Ramaphosa threatens one group of South Africans with criminal charges

President Cyril Ramaphosa said the national government is prepared to crack the whip when it comes to municipalities’ role in exacerbating South Africa’s water crisis.

He laid the blame for the water crisis largely at the local government’s feet, saying a lack of maintenance and decades of neglect have landed South Africa in this dire situation.

The President said the national government will step in where municipalities are found lacking in their water-provision duties, which could include laying criminal charges against municipal managers.

Ramaphosa made these comments in response to a question raised by the DA’s George Michalakis at a recent National Assembly meeting.

Michalakis had asked the President about his announcement made in the 2026 State of the Nation Address regarding the establishment of a National Water Crisis Committee.

Specifically, he asked what steps Ramaphosa has taken to ensure that the committee’s recommendations are implemented in municipalities facing water crises.

In response, the President plainly stated that “the main causes of the water crisis are at a local government level”, making interventions at the municipal level critical to address the problem.

“Maintenance of municipal water and sanitation infrastructure has been neglected in many municipalities over decades,” Ramaphosa said. 

“There is therefore a huge backlog for the repair and refurbishment of water services.”

He noted that the crisis is not solely on municipalities, with the situation also exacerbated by a lack of capacity, organised crime, widespread theft of water infrastructure, corruption, and illegal connections.

However, the President made it clear that municipal mismanagement will no longer be tolerated, with the national government prepared to step in where needed.

“Where necessary, existing powers outlined in the Constitution, the National Water Act and the Water Services Act will be used to intervene in municipalities that fail to meet their obligations or to implement corrective measures,” he said.

“This includes laying criminal charges against municipalities or municipal managers for contravening the requirements of the National Water Act.”

“Where necessary, national government will assume responsibility for water services in municipalities which fail to discharge their service delivery obligations.”

Slow progress

The Bureau for Economic Research’s Impumelelo Economic Growth Lab recently introduced a new reform barometer to track whether structural reforms are translating into measurable improvements in the economy.

One set of reforms tracked is those in the water sector, with the Impumelelo Economic Growth Lab’s Rose Murunzi and Roy Havemann describing progress as “slow”.

They explained that while water sector reforms continued to progress at the policy and regulatory level, service delivery outcomes at the municipal level remain weak.

“Widespread noncompliance, high non-revenue water, and a growing maintenance backlog highlight the persistent gap between reform progress and the reality on the ground,” they said.

Concerningly, they pointed out that this deterioration is prevalent across provinces and municipalities, rather than “isolated pockets of failure”.

“The core of critical and poor scores signals structural governance, funding and accountability failures within the local water sector,” they explained.

This, they said, raises serious concerns about service reliability, economic resilience and public health if corrective action is not accelerated.

While South Africa’s water crisis can be attributed to a confluence of factors, many experts agree that one of the largest contributors is local government failures.

For example, in Johannesburg, SA Water Chamber CEO Benoit Le Roy said the city’s sporadic water shortages are mostly the result of deteriorating municipal infrastructure, with local mismanagement undermining good work done by bulk supplier Rand Water.

“Johannesburg is in a very difficult situation. There are two issues. The first is that there is no problem with the bulk supplier, Rand Water, neither in December nor now,” Le Roy said.

“Rand Water is still abstracting more than its permitted licence under a special resolution from the Water Minister because it simply cannot satisfy the excessive demand from the metros, principally Johannesburg and Tshwane.”

“The reason it can’t meet it is that the water systems of those metros are leaking profusely at 25% to 35% physical leaks.”

Le Roy explained that this is because the systems have not been upgraded and maintained over the past 30 to 40 years.