The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Mr Senzo Mchunu, tabled a budget of R40.291 billion for the 2023/2024 financial year in the National Assembly on Tuesday, 16 May 2023.
Delivering his second Budget Vote Speech for the Department of Water and Sanitation, Minister Mchunu reiterated that the primary focus of his department is to ensure sustainability of the water and sector that will result in the efficient of services to communities.
While acknowledging some challenges the sector has faced over the years, leading to delays in the implementation of infrastructure projects, the Minister announced that the Umzimvubu Water Project is back on track. He said the Department has reconfigured the project to make it more affordable and the estimated cost for the project has been reduced from R18 billion to R8 billion. To this end, the Ntabelanga Dam which is one of the components of the project will start before the end of the year.
Phase Two of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project which will augment water supply by 490 million 
to Gauteng and some areas of the Free State, Northern Cape and North West is now being implemented. The main contracts for the Polihali Dam, the Polihali to Katse Transfer Tunnel and the Senqu Bridge were awarded during the last financial year and contractors are on site. The estimated cost of Phase Two is R39 billion, with the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) raising the funding in the market and it is due to be completed by 2028.
Minister Mchunu announced that the R23 billion Mkhomazi project is now back on track after being stalled for several years. He said the Department’s entity Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) is busy with preparatory work and construction will commence in in late 2024 with an estimated completion date of 2030
Meanwhile, the raising of the Tzaneen Dam wall, worth R555 million, which will augment water supply in the Greater Letaba River Catchment is going ahead this financial year. The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has been appointed as the Implementing Agent and procurement is under way, and the Department’s Construction Unit is on site, with an anticipated completion date of December 2024.
The R4 billion project to raise the wall of the Clanwilliam Dam to improve water supply for agriculture and to provide for water allocations to resource-poor farmers on the West Coast of the Western Cape is finally getting underway and it is expected to be completed by April 2028.
“The total value of the major water resource infrastructure projects that are in implementation stage, most of which I have just alluded to, collectively amount to R130 billion, with approximately 65% of the funding to be through private sector finance. In addition to these projects in implementation phase, we also have many projects in the planning and feasibility study phases. These include: the Ghariep Pipeline to augment the water supply to Mangaung in Free State, the Lower Coerney Balancing Dam to augment the Algoa Water Supply System which supplies Gqeberha, amongst other towns in the Eastern Cape; development of the Beit Bridge Musina Integrated Water Supply System in Limpopo; and development of the Klipfontein, uMfolozi – Usuthu, Kwesibomvu, Jana, Milietuin and Stephen Dlamini dams in KZN”, he said.
Minister Mchunu reiterated his commitment to continue supporting municipalities with two conditional grants, namely, Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG) and Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG). He said this financial year R10.1 billion will be allocated to municipalities through (RBIG) and R4.6 billion through (WSIG), adding that RBIG will be spent on 130 different projects across the country, and WSIG will be allocated to more than 400 projects across the country.
“The last financial year we have also been focusing on accelerating the implementation of a range of major water services projects that have been delayed in the past. One of these is the Giyani water project in Limpopo. I am pleased to be able to indicate that the bulk pipeline from Nandoni Dam in Vhembe to Ntsami Dam in Giyani has now been completed and is delivering water to Giyani. The Department is allocating R1.3 billion from its WSIG to Mopani District Municipality over two or three years to complete the construction of this water distribution infrastructure”, Minister Mchunu emphasised.
However, Minister Mchunu noted that while supporting the municipalities is important, it is not addressing the underlying problem of poor governance and weak management of the water and sanitation function at municipal level, and the lack of proper separation of the Water Services Authority and Water Services Provider functions.
“We are working on amendments to the Water Services Act, which are aimed at addressing the root causes of the deterioration in water and sanitation services. Unless these root causes are addressed, there is a real risk that the water and sanitation infrastructure in these municipalities will rapidly deteriorate again once all the projects I have described have been completed”, Minister’s Mchunu pointed out.
In addressing the escalating debt owed by the municipalities to water boards, which stand at approximately R17 billion, the Minister said discussions are underway with the National Treasury, Water Boards, South African Local Government Association Water Services Authorities.
“The measures include National Treasury withholding equitable share allocations from municipalities; the Department and the Water Boards standardising and strengthening their credit control measures and debt recovery processes; the consistent enforcement of water restrictions on non-paying municipalities, including legal processes to attach municipal bank accounts, where necessary; and the installation of bulk prepaid meters by Water Boards in municipalities with a poor payment record.”
Minister Mchunu announced that his department is working on norms and standards for water sanitation services to address the long-standing issue of bucket eradication programme, particularly in Northern Cape and Free State. He said the progress to date is that all the elements of the original programme have been completed apart from one project in the Northern Cape and eight projects in the Free State and these will be completed during this financial year.
“In reality, the programme will not ‘eradicate’ buckets because municipalities are continuously initiating new bucket systems in informal settlements. To address this, the Department has developed a National Sanitation Framework, which has recently been approved by Cabinet. In terms of the Framework, the Department will issue revised norms and standards for sanitation services under the Water Services Act, which will make it clear that it is unacceptable for municipalities to implement the bucket system. Our planned amendments to the Water Services Act will also enable the Department to regulate and ensure adherence to these norms and standards”, the Minister said.
In strengthening the department’s role as a regulator, Minister Mchunu said in future the department will be expanding its No-Drop assessment reports to other sectors, in addition to municipalities. Furthermore, he said his department is improving in its issuing of water use licencing.
“In our budget speech last year, I indicated that we would be implementing a plan to improve our capacity and systems for processing water use license applications. During the course of last year, we completed most of the elements of the improvement plan, including improving our e-WULA digital water use licensing system, business process re-engineering, and strengthening of our provincial offices and training of our licensing staff. These measures have enabled us to deal with the backlog of water use licenses during the 2022/2023 financial year and to greatly improve our average turn-around time, so that we are now processing approximately 70% of water use license applications within 90 days throughout the country. We are currently implementing the last element of our improvement plan, which involves hiring approximately one hundred additional staff in our provincial offices to ensure that we have the required capacity to deal with the volume of work. We envisage that this will enable us to get much closer to the President’s target of processing all water use license applications within 90 days during this financial year,” the Minister emphasised.
For more information, contact:
Wisane Mavasa, Spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation
Cell: 060 561 8935
E-mail: mavasaw@dws.gov.za(link sends e-mail)
Kamogelo Mogotsi, Spokesperson for the Ministry
Cell: 076 523 0085
