By Charmaine Ndlela
South Africa’s water crisis will remain fertile ground for water mafias and collapsing infrastructure unless President Cyril Ramaphosa backs his State of the Nation (SONA) pledges with deadlines, transparent reporting and enforcement, civil society group WaterCAN said on Friday.
During his address on Thursday night, Ramaphosa said the ministers of water and sanitation and cooperative governance had been deployed to Johannesburg to attend to the weeks-long water outages in parts of the city.
ALSO READ: WATCH: State of the Nation Address 2026
“There is no silver bullet to address this challenge, which has its roots in systemic failures and many years of neglecting infrastructure,” he said.
“To ensure water security in the long term, we are building new dams and upgrading existing infrastructure. We have committed more than R156 billion in public funding for water and sanitation infrastructure over the next three years,” he said.
WaterCAN executive director Dr Ferrial Adam acknowledged the recognition of the crisis, but said it came after years of denial and deflection by senior political leaders.
She said the scale of infrastructure collapse warranted a far stronger response, including consideration of declaring a national water and sanitation infrastructure disaster.
“Communities are not protesting because of drought. They are protesting because infrastructure is collapsing, maintenance is neglected, and corruption and organised criminality have been allowed to hollow out water services,” said Adam.
She said that activists raising concerns are often met with intimidation and violence.
“When citizen science exposes polluted rivers and unsafe supply, our methods are first dismissed and then quietly accepted once the evidence is undeniable. The public has been forced to fight just for acknowledgement before we can even begin to fight for solutions,” she said.
She said that the proposed National Water Crisis Committee — to be chaired by the president — must have clear action plans, firm deadlines and civil society participation to ensure transparency and credibility.
On crime in the sector, Adam urged government to confront the entrenched water tanker economy.
ALSO READ: Ramaphosa unveils R2 trillion investment drive, pledges billions for small businesses
“The water mafias are a direct threat to water security. It is in their interest that infrastructure remains broken. The president must order an immediate national audit of all water tanker contracts, including beneficial ownership, pricing, delivery verification and any illicit financial flows between tanker networks, officials and politicians,” she said.
She also criticised the lack of immediate relief for communities without reliable access to safe water and sanitation, saying long-term reforms provide little comfort for those already enduring prolonged outages.
WaterCAN said there was a “copy-and-paste” pattern across the 2024, 2025 and 2026 SONA speeches, where commitments were repeated without clear delivery milestones.
This included delays in establishing the National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency, finalising the Water Services Amendment Bill, and progress on bulk infrastructure projects such as the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.
“We want to see criminal cases against municipalities finalised,” Adam said.
“We welcome talk of personal liability for accounting officers and municipal managers where failures are clear, but the laws and enforcement mechanisms already exist. New policy will mean nothing if consequence management remains optional.”
INSIDE POLITICS