By Lebone Rodah Mosima
WaterCAN has called on every political party negotiating a municipal coalition to sign and publish binding commitments to protect water revenue, restore reliable water supplies and hold municipal leaders accountable for missed targets.
WaterCAN executive director Dr Ferrial Adam said coalition talks should be judged by what they deliver for residents.
She warned that negotiations in Johannesburg risked becoming an exercise in horse-trading over political positions and influence, even as the decisions being made could determine whether the city recovers.
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“If parties can agree on who gets the mayor’s office, they can agree on who will fix the pipes, when the work will be done and how it will be paid for,” Adam said.
“Every party that signs a coalition agreement must answer for whether households get safe, reliable water. That responsibility belongs to the whole executive.”
Adam questioned whether the city and its residents were getting the attention they deserved at the negotiating table.
She said smaller parties could play a legitimate and important role in coalitions by holding larger parties to account. Parties whose votes determine who governs should use their leverage to secure clear service-delivery commitments and hold their coalition partners accountable.
WaterCAN called on incoming mayoral committees and executive committees to include five key commitments in their coalition agreements, budgets and performance plans.
These include ring-fencing water revenue and ending the practice of transferring money from water service accounts into general municipal accounts to fund unrelated spending.
Municipalities should also publish monthly figures showing how much water revenue was collected, transferred and spent on operations, maintenance and infrastructure.
The organisation wants municipalities to publish funded infrastructure repair plans covering immediate repairs, medium-term maintenance backlogs and long-term infrastructure replacement programmes.
These plans should identify the officials responsible for each project, alongside budgets, deadlines and progress reports.
WaterCAN further called for verified overdue contractor invoices to be settled, payment schedules to be published and firm dates to be provided for work to resume on stalled projects.
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Municipalities should also ensure that current invoices are paid on time to prevent further delays to repairs and infrastructure upgrades.
On equitable access to water, the organisation called for municipalities to work with residents in underserved communities, including Nana’s Farm and Orange Farm, to develop funded plans for reliable water access.
Municipalities should publish dates for permanent improvements and specify where and when safe interim water supplies would be available.
The fifth commitment called for measurable targets to reduce non-revenue water, with every metro and municipality responsible for water services required to publish its current figures, set annual reduction targets and report quarterly on progress.
WaterCAN said these targets should address leaks, burst pipes and metering and billing failures. Reduction measures should not target informal settlements first, but should instead prioritise major water users.
Missed targets should trigger public explanations, corrective plans with deadlines and reviews of the performance of responsible officials.
Where negligence or persistent underperformance is established, municipalities should take action through disciplinary or performance management processes.
The demands come as municipalities prepare to establish new councils following the 4 November local government elections.
Joint guidelines issued by the Department of Cooperative Governance (DCoG), National Treasury and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) set out measures for coalition agreements, administrative handovers and governance continuity.
The guidelines, signed on 30 September, were issued against the backdrop of a local government environment characterised by financial instability, infrastructure challenges and political uncertainty.
WaterCAN said Gauteng was at the centre of municipal coalition talks and faced an unprecedented man-made water crisis across its municipalities.
It called on incoming mayoral committees and executive committees to publish clear timetables for restoring water supplies and completing repairs, with open and transparent processes that include regular engagements with the public and civil society.
Adam also called on every coalition partner to commit to a skills audit of all municipal water and sanitation departments.
She said incoming executives should immediately fill critical vacancies with qualified staff through permanent appointments and set firm deadlines to end acting arrangements in those positions.
“As civil society and the public, we have our work cut out for us. There are some good councillors coming in, but we’re still operating within an electoral system that leaves residents with very little leverage between elections. We must engage councillors, demand commitments and hold them accountable. Their job doesn’t end once they’ve secured our votes,” Adam said.
WaterCAN called on incoming municipal executives to table the commitments at their first council meetings and make them public, giving residents clear benchmarks against which to hold them accountable from day one.
