The National Treasury has agreed to withhold equitable share allocations for specific municipalities who refuse to repay debts owed to water boards, water & sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina says.
The move comes as municipalities across the country owe water boards a combined R22bn that threatens the solvency of two of them, Vaal Central and Magalies, which face bankruptcy in the next 12 months.
The country’s 278 municipalities are entitled to an equitable share of revenue raised nationally to enable it to provide basic services. The size of municipal equitable share is decided through the national budget process.
“We have agreed with the National Treasury that where municipalities don’t want to pay, the Treasury will withhold its equitable share up until they pay their current invoices,” Majodina said.
She was speaking at a media briefing after a meeting between the Gauteng government, Rand Water, the DWS and city of Joburg officials.
The department has previously identified nonpayment by municipalities as a risk to the sustainability of six out of the country’s seven water boards, stating that the outstanding debt hinders their ability to sustain water infrastructure, given that they do not receive direct funding from the state.
The water sector is one which is targeted by the Treasury’s efforts to draw in private sector participation.
“We don’t want to go to the extent of water shedding,” Majodina said.
For Rand Water, which provides services to municipalities in Gauteng, parts of Mpumalanga, the Free State and North West provinces, municipalities owed it a combined R7.3bn, board chairperson Ramateu Monyokolo said.
The debts however excluded Gauteng metros Joburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.
Joburg is however scheduled to begin water restrictions from November 14 until its water supply issues have fully recovered. The lack of water supply in the metro has forced the Constitutional Court to halt physical or in-court case hearings since the start of the month.
“The exact cause of the ongoing irregular water supply challenge is not known, although it appears to be generalised in the Hillbrow area where the court is located. Water leaks in the court’s water system were also detected, which further impacted water supply in the court,” the court said in a statement.
During water restriction period, the taps will not run dry but the water pressure is expected to be low.
“Johannesburg Water presented the implementable measure which includes, among others, throttling of water supply between 9pm and 4am. This is in line with our restriction on level one to enable the reservoirs to recover overnight,” Majodina said.
“If they don’t do that the reservoirs will not be able to fill up. So, we’re doing that overnight. The city intends to implement this continuously from November 14 until the system is fully recovered.”
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