Water crisis threatens ANC in Gauteng elections

Key topics:Johannesburg faces long-term water shortages and protests.ANC blamed for mismanagement and failing infrastructure.DA highlights crisis as key campaign issue in upcoming elections..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Jonathan Katzenellenbogen*.Intense droughts caused the collapse of the ancient civilisations in the Indus Valley and Maya. And long, dry periods are also thought to have contributed to the collapse of ancient Rome and Egypt.As water stress becomes increasingly widespread, more social unrest and the toppling of governments is likely. Over the past two years, water shortages sparked violent protests in Algeria and Madagascar.SA could soon be a leading example of what happens when deep incompetence in government causes long-running water cuts. About two years ago, in the face of water cut-offs and other service delivery problems, the residents of Westbury in Johannesburg blocked roads, burned tyres and clashed with the police. And last week there were protests in Johannesburg over the spate of water cuts which have lasted weeks in some parts. Before water trickled back in Melville toward the end of last week, nothing had come through the taps for more than three weeks.The nationwide water shortages could be the big push for cities to rid themselves of ANC mayors in the upcoming local government elections. What must reinforce the idea in the minds of the voters that ANC incompetence lies behind the water cuts in Gauteng is that the dams are overflowing.Helen Zille, the DA’s mayoral candidate, has been handed the water crisis on a plate by the ANC. The crisis is the focus of her campaign and she promises to make the issue her priority if she is elected..Read more:.Gauteng could face water crisis until 2029 due to project delays.One of Zille’s proposed solutions is to ring fence the Johannesburg water budget to allow specific targets to be met. But there would still be an enormous backlog in required investment.People who have been without water for close to a month might be motivated to vote in what are usually low-turnout local polls for the sole reason of taking vengeance against the party that brought them water cut-offs.More than five yearsThe crisis has been long in the offing. Johannesburg has faced serious shortages for more than five years.There were ample warnings about a pending water crisis. Back in 2008, Anthony Turton, a water scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, warned in a paper that water quality and supply were threatened. An important factor behind this, he wrote, was SA’s loss of technical experts in science, engineering and technology. Turton was suspended for this effort.In Johannesburg, the fundamental problem for water supply is that the amount Johannesburg Water buys from Rand Water for which it cannot charge – “non-revenue water” – has grown over the years. This is mostly due to worsening leaks, but also to theft, meter tampering, and billing problems. That puts downward pressure on revenue, while costs face upward pressure, in part from corruption and empowerment contracting. Hence, the amount that can be spent on new investment, repair and maintenance is diminished.According to Johannesburg Water’s 2023/24 Annual Report, its most recent, the city loses more than 46 percent of the water it buys. By contrast, Cape Town’s non-revenue water figure is 25 percent, and Tokyo’s is around four percent.Johannesburg’s “non-revenue water” figure consists of about 24.8 percent that is lost due to physical leaks, 9.7 percent that is lost due to theft, meter tampering and faults, and 11.7 percent that is unbilled as it is supplied by the City for firefighting and informal settlements.There is no quick solution to the problems of leaking pipes and theft. Johannesburg Water’s 2023/24 annual report says the city replaced only 19km of water pipes in that period and could not even reach its target of 28km.Well belowBest practice is to replace about two percent of a city’s water pipe network a year. With a water distribution network of 12,520km, the 19km replaced equates to 0.15 percent of the total network, well below the recommended two percent, which would amount to 250km of pipe a year.Then there is the problem of collecting on what is owed. The largest category of outstanding debtors is government entities – provincial, national and state enterprises, who reportedly owe Johannesburg Water R600 million.Due to its revenue shortfall, Johannesburg Water is racking up payment arrears to Rand Water, which in November last year amounted to R1 billion, as well as some of its contractors. Johannesburg Water’s failure to pay its bills on time means Rand Water has throttled its supply to the City.The ANC is clasping at straws in its attempts to deal with the crisis. More than anything the ANC response raises the question for voters as to what will be the next crisis.To be seen to be doing something about the crisis, ANC leaders have been voicing deep sympathy for those who face water cuts, and calling for accountability.Had they really been concerned, they would have acted over the past 30 years. The ANC would have us believe that some external force is responsible for the crisis, rather than their own incompetence.In Gauteng, at least, the ANC can’t repair the immense electoral damage that the water crisis is likely to do to the party. Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s suggestion that Gauteng residents go to shower at hotels, as he does, when there is no water at home, is the ultimate show to voters of how detached the elite has become. Then there was the attempted apology from the Premier, with his, “call for accountability for those that are failing us”.Not responsibleListening to Lesufi, one might think that the ANC was not responsible for the nationwide water crisis.Last week in his State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa devoted a few paragraphs to the crisis. The solutions offered to resolve the Gauteng crisis were to send a few ministers to the province to ensure work got done with speed. Ramaphosa listed a number of water projects in the speech, but these will all take years to complete.There was no mention of steps to take water infrastructure out of the hands of the public sector and privatise. That’s because the ANC sees privatisation as an admission of its own failure. It just cannot take that step, even in the face of disaster..Read more:.SA municipalities fail to deliver despite infrastructure funding surge.In Gauteng, the water situation might marginally improve with greater presidential attention, but don’t expect an end to water cut-offs. With an investment, repair and maintenance backlog of years, there is no quick solution. The solution to this problem bears no resemblance to that of ending load-shedding.The end to load-shedding was the result of a massive increase in investment by independent power producers in renewable sources. And the expertise of the original equipment manufacturers was used to ensure the greater availability of Eskom’s fleet of coal-power generatorsEvery day without water is a reminder to voters that the ANC is not fit to govern..Jonathan Katzenellenbogen is a Johannesburg-based freelance journalist. His articles have appeared on DefenceWeb, Politicsweb, as well as in a number of overseas publications. Katzenellenbogen has also worked on Business Day and as a TV and radio reporter and newsreader. He has a Master's degree in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management..This article was first published by Daily Friend and is republished with permission.

Water crisis threatens ANC in Gauteng elections

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