Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina has emphasised that water is no longer a sectoral issue that can be treated as a routine service delivery function, warning that it has become a binding constraint on economic growth.
Delivering a keynote address during a Ministerial webinar on Friday to track progress on the 2025 Water and Sanitation Indaba resolutions, Majodina said that South Africa’s water crisis now poses a direct threat to development and human well-being.
Held under the theme: “Tracking Progress and Strengthening Partnerships for Sustainable Water and Sanitation Delivery”, the webinar served as the first structured national platform to assess implementation of the Indaba resolutions.
It brought together national and provincial government, municipalities, water entities, business, labour, civil society, and sector partners to confront the sector’s deep and persistent challenges.
Majodina said the Indaba was designed as a “turning point” to move the sector away from prolonged discussions towards practical implementation.
"Its purpose was to identify practical, implementable solutions to the infrastructure backlogs, governance weaknesses, financial instability, technical capacity deficits, criminality, corruption, and underinvestment that continue to undermine water and sanitation delivery in South Africa.
“The message from that Indaba was unmistakable: the era of endless discussion had to give way to the era of delivery,” Majodina said.
Citing the latest national assessments, the Minister painted a stark picture of the sector’s condition, with nearly half of the country’s water supply systems failing to meet required standards, while about 64% of wastewater treatment works are in a critical state.
In addition, close to 47% of water is lost before reaching communities due to leaks, poor maintenance, ageing infrastructure and operational failures.
“In a water-scarce country such as ours, that is not simply inefficiency, it is unacceptable,” the Minister said.
Majodina stressed that the crisis is not only technical but rooted in governance failures, including institutional weakness, delayed maintenance, poor planning, weak revenue collection and in too many cases, a lack of accountability.
Majodina noted that water shortages affect key sectors, including agriculture, mining, manufacturing, housing development, and investor confidence.
“Water security is national security,” the Minister said, calling for the issue to be treated with the same seriousness as energy security and economic reform.
She said communities are suffering not because we do not know what must be done, but due to institutions failure do what they are required to do.
“Many are failing due to poor planning, a lack of preventative maintenance, weak financial management, poor billing and revenue collection, and, in some instances, the misuse of funds,” she said.
Majodina warned that where municipalities cannot deliver, government will intervene decisively, adding that accountability is “no longer optional, it is non-negotiable”.
She outlined five key priorities emerging from the 2025 Indaba, including the need to adopt fit-for-purpose delivery models, improve financial sustainability, strengthen technical capacity, deepen partnerships and intensify the fight against corruption and criminality.
On investment and financial viability, the Minister said the sector is financially unsustainable in many areas due to poor revenue collection, a culture of non-payment, weak billing systems and the misallocation of grants, which have created a cycle of collapse.
“No money means no maintenance, no maintenance means no reliability, and no reliability means no service delivery,” she said, emphasising the enforcement of financial discipline.
She also highlighted the importance of partnerships with civil society and the private sector.
Collaboration with law enforcement
The Minister said efforts to combat corruption and vandalism will be intensified, with collaboration with law enforcement, strengthen consequence management and advance the work of the anti-corruption forum in the sector.
“Corruption, theft, illegal connections, vandalism and procurement abuse are not side issues. They are actively destroying the sector, drain scarce resources, undermine delivery and rob poor communities of dignity,” the Minister said.
She said the webinar programme would include progress reports from all nine provinces, aimed at identifying challenges, sharing best practices and strengthening implementation.
“Let us fix what is broken, restore what has failed, defeat corruption, dysfunction, and indifference. The time for action is now,” Majodina said. – SAnews.gov.za
