The Deputy Minister’s visit to assess water and sanitation infrastructure comes as many communities within the district have endured chronic water shortages for years.
“Prolonged water shortage has now become a regular problem for many communities in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality,” Seitlholo stated. “As a result, the municipality’s water services authority status is now under scrutiny from national government.”
A Water Services Authority (WSA) is the entity legally responsible for ensuring access to water and sanitation. Seitlholo indicated that this status may need to be reassigned to individual local municipalities within the district that demonstrate greater capability.
“We need to look at the local municipalities—which ones are capable—so that that particular status can then be given to those particular municipalities,” Seitlholo explained. He acknowledged this was a difficult conversation, as the district would want to retain its powers, but insisted that the severity of the challenges demands immediate solutions.
The Deputy Minister revealed he has already directed a deputy director-general in his department to determine if a technical assessment of the district’s capacity has been completed, a necessary step for the national Council of Ministers (COGTA) to potentially revoke or reassign the WSA status.
In its defense, the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality pointed to a longstanding financial grievance with the national department. A municipal spokesperson claimed that in 2014, the Department of Water and Sanitation withdrew two critical grants—the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG) and the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG)—and never returned them.
“The department of water and sanitation took two critical grants which was supposed to be for 5 years… These grants were taken from the district, but they were never returned since 2014,” the spokesperson said. “Now, we’re talking millions of rands taken from the district, but the district is expected to perform as if things are normal. Water provision is expensive. So, the deputy minister must focus on retaining our grants. We have demonstrated capacity.”
The water crisis has sparked divided opinions among residents. Some believe bypassing the district and empowering their local municipality would lead to better service.
“The district is struggling to provide water and I think local municipality will be able to provide water because they will not refuse to expand water infrastructure in our village,” said one resident.
Another stated, “The district has failed us. Even when we were striking in February, our local municipality responded.”
However, other community members have urged caution, warning the national government against a hasty decision that could exacerbate the situation.
“I would encourage the ministry as they undertake this assessment to also go into the targeted local municipalities that they want to accord this status to check if really these local municipalities do have capacity to facilitate the water provision within their local jurisdiction,” said one cautious resident. “Because sometimes you don’t want a situation where you replace a problem with another problem.”
This concern is echoed in official oversight reports. The municipality’s spokesperson noted that the Auditor-General has previously highlighted that key areas such as water and sanitation were not effectively managed by the district municipality team.
The future of water provision for the communities of Ngaka Modiri Molema now hangs in the balance as the national government weighs a significant structural change against a backdrop of financial disputes and chronic service delivery failures.