9 July 2025

The ANC-led government guarantees fully functional, capable, and active water and sanitation institutions that deliver quality basic services to all South Africans as enshrined in our progressive and rights-based democratic constitution.

House Chairperson

Honourable Minister Pemmy Majodina

Deputy Ministers Mr David Mahlobo and Mr Sello Seitlholo

Honourable Members

The African National Congress, in this august house, wishes to declare its support for the budget vote, as tabled by the Minister for Water and Sanitation, the honourable Majodina.

We recognise the challenges facing the water and sanitation sector, which include, among others, the need for increased funding and the restoration of functionality for the water service authorities to operate effectively and provide water and sanitation services as per the department’s norms and standards.

However, we are confident in the budget and the departmental plans and, in particular, the commitment by the ANC-led government to prioritise restoring the functionality while also building the capacity and capabilities of public entities to deliver on the mandate of providing quality basic services to all South Africans as enshrined in our progressive and rights-based democratic constitution.

The ANC acknowledges the department’s efforts to merge the Water Trading Entity and the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority, paving the way for the creation of the National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency. This agency will function as a crucial tool to stimulate significantly more investment in water projects, encompassing financing and investment in raw water infrastructure projects.

As the ANC in this august house, we will ensure that the establishment is completed as per the timeframe announced by President Ramaphosa. As a country, we need this important public entity in the water and sanitation sector not only to drive infrastructure development but also to achieve the government’s strategic objectives of eradicating poverty and ensuring sustainable and equitable development, which includes promoting fundamental transformation of the water sector.

Honourable Chairperson, as part of steps towards the transformation of the water sector, the department is in a process to amend the National Water Act as a mechanism to provide for the equitable and sustainable use and protection of water resources for the current generations, while also making sure water security for future generations.

As an organisation dedicated to social justice, the ANC-led government welcomes these legislative reforms to ensure the prohibition of discrimination and redress by allocating trading licenses for water to historically disadvantaged households and communities.

As ANC, we have prioritised improving water service authorities to better serve their communities. We support the proposed amendments to the National Water Services Act because they provide for legal requirements such as a license in order for water service authorities to operate, and if they fail to meet the required service standards, the license will be withdrawn.

In addition, the amendments provide for a mechanism to enforce compliance with water and sanitation regulations and the consequences thereof. These steps are the basis for our support for the budget vote to fix water services to better serve our people.

Honourable Chairperson, we must congratulate the department for successfully reducing under-expenditure from R2.5 billion during the 2021/22 financial year to R860 million in 2022/23 and then to R44 million in 2023/24 and in the previous financial year to less than 0.1%. This is a clear demonstration of the ANC’s commitment towards improved financial management and audit outcomes.

As the ANC, we wish to encourage the department to focus on improving the quality of spending on water and sanitation grants while also advocating for a review of the local government funding model to enable the ring-fencing of water revenue. As the ANC, we believe that only through ringfencing water revenue will the water service authorities be in a position to maintain, refurbish, and rehabilitate the local water and sanitation infrastructure.

For the ANC, it is imperative that we build capable and functional public institutions that can best support the mandate of the department and its constitutional obligations. As this august house, we have a responsibility of overseeing the work of departmental entities that have in this medium-term expenditure framework allocated R20.8 billion to such entities as the Water Trading Entity, the Catchment Management Agencies, and the Water Boards, among others.

The Catchment Management Agencies, which have been allocated an amount of R247 150 million for this financial year, have an important role to play in helping to ensure fair and equitable access to water for socio-economic development, in the expansion of water user rights for historically disadvantaged communities, and in guaranteeing sustainable access for smallholder farmers as well.

As much as we advocate for equitable access to water for socio-economic development, we are equally concerned about the pollution of the country’s water ecosystem by municipalities. We recognise the strides of the department working with the Catchment Management Agencies to institute legal actions against noncomplying water service authorities, but also for initiating and supporting community-led forums to address water pollution.

Honourable Chairperson, we in this committee must welcome the measures that have been put in place to monitor adherence to the department’s regulations concerning disaster management and water pollution, ensuring the health of rivers and the restoration of the country’s water ecosystem. The department has allocated R244.3 million in the current financial year to the Water Resources Regulation Programme, which is responsible for developing, implementing, monitoring, and reviewing regulations related to water resources, specifically those concerning compliance monitoring and enforcement, dam safety, resource protection, and waste management.

The department and its entities have our full support for the planned enforcement of compliance measures and consequence management against municipalities that do not comply.

We implore you, Honourable Minister, to expeditiously provide the much-needed support to struggling water service authorities, either by invoking the secondary function of the water boards or by adopting a special purpose vehicle to take over the water and sanitation functions.

As the ANC, we understand that the water challenges facing our people are not within the mandate of the department, but we cannot have a situation where 105 water service authorities are classified as critical and unable to provide adequate basic services to their communities. As the Portfolio Committee had resolved, you must be able to provide the committee with intervention plans and support to be tabled during the third quarter of this financial year.

As the ANC, we are committed to ensuring that our people receive safe, clean drinkable water that is available, reliable, and of quality, and we are convinced that the budget and the plans are in the right direction to address this matter, and that is part of the reason we declare our support for it.

I thank you.