OPINION| Johannesburg water crisis reveals shortfalls in delivering on socio-economic rights

By Josh Silbert

Municipalities have been continuously constrained by inadequate human resources, lack of skills, scarce finances, years of neglect and corruption.

South Africa is renowned internationally for its legislation on socio-economic rights, yet its government is also condemned domestically for its persistent failings.

South Africans are guaranteed a progressive diversity of rights by both the constitution and the body of international rights frameworks to which the country belongs.

Despite this, socio-economic rights have been systematically disregarded.

Most recently, Johannesburg has been facing severe water shortages.

Some residents have gone without water for almost three months and 86-hour cutoffs were planned over the December 2024 holiday period. Concurrently, Johannesburg is struggling with ongoing sewage contamination issues and increasing service delivery protests.

The responsibility for these failings largely lies with the municipal and national governments. The national government, which plays a key facilitative role, often opts for supervision and overregulation over adequate support.

Likewise, the municipal government’s mandate positions it as the practical dissemination point for services. Yet despite their importance, municipalities have been continuously constrained by inadequate human resources, lack of skills, scarce finances, years of neglect and corruption.

High rates of vacancies, extensive turnover and short-term contracts plague municipalities. Municipal offices too often lack the staffing necessary to function cohesively, seriously constraining their operations.

Moreover, in a survey conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council, 74.6% of municipal workers felt that vacancies strongly affected the performance of the municipality, which was the greatest consensus on any factor.

Even among employed workers on long-term contracts, serious skills challenges plague operations.

In the same study of municipal workers, many respondents indicated that cadre deployment (the placing of politically connected individuals in key strategic positions) had led bureaucratic leadership to be ineffective, unethical and uncollaborative.

When surveyed, one participant said, “You appoint