The People’s Water Forum supports Friday’s community protests in Melville and their calls for full accountability from the City of Johannesburg
JOHANNESBURG – The People’s Water Forum (PWF) stands in solidarity with residents of whose suburbs are supplied by the Commando System. They will protest on Friday, 7:00–9:00 AM, at the corner of Beyers Naude and 4th Avenue, Melvile over an ongoing water outage linked to breakdowns at the Crosby pumping station.
But the PWF is clear that this is not an isolated local incident. It is the latest visible symptom of a much deeper financial crisis at the City of Johannesburg that is actively preventing Johannesburg Water from doing its job.
A broken promise on ring-fencing
Too often the City of Johannesburg has blamed outside factors for its poor financial management. These excuses have ranged from blaming the national government, the homeless, undocumented and foreign nationals, the weather, the private sector, informal settlements – a series of unfortunate events of bad luck.
However evidence obtained by our partners reveals that this deliberate attempt to undermine residents’ lived experience, is far from the truth.
On 1 July, the City began ring-fencing revenue for Johannesburg Water, with promises of similar reforms to follow for Pikitup and City Power. In practice, the City emptied the relevant account from 30 June and only began transferring money to Johannesburg Water on 9 July. As of mid-July, roughly 75% of the previous financial year’s invoices remained unpaid, with the total owed to creditors sitting at approximately R1.8 billion.
National Treasury’s equitable share grant, which had been withheld from 64 municipalities nationally to pressure them into paying state-owned entities, was eventually released, but instead of reaching Johannesburg Water, it was used to settle the City’s bulk supply accounts with Rand Water and Eskom.
Johannesburg Water has since received only around R400 million in small, inconsistent installments. This is far short of what is needed to maintain operations, especially since they cannot use current-year revenue to settle prior-year debt.
Infrastructure projects stalled as workers go unpaid
The consequences are visible across the city. Reservoir projects, including Hursthill, Crosby, Blue Hills, and the Kaalfontein dual-reservoir development, have stalled because contractors are not being paid. Workers on the Crosby project have reportedly gone unpaid for four months and recently protested outside Johannesburg Water’s own offices. Some of the delays now run up to eight months behind projects’ original completion targets.
At Blue Hills, the City has yet to even complete a valuation or geological survey of the land earmarked for a new reservoir, despite reservoir completion originally being targeted for July.
City Power’s reduced operations budget has forced the scrapping of roughly 19 projects this financial year including upgrades to the Eikenhof and Crosby power infrastructure that would prevent the repeated tripping responsible for pumping failures and resulting water outages.
Downstream, the Johannesburg Roads Agency has said it cannot afford asphalt to reinstate roads after water leaks and burst pipes, and City-wide non-payment has reportedly left some Johannesburg Water staff without functioning work phones to coordinate repair callouts.
Where is the money going?
The City’s revenue collection has reportedly improved, yet Johannesburg Water and other City entities remain unpaid. The City is also understood to owe billions historically through the “sweeping” account, with roughly R4 billion still outstanding and no confirmed commitment from the City to settle it. The City has claimed a R2 billion surplus in the last financial year while simultaneously owing a similar amount to Pikitup.
Capital project funding is overwhelmingly dependent on grants and loans as the City’s own direct contribution to its capital budget was only R300 million. This means that any delay or diversion of grant funding brings infrastructure work to a halt. The PWF is seeking clarity on:
- the City’s outstanding obligations to SARS, including tax and UIF liabilities, and
- the criteria used to determine which contractors are paid and when (a process residents and officials alike say lacks transparency).
This both a transparency and a financial failure
The City is legally required to publish regular Section 71 financial reports, the primary public mechanism for tracking municipal financial performance. These reports have not been kept up to date, leaving residents, civil society and journalists unable to hold the City to account with current information.
The Mayor has estimated the City’s cash coverage ratio at around 15 days; the PWF believes the real figure may be lower still which is well short of the 30-to-90-day range considered financially healthy for a municipality of this size.
A Warning Ahead of Summer
With South Africa heading into a strong El Niño period and the associated risk of drought, the PWF is concerned that a system already this compromised will not withstand additional stress in the months ahead. Without urgent intervention, outages like the one Melville and Parktown West residents are protesting on Friday risk becoming more frequent and more severe.
What We Are Demanding
- Immediate, verifiable payment of outstanding amounts owed to Johannesburg Water, with a clear, public schedule for further disbursements
- Full transparency on ring-fencing arrangements between the City and Johannesburg Water, including a written agreement on how funds will flow going forward
- Immediate publication of up-to-date Section 71 financial reports, as legally required
- A transparent, published process for how contractors are selected and paid
- Protection of critical water infrastructure budgets from further cuts, including power upgrades at Eikenhof and Crosby
- Accountability, including removal from office where warranted, for officials responsible for the City’s financial mismanagement
- Rigorous, independent scrutiny of any privatisation proposals raised ahead of the local government elections, rather than treating private-sector involvement as a ready-made solution
The PWF will continue to track and publicise the City’s financial commitments and will support residents, across all affected suburbs, who are demanding the water services they are entitled to and already paying for.
About the People’s Water Forum: The People’s Water Forum is a civil society coalition of residents’ associations and community groups across Johannesburg working to hold the City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Water accountable for reliable water service delivery.
For media inquiries, interviews, or further comment, please contact:
Jonathan Erasmus
073 227 6075
media@watercan.org.za
OR
Josh Nel
079 252 5476
joshnel285@gmail.com