The Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday it will submit a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application over an alleged R4-billion that has been redirected from Johannesburg Water.

Last month, the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation said it was “perturbed by the lackadaisical attitude” of City of Johannesburg (CoJ) Mayor Dada Morero toward resolving the water shortage challenges facing the city, following a meeting with the city, Johannesburg Water, Rand Water and the Department of Water and Sanitation.

The committee raised concerns that the municipality was unable to account for the alleged R4-billion redirected from Johannesburg Water, which could have been used to invest in much-needed water reticulation infrastructure.

During a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee oversight visit on Thursday, CoJ officials denied defunding Joburg Water of R4-billion of its water infrastructure maintenance budget.

DA spokesperson on Water and Sanitation Stephen Moore pointed out that many taps in Joburg remained dry, and residents were queuing daily for water tankers.

Last month the party formally requested hearings of the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation to interrogate water board remuneration and decision-making since 2023/24, and the tabling of board policies, payments and justifications.

Moore said the PAIA application covers the daily balances for all Johannesburg Water bank accounts over selected dates and the City’s Group Treasury cash-management (sweeping) policy, mandates and bank agreements that authorise the pooling of municipal-entity cash.

It will also look into Johannesburg Water’s aged-creditors schedule and payment-run histories for the past four months, and identify invoices delayed owing to cash-flow restrictions.

Moore said a list of capital and refurbishment projects delayed or down-scaled in 2024/25 owing to late or non-payment, with the value and duration of each delay, would be looked at.

“These disclosures are necessary to verify the true liquidity available to Johannesburg Water and to determine whether public communications have accurately reflected the financial position presented to Parliament,” he said.

Moore called for the ring-fencing of funds for water infrastructure upkeep; weekly progress updates on the payments of contractors to ensure projects do not delay and reliable timelines for infrastructure projects made publicly available for scrutiny.

“Johannesburg’s residents cannot be asked to accept tanker queues and intermittent supply while funds intended for water security are redistributed to plug gaps elsewhere. Transparency, disciplined cash management and genuine ring-fencing are non-negotiable if Johannesburg Water is to stabilise supply, pay its creditors, and deliver the upgrades the network urgently needs,” he stated.