Staff Reporter
A water-sector anti-corruption forum has called for political parties to sign a public ethics pledge on clean procurement and accountable governance, raising the stakes around water and sanitation failures ahead of the November 4 local government elections.
The proposal emerged from a high-level roundtable convened by WaterCAN, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the Water Integrity Network (WIN) this week, as corruption, infrastructure collapse and weak municipal governance deepen public anger over failing basic services.
“Accountability cannot rest with oversight institutions alone,” said Dr Ferrial Adam, of WaterCAN. “Communities, civil society, business and ethical public servants must be brought much closer to the systems where decisions are made, and money is spent.”
The roundtable brought together representatives from civil society, academia and business, as well as senior officials from the Department of Water and Sanitation, the SIU, the Auditor-General of South Africa and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
It was held against the backdrop of the newly established Water Sector Anti-Corruption Forum, a sector-specific platform intended to tackle corruption in the water sector through a “whole of society” approach.
Participants said corruption in water and sanitation should not be treated only as a law-enforcement problem, but must also be tackled through prevention, ethical procurement, public oversight, whistleblower protection and pressure from communities, civil society and business.
A central focus of the meeting was the need to improve oversight across the full procurement cycle, including the pre-procurement, procurement and post-procurement phases, where corruption risks often emerge.
Participants proposed procurement and service-delivery social audits, drawing on existing research by institutions including the Public Affairs Research Institute, as a practical mechanism for community and civil society oversight.
The forum also warned that policy developments, including the Local Government White Paper and procurement reforms, should be closely monitored to ensure they do not weaken transparency, accountability or consequence-management mechanisms.
The business sector committed to taking a more visible role in promoting ethical conduct and transparency in the water value chain, with the forum proposing a dedicated business roundtable to strengthen private-sector participation in anti-corruption work.
Other proposed steps include expanding the stakeholder platform to include more civil society organisations, professional bodies, researchers and community structures, as well as small-town pilot projects, localised roundtables, stronger whistleblower protection and public education campaigns.
WaterCAN, WIN, the SIU and participating stakeholders will now develop a civil society and business action plan focused on prevention, oversight and accountability in the water and sanitation sectors.
The plan is expected to include awareness and capacity-building work to help communities, researchers, civil society organisations, professional bodies and businesses monitor procurement, identify corruption risks and participate more effectively in oversight processes.
Stakeholders also committed to working with the Water Sector Anti-Corruption Forum’s Prevention Committee to feed the roundtable’s recommendations into wider anti-corruption initiatives in the sector.
Participants said the forum would explore a public ethics and anti-corruption pledge for political parties, calling on them to commit to transparent governance, ethical leadership, clean procurement and decisive action against corruption in water and sanitation.
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