Water anti-corruption forum seeks party pledge as SA heads into local elections

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