation and prayer was observed.

Mr L Basson (DA) introduced Ms C Phillips (DA) who was attending the meeting as an alternate member.

Deputy Minister’s opening remarks

Deputy Minister Tshabalala said the Department would present its fourth-quarter performance for the 2022/23 financial year. Minister Mchunu had taken firm steps and necessary interventions in many of the struggling municipalities on the provision of water and sanitation. The President, during his State of the Nation Address (SONA2023), mentioned that the DWS under the Minister is leading the process of investing in mega infrastructure projects. One of the central pillars of the government’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan is to create job opportunities for the youth, women, and persons living with disabilities (PWDs).

It is important to remember that the District Development Model (DDM) is crucial in accelerating the pace of the delivery of basic sanitation services to the people, hence the three spheres of government have commenced the refurbishment of the services. The DWS is ensuring that it improves its oversight model over the districts and municipalities in the provision of water and sanitation services and has taken steps to change the perception that it only provides monetary assistance to the municipalities through the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG) and the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG).

The Minister implored all the members of the Committee to visit all the municipalities that have been assisted with the WSIG and RBIG grants to oversee the process and receive updates and progress reports on the status of the interventions in water and sanitation infrastructure. The presentation highlighted the key strategic processes that show the marginal progress made by the Department. The Committee would also note the Department’s past financial performance and the progress made in improving its financial performance and audit. The Department achieved 74% of its key performance targets including the filling of engineering and executive positions where there were a lot of Acting executives.

The DWS spent 95.4% of its financial budget, with an underspending of R 861 595 million. The financial recovery plan also aims to address funding and budget management activities and the Ministry placed maximum importance on this. The Ministry also improved its oversight of irregular expenditure within the Department as well as control deficiency issues identified within the procurement processes. The Department took steps to improve its procurement processes to prevent future irregular expenditure and the ongoing investigations on condonations and the legal processes are being pursued to address irregular expenditure.

The DWS made progress in its service delivery programmes and achieved a significant portion of its targets and budget expenditure, but there are areas that are still underperforming, especially in project management and procurement processes. The Department is implementing interventions through the financial recovery plan to improve its financial performance and address irregular expenditure. Collaboration with stakeholders has also improved.

Briefing by DWS on Quarter 4 2022/23 Performance

Dr Sean Philipps, Director-General, DWS, said the Department continues to implement measures to accelerate key service delivery programmes. By the end of the fourth quarter, the Department’s performance targets achievement was 74% with 95.4% of the budget spent. Achievements of the Department by the end of the fourth quarter included completion of the Hazelmere Dam Project, practical completion of the Giyani Bulk Water Project, the filling of 848 engineers and scientists posts, and finalisation and implementation of the departmental structure.

The Department developed several initiatives aimed at acceleration of service delivery and interventions aimed at strengthening strategic support of municipalities including the National Water Services Improvement Programme and the National Sanitation Framework. Several factors led to poor productivity on some construction projects including inadequate planning and work scheduling, lack of collaboration and communication between stakeholders on the project, as well as inadequate capacity of Water Boards and Municipalities.

Ms Babalwa Manyakanyaka, Chief Director: Corporate Planning, DWS, said 23% of the Department’s procurement was awarded to companies with 50% of more women ownership, 6% was awarded to companies with 50% or more youth ownership, and 2% was awarded to companies with 50% or more ownership by people with disabilities.

Mr Frans Moatshe, CFO, DWS, provided an overview of the financial performance of the Department in the fourth quarter. The expenditure for the period ended 31 March 2023 amounted to R17.693 billion, representing 95% of the total final budget of R18.555 billion, leaving total unspent funds of R861.595 million.

Cumulative variations between budget and expenditure within various economic classifications are as follows:

• Compensation of employees reflects under expenditure of R23.547 million, the under-spending is affected mainly by a reduced rate of filling vacancies to comply with mandatory budget cuts over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period. Only critical prioritised posts are being filled.
• Goods and services under expenditure is R60.849 million. The under-spending is mainly due to unpaid invoices for the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal disaster interventions.
• Transfers and subsidies underspent by R3.975 million, the under-spending relates mainly to the Households (Employees social benefits / leave gratuities).
• Payments for capital assets underspent by R773.224 million, the significant contributor is the indirect grant allocation to municipalities which includes both the regional bulk and water services infrastructure grants due to, amongst others; slow-moving projects, inadequate planning, delayed procurement processes and payment systems errors at financial year-end.

All the unspent funds for the 2022/23 financial are committed and the Department has applied to National Treasury for approval of the unspent funds to be rolled over to the 2023/24 financial year.

(See Presentation)

Discussion

Mr Basson wanted to know if the roll-over was approved by National Treasury. Regarding the split of Sedibeng Water into Magalies and Bloem Water, he wanted to know how the losses that were incurred by municipalities were funded and how the Department would ensure that future losses would be avoided for Magalies and Bloem Water. He asked if the Bucket Eradication Programme (BEP) was going to be handed over to the Department of Human Settlements.

 

Mr A Tseki (ANC) asked the Department to clarify the total amount for the requested roll-overs as it was displayed as different amounts in the presentation. He said the Giyani Water Services Project was intended to supply water to 55 villages, but it was segmented because the current project was not reaching the 55 villages and when members mentioned the 55 villages to communities, the municipalities said the amount they were given would not reach the 55 villages. He asked that the communication provided by the Department should not fuel anger in communities.

Ms R Mohlala (EFF) sought clarity regarding the Giyani Water Reticulation and the Bucket Eradication Programme and what caused the request for roll-overs. How effective was the implementation of the annual update of the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan? Did the Department undertake any study on the value added by the Master Plan? What were the key regulatory aspects that the Department hoped to achieve in the Draft Regulation for water allocation reform that was put on hold? What were the challenges with the reconfiguration of Water Boards? What were the key issues that required attention in improving section 63 intervention? Did the Department undertake any studies on the challenges in section 63 intervention and what mitigating measures were used to address the challenges?

The Department is struggling with the processing of payments and there are several instances of people complaining about not having received payments for projects done for the Department, and most of these companies that complain are B-BBEE accredited companies. In most cases, the Department ends up going to court and incurring more charges. How is the Department planning to resolve this issue of non-payment to contractors?

Ms G Tseke (ANC) commended the Department on the progress that it made in the past years. She asked if there was a progress report of the work done through the DDM since its inception. Were the 385 jobs created in the Department within the fourth quarter or the entire 2022/23 financial year given the amount of money spent? She hoped the BEP will be completed in October as the initial completion date was the end of March, but it was extended due to the challenges experienced. The country faces enormous challenges regarding water scarcity, especially in informal settlements. Has the Department considered collaborating with the Water Research Commission in the provision of water?

In Mopani District, there is a Wastewater Treatment Plant that was built, and it only worked for two months. Is it part of the investigation list of cases that were identified? For what purpose was the budget allocated to the disestablished Sedibeng Water Board? How far was the Department in addressing the water infrastructure challenges in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN)?

The Chairperson asked the Department to explain why it did not achieve the targets on its non-achieved programmes because the context is important. He appreciated that it is now possible to know where the problems remain in the Department compared to past years and added that the information should be added to the presentation so that there is no perception that the Department does not know where its challenges are.

On the payment processing errors in the Eastern Cape and KZN, he understood that the Department did not mention the reasons for this because they were avoiding the politics of the issues as most of the people that complained about non-payment were not paid because either the prices were inflated or because the work claimed for was not done or complete.

The Chairperson appreciated that the Department allocated the full amounts that were budgeted to all the provinces, but the issue was whether the provinces spent the money. Eastern Cape only spent 69% of the budget allocated to it while the Free State spent 100% on RBIG projects but spent 21% on RBIG BEP, which is a problem. The Department should be concerned about this because the non-expenditure of budgets means fewer services are given to the people.

The BEP deals with bucket eradication for formal settlements and not informal settlements, which is a moving target. The BEP cannot be moved to the Department of Human Settlements because DWS must deal with it in the formal settlements as of prior 1994 and when it is finished, it will hand it over to the DHS to deal with the BEP in residential areas. The Department must be upfront with what it has achieved, what it is yet to achieve, and when it is set to achieve it.

Deputy Minister Tshabalala said the upgrade of the Olifantspoort and Ebenezer Water Supply is an example of a collaboration that went well with the Lepelle Water Board, and it is part of the projects where a cumulative expenditure of 100% of the budget was achieved. Another project is Philani Bulk Water Supply in the Free State, and it was implemented by the Magalies Water Board and the District. The project did not only address the water supply, but it also contributed to economic growth and improved living conditions in the province. The reconfiguration of Water Boards has also seen major achievements and the Department must speak about it too, including the Umshwathi Regional Bulk Water Supply Scheme and other projects. There is a lot that the Department has done and continues to do, and the Chairperson was correct to say the Department must include it in its presentations.

Dr Phillips said the Department has not yet received feedback from National Treasury about its request for roll-over. He said Water Boards in terms of the country’s fiscal model are financially self-sustainable, so the Department is not allocated funds in the budget to give to Water Boards, so when a Water Board goes bankrupt, there is no possibility of them getting money from the government. Sedibeng Water went bankrupt which meant it was unable to liquify chemicals within the water treatment works and it was unable to pay its staff. That was a potentially catastrophic situation because it would mean Sedibeng would have been unable to continue providing clean water to the communities.

The DWS asked National Treasury to give them a special allocation to bail out Sedibeng Water, and at first, National Treasury provided a small amount. When the DWS asked for the allocation for a second time as Sedibeng Water was not improving because of non-payment from municipalities, National Treasury refused because the Water Board was supposed to be financially self-sustainable. The only option the Department had was to close Sedibeng Water and transfer the geographical areas to Bloem and Magalies Water to keep water delivery.

The Department is concerned about what would happen if Bloem and Magalies Water end up in a similar financial situation as Sedibeng Water, and if the current trend of municipalities not paying for water services continues, Bloem and Magalies Water will end up in the same situation as Sedibeng Water in the future. All the assets and debt and liabilities of Sedibeng were transferred to Bloem and Magalies Water and there was no money given to them because Water Boards are supposed to be financially self-sustainable. 

National Treasury has defined responsibility for the BEP to the DWS and funding for sanitation infrastructure in metropolitan municipalities comes from the Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG), and the DWS is not allowed to use its WSIG and RBIG to allocate money to metropolitan municipalities. The DWS has the overall responsibility for the sanitation function, so while the grant for sanitation infrastructure for metropolitan municipalities is in the USDG under the DHS, the DWS has the overall responsibility for water and sanitation.

The DWS received Cabinet approval for a National Sanitation Framework, which clarifies that the bucket system is completely unacceptable and must be removed. The DWS is in the process of revising the minimum laws and standards of the Water Services Act, which will clarify that the bucket system is unacceptable and cannot be used as a form of sanitation in the municipalities. The other amendments in the Water Services Act will allow the Department the ability to take regulatory compliance actions against municipalities that still use the bucket system as some municipalities are still issuing buckets to newly formed informal settlements.

The Department does not refuse to pay companies because it does not want to pay them or because it wants to delay payment to them. The Department must ensure that the companies have done the work that they were tasked to do and that the work is done satisfactorily and that the invoices are in order before it can pay them. Sometimes the Department gets into disputes with suppliers because they over-claim or the work is not done properly incomplete.

If the Department pays the companies for the work that is unfinished or the inventor checks are not in order, then that payment will be regarded as irregular expenditure. The Department always tries to resolve disputes with companies amicably and it also assists the companies to resolve the issues, but sometimes this results in disagreements and ends up in court. Dr Phillips asked Ms Mohlala to send him the details of any individual cases that she may have, and he will investigate the individual cases and revert to her on the progress and merit of the issues.

On the roll-overs regarding the BEP, he said the Department would not shift funds into other programmes but it was asking Treasury for a roll-over because it had the money contractually committed but the projects are moving slower than expected, so if the roll-over is approved, the money will be used to complete the project. if Treasury does not approve the roll-over, the Department will have to repurpose money meant for other projects to complete the BEP.

The Department is in the process of amending the National Water Act and the Bill was gazetted for public consultation. The Department is reviewing the comments and will refer the final bill to Cabinet for approval for submission to Parliament. There are relative amendments in the Amendment Bill that will enable the Department to be in a better position to take action to try and achieve transformation targets regarding water use rights. When the target was initially formulated, it was done under consideration that the amendments would have been completed, but they have just been submitted to Parliament and the originally considered regulations would have been done in terms of the amended Act. The Department has been able to issue regulations in terms of another part of the Act and it has issued draft regulations for public comment.

The Giyani Project is fully funded and is being done in phases, so perhaps people did not understand that because when all phases of the project are completed, it will have reached all 55 villages.

Mr Moatshe said the R773 million on the roll-overs is the total unspent for the payments for capital assets allocation, but only R723 million qualified met the requirements set by Treasury. The Department will receive the outcome of the application for the roll-over during the Mid-Term Budget Adjustment. There were also discrepancies noted by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) with the invoices at KZN, so they had to be returned. There were protests, but the service provider complied eventually. It was not a deliberate act by the Department to not pay them by the end of the financial year, but it was adhering to the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) requirements.

Regarding the water treatment plants referred to under irregular expenditure, the Department was referring to historic Giyani cases and not the temporary functioning water treatment plant, which the Department will provide feedback to the Committee on.

Ms Nthabiseng Fundakubi, DDG: Corporate Support Services, DWS, said there was no investigation conducted by the Department on the package treatment plant.

Ms Manyakanyaka said the Master Plan was published in 2018 and it is a document that contains several activities including infrastructure schemes. The Department has been updating certain parts of the document, but it is going to do an overhaul of the entire document to review the Master Plan and publish an updated version.

There are three infrastructure build programmes that contribute to job opportunities in the Department, and Mr Tseki only saw one component of it, which was infrastructure development. Operations and maintenance also contribute to that, and the bulk infrastructure grants also contribute to it. The 185 job opportunities were the total number that was contributed by the one component of infrastructure development. On RBIG, 872 job opportunities were created through the implementation of RBIP infrastructure projects in the financial year.

Regarding the Chairperson’s comment on the Department’s presentation of its under-achievements, she said slide 22 of the presentation reflects the level of underperformance, and the subsequent slide provides the details of the number of projects that the Department planned to achieve as well as the reasons why some of the targets were not met. There are a total of 10 798 bucket systems that the Department plans to eradicate, of which 10 202 are in the Free State, and 596 are in the Northern Cape.

Mr Moatshe said a total of R2.2 billion was invested in KZN, R738 million was for the Water Board, RBIG was R463 million, and R1 billion for water services, so there is an effort to develop infrastructure within the region. Over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), that will work out to above R5 billion.

Ms Tseke did not hear the response to the question raised by the Chairperson regarding the grant allocation and expenditure of provinces. She said the budget of the Department is above R70 billion, but the number of job opportunities created by the Department did not reflect that unless they did not provide a consolidated number for the Committee.

She said the numbers for consolidated procurement from designated groups by the Department were very low and that is unacceptable and suggested that the Department partner with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) to reach more companies owned by young people. The Department must change its strategy and find new ways to employ young people. She said the young people who were involved in the War on Leaks projects are still at home and seeking employment and asked the Department to be innovative in creating jobs for youth. She said a lot of money was disbursed in the building of the package plant, so it should not be left in its current state without any investigations being conducted.

The Chairperson said there must be a differentiation between members asking questions and making statements, for example, it could not be expected that the Department would respond to Ms Tseke’s statement that the package plant must be investigated. It was a demand that the investigation must be done. The Minister had responded to the War on Leaks matter in the last meeting and stated that the intention of sending the young people to university was to ensure that they will be readily available to solve leakages in municipalities when required. The Department must answer the Committee on when they might absorb the youth in projects or if they will not absorb them and the reasons for that.

Mr Basson said if the Department does not resolve the issue of municipalities not paying their water debts, they will be setting Bloem and Magalies Water up for failure. There must be something done by the Department and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) to help the Water Boards to survive.

Ms Mohlala said the non-payment of contractors by the Department that she was talking about was the 2019 issue where someone wrote to the Committee saying that they were not paid by the Department and the issue was raised in Parliament but there was no solution. The person wrote another email to the Committee to say they still have the problem.

The Chairperson said the DG had asked Ms Mohlala to refer those matters to him off the record instead of dealing with the specific issue in the meeting. He asked her to send those matters to the DG and then the Committee would get a response to them in the next meeting.

Ms Mohlala said she will send the information to the DG and emphasised that the image of the Department should not be sanitised because these were issues from the 5th Administration, since 2014. She also asked for clarity regarding a DDG who was appointed irregularly by the Department.

Dr Phillips said the package plant in question was built by the Tshwane District Municipality using MIG money, which is provided by COGTA and not the DWS, so the matter can be referred to COGTA. The young people who were employed for the War on Leaks programme were trained to repair leaks on taps in households and there are no jobs at the municipal level for the Department to employ them. The biggest leaks are in the municipal and district systems, and they are large pipes that require heavy construction equipment and huge amounts of money to dig out the pipes and replace them. There were efforts to work with COGTA and MISA to get municipalities to employ the War on Leaks youth, but the municipalities refused because they said it is not their function to repair leaking taps within private households.

He agreed with Mr Basson that municipalities not paying for water was a big problem and the AGSA reported that one in four municipalities are in doubt in terms of whether they can continue because their financial situation is bad. The problem is not only with Magalies and Bloem Water, but the Department is concerned about the sustainability of the entire water board sector. The Minister has written to all the water services authorities and to the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) saying that the Department intends to strengthen its credit control by standardising credit control across all the Water Boards.

National Treasury is also willing to work with the Department to withhold conditional grants if municipalities do not pay Water Boards. Some of the Water Boards will start pushing bulk prepaid meetings if municipalities do not pay, and these are the draconian measures that the Department will implement to enforce credit control. The measures are draconian, but the alternative is more Water Boards failing and the difficulty is that many municipalities are in a dire financial state.

Ms Fundakubi explained that it was not a DDG who was appointed irregularly, but it was a Deputy Director in Limpopo, and it was still in the books of the Department because it was an irregular appointment. It will continue to be in the Department’s books until it is condoned by National Treasury, but disciplinary actions were taken against those who were implicated where one was given a three-month suspension without pay and the other was given a final written warning.

Mr Moatshe said the slides on the RBIG and WSIG performance per province only reflected the amounts transferred to the provinces and slides 36 and 37 only referred to where the Department is directly responsible for the acquisition or constriction of water and sanitation infrastructure. Given another opportunity, the Department can reflect information on the actual spending of the provinces.

Deputy Minister Tshabalala said the RBIG and WSIG funds will not be able to solve all the challenges faced by municipalities and added that she does not have information on the effectiveness of the DDM and its intervention. However, the DWS submitted some concerns to the Presidency regarding service delivery constraints within the sector, including the financial and service delivery sustainability and the deteriorating administration. The debt that is owed by municipalities to Water Boards requires serious intervention, especially from the DDM.

The Blue Drop and Green Drop also indicate the declining performance of drinking water portable systems in the municipalities and that is where the Minister can intervene to provide support, but in poor-performing municipalities and districts, this is an issue that the Department needs to provide sustainable solutions.

The amendments to the Water Services Act are meant to strengthen the role of the municipalities to help the Minister to intervene effectively and to introduce legal requirements that water services should only be provided by water service authorities/entities. Entities or municipalities that do not have water provision licenses will not qualify to provide water. The Minister may also enforce the creation of a water services function as a last resort for municipalities that consistently fail to provide water.

The Chairperson thanked the Department for its presentation on its fourth quarter performance and allowed a five-minute break.

Update on the Cholera outbreak and upgrade of Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works

Deputy Minister Tshabalala thanked the Committee for inviting the Department to update it on the cholera outbreak especially because it is currently affecting people badly. The Department is ensuring that the correct checks and balances are done in overseeing the response by the district in addressing the outbreak. She relayed the Department’s sincere condolences to the families of those who have died because of cholera in Hammanskraal.

The Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works in Hammanskraal does not have sufficient capacity to deal with the amount of sewage flowing into it and has not been well-maintained for many years. The inadequate effluent from the Rooiwal Waste Water (sewage) Treatment Works is polluting the Apies River which flows into the Leeukraal Dam from which water is abstracted by the City’s Temba Water Treatment Works, which provides water to Hammanskraal residents. The Temba Water Treatment Works is supposed to clean the raw water abstracted from the dam and treat it so that it is fit for human consumption.

However, the water in the dam is so polluted that the Temba Water Treatment Works is not able to treat the water such that it meets the required standards for drinking water. Hence the people of Hammanskraal have not been having a reliable or safe supply of drinking water for many years. Over the years, DWS took numerous regulatory actions (non-compliance notices and directives) against the city for it to stop the pollution of water resources in the area from its Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Works. Since 2019, the Department has been engaged in legal action against the City for a court order to instruct the City to address the issue.

On 26 May the Minister and Mayor agreed that:

-DWS and the City will partner together to jointly manage a project to fix the Rooiwal WWTW in Hammanskraal.

-Tshwane will contribute a portion of its USDG allocations (they will be seeking Council approval for R450 million to be approved over the MTEF).

-National Treasury will be requested to supplement these allocations to enable the project to be fully implemented.

-A competent independent implementing agent will be appointed to manage implementation – the DBSA.

-DWS and the City will form a joint technical steering committee to oversee the project.

Dr Phillips said it is possible that the cholera outbreak which started in Hammanskraal in Tshwane is related to the pollution of water sources in the area from the Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works. An investigation is underway into the source or sources of the cholera outbreak. Technical teams from the Department of Water and Sanitation, and the provincial and national Department of Health as well as relevant municipalities are carrying out water quality tests at distribution points and at water treatment works in areas in Hammanskraal where people have become infected. Cholera has not yet been identified through the tests.

The WRC also commissioned a verification of the DWS and CoT tests as well as independent tests, the results of which should be available shortly. They are also engaged in tracking and tracing of infections. It is important to note that cholera is not only spread through polluted water – it is also spread through poor hygiene, eating contaminated food, or by coming into contact with the faeces of an infected person.

To date, the original source of the cholera infection has not been located. The city has warned the residents of Hammanskraal) not to drink the water from the Temba water treatment works (which is the water coming out of taps in Hammanskraal) and is supplying them with drinking water from tankers. The water tankers abstract water from Magalies Water and Rand Water sources, which are compliant with drinking water standards.

Mr Xolani Zwane, DDG: Regulation, Compliance and Enforcement, DWS, said considering the cholera outbreak, it is imperative that the repair and upgrade of the Rooiwal WWTW be dealt with as a matter of national urgency. DWS does not have voted funds to provide to Metros for water and sanitation as metropolitan municipalities are supposed to use a portion of their USDG grant to supplement their own budget allocations for water and sanitation.

DWS estimated the cost of full rehabilitation and upgrade of the Rooiwal WWTW over the next three financial years to be in the region of R4 billion. The project can be implemented in stages, with an emphasis on work to stop or reduce the pollution from Rooiwal in the early stages. The Mayor and the City have indicated that the City does not have the capacity on its own to address the sanitation challenges, nor does it have sufficient funds to address the challenges timeously on its own. The Mayor indicated that the City’s SCM processes are corrupted.

The Chairperson said if there is polluted water, then cholera will be the result. The Department cannot say cholera may be caused by something else when it was not there when the water was not polluted.

Discussion

Mr Basson thanked the Department for taking politics out of the whole situation because there are no politics in water. The Hammanskraal issue is a wake-up call for the Department and it could have happened anywhere. He liked the fact that the implementing agent in the agreement between the Department and Tshwane is the DBSA because that takes away all the politics and puts the people of the area first. The previous Mayors, regardless of their political parties were arrogant and it was good that the new Mayor of Tshwane decided to put politics aside. He was concerned that the cholera outbreak may be a ticking time bomb for the rest of the country and he unfortunately did not have the answers for that. He suggested that nanobubble technology could possibly assist in cleaning the water in the country.

Ms Mohlala said the pollution of water is a national issue and the Hammanskraal started over a decade ago. She said the same problem will occur all over the country if the Department does not take care of the people. It was known since 2004 that the people of Hammanskraal are drinking contaminated water, yet the Department is only showing concern now that there is a cholera outbreak. She said water pollution is everywhere in the country, yet the Department seems to be waiting for another cholera outbreak for it to act. The Department must take the people of the country seriously and ensure that it deals with issues before they become crises.

If the Green Drop report serves as an indicator for highlighting high levels of pollutants, why is it not used to ascertain future risks? What is the role of DBSA in assisting in the Hammanskraal crisis? How much are the costs submitted by the DBSA to address these issues? What is the track record of the DBSA in assisting water and sanitation in South Africa this far? Why is there no risk assessment and mitigating strategy that will comprise the timeframe to complete the work in Hammanskraal in the presentation?

The Chairperson said Mr Basson had said he was asked by the Department at some point to facilitate a meeting between the Department and Tshwane with the hope of intervening and on the eve of the meeting, Tshwane cancelled the meeting. Government has three spheres, and the national departments cannot just decide to work at the local government level without their consent. When the Department realised that Tshwane was not playing along, the provincial government was asked to put Tshwane under administration, but they intervened through section 139 before they could do section 154 and Tshwane went to court and won the case, thereby stopping the interventions from happening.  

Ms Mohlala interjected the Chairperson to ask when this happened.

The Chairperson asked her to give him a chance to finish his point.

Ms Mohlala said the Chairperson was responding to her, so she wanted to engage.

The Chairperson said she will be given a chance to speak later.

Ms Mohlala said the Chairperson was responding to her questions to the Department.

The Chairperson said Ms Mohlala did not ask questions but rather made political statements, so he was responding to those statements. The Department issued a directive to Tshwane in 2011, meaning it wanted to intervene in Tshwane since then. The Department was supposed to be in court with Tshwane on section 63, which would allow the national government to intervene, but the previous mayor took the Department to court. The new Mayor of Tshwane, Mr Cilliers Brink decided not to be political about dealing with issues of Tshwane. There is now an agreement between the Mayor and the MEC to work together, so Ms Mohlala was incorrect in saying that the government does not care, but there is a need for urgency in addressing matters.

Mr Tseki said the report from the Department said in March 2023, the Department received corrective action plans from municipalities for 168 of the 334 wastewater systems (i.e., a 50% response rate). 43 of the 90 municipalities requested support from the Department to develop corrective action plans. He said the Department should run with this because the intervention of the Department is very important. The presentation also says the original source of the cholera outbreak is yet to be located, but there is an understanding or an agreement from scientists and doctors that the cause of death is cholera, meaning the origins of the cholera are unknown.

He asked that the cholera outbreak be probed further because the source is unknown, yet people are being advised to not drink water. What will happen if cholera continues to be a problem after the intervention of Magalies Water? The presentation also says the mayor indicated that the city’s supply chain management (SCM) processes are corrupted. What is the Department doing to address the corruption and have the corrupt individuals been identified? The statement that says a competent independent implementing agent will be appointed to manage the implementation suggests that there is no competence within the Department currently.

The Deputy Minister mentioned several water tankers that are provided by the Department, but when Magalies starts working, the water tankers will be stopped from working. This is a concern because, to some individuals, this is a source of income. How will the Department mitigate against the risks of the tankers disrupting the new processes or demanding work from the Department?

The Chairperson asked if Mr Tseki wanted the Department to bribe criminals to not commit crimes by promising them a sustainable income. It is not the law that there should be water tankers to supply water, but they are sourced because of incidents, and when the incidents end, there should be no expectation for their continuous use.

Dr Phillips said it was not correct that the Department ignored the situation in Hammanskraal as it took serious regulatory actions against the City of Tshwane over the years, even going as far as instituting criminal charges. When the Human Rights Commission (HRC) did its report on the situation in Hammanskraal, the Department asked National Treasury for funds to give to the city to address its problems, and National Treasury refused because the city was already receiving funds through the USDG, of which it was underspending on. Treasury said Tshwane needed to use the money that was allocated to it for its intended purposes and then it needed to prioritise the upgrade of the USDG. The Department did not ignore the issues in Tshwane, but it tried to do everything it legally could within the legal framework.

Every time the Department is informed of a problem, it conducts probes to identify risks that may occur, for example, the wastewater risk avoidance planning which is part of the Green Drop requirements. The Department also tries to get municipalities to adopt this approach so that they can be aware of the risks associated with the poor management of their wastewater treatment systems. The Department also prioritised the wastewater treatment systems using MIG allocations for municipalities.

However, this has not been sufficient because despite the prioritisation, there are many instances where the Department provided grant funding to municipalities to fix and upgrade their wastewater treatment works, and after that is done, they deteriorate rapidly again. The Department is considering making reforms to the Water Services Act to introduce an operating license system for water service providers and water service authorities to ensure that they meet the required norms and standards.

DBSA’s role is to be the implementing agent of the project, meaning Tshwane will transfer the money allocated to its USDG to the unit in the DBSA that will be responsible for the implementation of projects in municipalities and government Departments to assist with the delivery of infrastructure projects. The DBSA might also lend money to the project, but they will be the main implementing agent on behalf of the government. Their track record as an implementing agent is good as they assisted the Department in several projects in the past.

The use of the word ‘competent; came from Tshwane because, in the discussions between the Minister and the Mayor, the Mayor publicly stated that the city does not have the capable capacity to implement a project of this size. The city insisted that the Department ensures that it appoints a competent independent implementing agent for the project. The role of the implementing agent will be to receive all the funding for the project and to do all the necessary procurement and appointments of the contractors, engineers, etc., that are needed for the project.

Ms Mohlala said it was disappointing that the Department was defending something that it did not need to defend. The Committee was told that the DDM is the panacea of everything between the spheres of government, and the Committee thought the DDM would assist the Department in doing its work. However, the Committee was now told that there were challenges with municipalities, and the issue of the coalition government started in 2015 but before then, the ruling party was the ANC in Tshwane in all three spheres of government. It was disappointing to hear that the ANC in Tshwane was defying the ANC in the national government. She said the entire country is collapsing and people are drinking water with faeces and the cholera outbreak will spread across the country.

Mr Tseki agreed with the Chairperson on the issue of tankers and said he was speaking realistically on the risks that exist.

The Chairperson said Mr Tseki was right, but his questions were posed to the wrong people as it was unfair of him to pose political questions to administrators. The South African system had a separation of powers and local government does what it wants in terms of delivering water to the people, the national Department gives them raw water to distribute to communities, so when the local municipalities do not do their work, it is not the fault of the national Department.  

Deputy Minister’s concluding remarks

Deputy Minister Tshabalala said water is a sensitive topic because it is important for the livelihoods of people. She thanked Mr Basson for the comment on the commitment of the Minister to remove politics in water issues. Pointing fingers was not going to help because people have died, and the country is in shock because no one knows where the cholera comes from. It does not matter who did what in the past, what matters is the milestone that has been achieved in the City of Tshwane to decide to put politics aside and deal with the current problems. She went to a community next to Stuurman and found that neighbours drank water from the same source and in one household, some died, and some were hospitalised, but in the other household, everyone was completely fine, so no one knows where the disease comes from, and the authorities should be allowed to do their job.

The Chairperson thanked the Deputy Minister and the Department for the update on the cholera outbreak.

Consideration and adoption of minutes

The Committee considered the minutes of the 30th of May 2023.

Mr Tseki moved for the adoption of the minutes and was seconded by Ms M Pietersen (ANC)

The Committee considered the minutes of the 6th of June 2023.

Ms Tseke moved for the adoption of the minutes and was seconded by Mr Tseki.

The meeting was adjourned.