The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has launched an inquiry into Gauteng’s deepening water crisis, driven by a surge in complaints from residents and businesses about prolonged outages, poor water quality, and failing infrastructure.
SAHRC Commissioner Dr. Henk Boshoff said the commission has received a large volume of complaints over an extended period from citizens across the province. The inquiry aims to identify systemic failures in water and sanitation service delivery. Civil society organisations, including advocacy group WaterCAN, made presentations during the proceedings.
WaterCAN urged the commission to declare the water crisis a systemic human rights concern that requires monitored, enforceable, and time-bound remedial action with regular public reporting on progress. The group called on municipalities to prioritise water and sanitation as essential services. It specifically demanded that the City of Johannesburg provide full records of allocated budgets and audited spending on water and sanitation projects over the past 10 years.
Additional demands from WaterCAN include ring-fencing of water and sanitation revenue, the return of accumulated surpluses to water entities, greater transparency in procurement, and a national discussion on revenue collection and infrastructure vandalism. The group also called for all municipal water quality results to be made publicly available, noting that access often still requires Promotion of Access to Information Act requests.
Dr. Henk Boshoff highlighted aging infrastructure, inadequate funding, and high vacancy rates within municipalities as core challenges. He pointed to significant wastage, financial mismanagement, and sabotage of infrastructure, including allegations of involvement by municipal employees and councillors.
“The reason for municipal infrastructure being sabotaged is for municipalities to continue appointing service providers and service providers are appointed to continue with this system of water tankering,” Dr. Boshoff said. He described the water tankering system as “a brazen form of financial mismanagement, a brazen form of corruption” that should be abolished as a matter of urgency.
Dr. Boshoff noted that the SAHRC has raised the “tanker mafia” phenomenon with the Minister of Water and Sanitation, presented to the parliamentary portfolio committee, and issued a detailed policy brief outlining legislative measures to address sabotage, vandalism, and theft of municipal infrastructure. The brief was submitted to the Office of the Chief Justice, South African Police Service, National Prosecuting Authority, and cabinet ministers. He urged authorities to implement these recommendations and continue investigations by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in affected municipalities, followed by prosecutions.
The Commissioner expressed concern over an “uncaring culture” within municipalities, citing testimony from communities in southern Johannesburg who had gone without water access for eight months. He drew parallels to similar findings in other provinces and stressed that Section 27 of the Constitution entitles everyone to sufficient water provided on a daily basis. “It is absolutely unacceptable for people to struggle with access to water for long periods of time,” he said, particularly affecting the poorest and most vulnerable communities.
On long-term solutions, Dr. Boshoff emphasised that municipalities, supported by national government and the Department of Water and Sanitation, must prioritise the upgrading and maintenance of infrastructure. He criticised the extension of water tankering service level agreements in a metropolitan municipality for six years at a cost of hundreds of millions of rands, questioning why those funds could not instead be directed toward infrastructure repairs.
He called for municipal officials and councillors to be held accountable and for responsible leadership that prioritises vulnerable communities and ends the reliance on emergency tankering. “Until we see a caring culture in our municipalities, you’re not going to see progress,” Dr. Boshoff concluded.