Water cuts: Rand Water may be in hot water over illegal practice
The civil rights organisation AfriForum and Rand Water – the largest water supplier in Africa – may butt heads in court after Rand Water reduced water supply to several municipalities. The following municipalities are affected: Emfuleni Local Municipality and Lesedi Local Municipality in the Sedibeng District Municipality in Gauteng; Rand West City Local Municipality and Merafong City Local Municipality in the West Rand District Municipality in Gauteng; and Govan Mbeki Local Municipality in Mpumalanga. This practice is implemented by Rand Water due to these municipalities’ overdue debts which amount to approximately R3 billion in total.
Rand Water already cut the water supply last week. Now it is also threatening to reduce water supply even further if the debt is not settled or if payment agreements are not obeyed by 25 March.
AfriForum’s legal team sent an urgent letter of demand to Rand Water to stop this malpractice and see to it that the communities receive the necessary water. In most cases, consumers pay their water accounts faithfully to the municipality, but the municipality fails to pay Rand Water accordingly.
“Access to clean water is a constitutional right as prescribed in Section 27 of the Constitution and this malpractice by Rand Water threatens to violate this right. In 2023, AfriForum obtained a court order in the High Court in Pretoria declaring similar debt collection by Rand Water illegal and unconstitutional. We are therefore very surprised that a similar strategy is now being followed and will not hesitate to approach the court to set aside the current practice of water cuts applied by Rand Water,” says Petrus Coetzee, AfriForum’s Advisor for Local Government Affairs.
According to Morné Mostert, AfriForum’s Manager for Local Government Affairs, Rand Water cannot hide behind a contractual remedy and follow an unfair process through their decision to reduce water supply. “Rand Water makes this decision – which can cause large-scale damage to communities – in the absence of any public participation process. The decision is unconstitutional and does not even meet the standards of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000,” says Mostert.
“We cannot allow disputes between state organs to negatively affect our communities. Municipalities cause this problem due to non-payment, however, remedies and mechanisms must be used to collect debts that do not violate people’s constitutional rights. AfriForum will consider all its options to ensure that this malpractice is stopped,” concludes Coetzee.
