The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of a new National Water Crisis Committee to help address the ongoing water crisis in the country is meaningless if, according to AfriForum, the previous two task forces established over the past few years to address the very same crisis are any indication of success. AfriForum argues that this committee will not achieve much more success if politicians and municipal officials are not urgently held accountable for their failures.

Despite a task force established in February 2024 to investigate service delivery in terms of water and sanitation and another task force established by Deputy President Paul Mashatile and ministers from various departments in April 2025 to resolve these challenges, the country is still plunged into a serious water crisis.

“To date, it is unclear what these two task forces have achieved. This leaves much to be desired as to what the president’s latest crisis committee will be able to accomplish, other than dishing out more empty promises about reforms at municipal level and interventions at national level,” says Marais de Vaal, AfriForum’s Advisor for Environmental Affairs.

Recent public statements by politicians, water authorities and government departments that place the blame for Gauteng’s current water crisis primarily on residents are, moreover, misleading, unfounded and not even supported by the Department of Water and Sanitation’s current data.

“Gauteng’s water crisis specifically is largely driven by municipal water losses and poor infrastructure maintenance. Against this backdrop, shifting the blame to an increase in domestic demand is misleading and ignores the real cause of the crisis,” says De Vaal.

AfriForum therefore urgently calls on the president to put his words into action and expedite the criminal cases against 56 municipalities that fail to reliably provide water to citisens. For years, AfriForum has been demanding that guilty municipal managers be prosecuted in their personal capacity and removed from office.

“The water crisis will not be solved through promises of change, but through decisive action that actively counteracts the deterioration of water infrastructure,” says De Vaal.

“The water crisis in general and water security in Gauteng in particular, will only improve when there is honest communication about the real causes of the crisis, organs of state are held accountable for their failures and there is decisive action to maintain infrastructure.”

Issued by AfriForum