By Simon Nare
The Cabinet has approved the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee (IMC) to come up with a municipal turnaround plan with special focus on municipal debt to water boards that are threatening the provision of water to municipalities.
Minister in The Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, told reporters on Friday that the executive had been briefed on the growing and unsustainable municipal debt to water boards.
These debts were now threatening the sustainability of the Vaal Central Water Board, which was owed R9.9 billion, and Magalies Water, which was owed R930 million by end of July.
The situation was so dire that the two boards could possibly be declared bankrupt.
“Debts owed to water boards have a potential to threaten provision of water even to municipalities that are paying their water debts. Cabinet approved that an IMC be established to address municipal turnaround,” Ntshavheni said following a Cabinet meeting.
“The IMC will also prioritise interventions to address municipal debt payments to water boards, particularly to those facing imminent bankruptcy.”
She added that Cabinet further directed government departments and public entities to urgently settle their debt owed to municipalities, and National Treasury was assigned the responsibility to ensure that this was done.
Ntshavheni also revealed that Cabinet was briefed about the planned closure of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project’s tunnel from 1 October to 31 March 2025 to allow for maintenance.
She said the planned maintenance was crucial to protect the infrastructure for another 20 to 30 years.
Failure to undertake this work would risk the transfer of water to the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS), which provided the water supplied by Rand Water to its customers and all municipalities in Gauteng.
“A thorough analysis to assess the risk to the performance of the IVRS, which consists of 14 interconnected dams, was undertaken by the DWS. The analysis confirmed that the impact of the tunnel closure on the overall IVRS will be minimal as most dams in the IVRS are currently full,” she said.
Ntshavheni said the Cabinet further deliberated on water disruptions in Gauteng and the Free State.
It was noted that in Gauteng, rapid population growth, lack of infrastructure maintenance, lack of enforcement of by-laws and delays in implementation of phase two of the Lesotho Highlands project have contributed immensely to the current water disruptions.
“However, the completion of phase two of the Lesotho Highlands project will bring relief if supplemented by water demand management interventions, use of new water-saving technologies and proper maintenance of infrastructure,” she said.
On tourism, Ntshavheni said Cabinet approved the White Paper on the Development of Tourism in South Africa for public comments.
The policy sought to increase the contribution of tourism to the broader South African economy through increased volumes of visitors.
This followed Cabinet approving the publication of the Green Paper on the Development of Tourism in South Africa in 2023, and the comments from affected parties were incorporated into this policy.
“This White Paper now provides an agreed policy framework and guidelines for tourism development and promotion in South Africa. This policy will promote entrepreneurship in the tourism sector and ensure the sector’s enhanced contribution to employment,” she said.
Still on tourism, the publication of the National Astro-Tourism Strategy and Implementation Plan for public comment was also approved by Cabinet.
Ntshavheni said the strategy aimed to position South Africa as a world-class astro-tourism destination, and this would boost economic development and employment in the tourism sector.
She added that South Africa was the first African nation to develop a National Astro-Tourism Strategy, and this would boost the country’s tourism diversification.
On the Government of National Unity, Cabinet welcomed a decision by President Cyril Ramaphosa to set up what she called a clearing house mechanism at a government level to deal with matters that parties in the GNU differed on fundamentally.
INSIDE POLITICS
