SA’s water woes: racial quota to be challenged in court

Water is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons as municipalities struggle to provide drinking water to communities; an intended racial quota for water use is being considered; and a looming water crisis with water restrictions happening more often than they should.

Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroo said the utility’s financial sustainability, which impacts the current and future provision of water, depended on municipalities paying for water from the company.

“Rand Water is facing a significant challenge concerning outstanding debts owed by various municipalities,” she said.

R4.6 billion debt

“The cumulative debt owed by municipalities is R4.6 billion and is shared among municipalities in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Free State.”

The municipalities in debt include Emfuleni, Govan Mbeki, Merafong, Rand West, Victor Khanye and Ngwathe.

Racial quotas

AfriForum has opposed the intended racial quotas for water use draft regulations.

The civil rights organisation’s advisor for environmental affairs, Marais de Vaal, said its legal team was preparing comments against the intended changes to water legislation that will require 75% black ownership of businesses that require a water use licence, as indicated in the department of water and sanitation (DWS) revised draft regulations.

De Vaal said according to the draft regulations, applications to license the extraction of ground or surface water, the storage of water in a dam and the performance of stream flow reduction activities [such as forestry] would only be considered by the DWS if the company applying for it meets racial quotas.

“The required percentage of black shareholding will apparently be determined by the annual volume of water that will be extracted or stored by the user or the land area that will be used for forestry,” said De Vaal.

He added that the government had a constitutional duty to manage and protect the country’s water resources sustainably.

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Water scarce

“While SA is a water-scarce country, water infrastructure is crumbling across the country and we are heading for a crisis. Transformation is being used as a smokescreen behind which the DWS hides their failures.”

Agri SA’s legal and policy manager Janse Rabie said the proposed regulations would put food security at further risk. “The consequences for food security and the sustainability of the agricultural sector, should these regulations be accepted in their current form, cannot be underestimated. They will have a devastating impact on the sector and its ability to supply the country with food.

“The proposed regulations are considered to be the DWS’ most radical and far-reaching attempt to date to change the demographics of water use in SA,” he said.

“The agriculture and forestry sectors appear to be the primary target … The agricultural sector is responsible for approximately 60% of South Africa’s total water use. The proposed regulations exempt mining companies, the state and state-owned entities, as well as 100% black-owned entities.”

Rabie said the sector and the economy were already reeling under the impact of load shedding, rural crime and deteriorating infrastructure. Freedom Front Plus (FF+) spokesperson Wouter Wessels said the proposed quota was a carefully considered strategy to drive white farmers off their land.

Expropriation without compensation

“It comes down to expropriation without compensation, seeing as the government now plans to use water as a gun against farmers’ heads, forcing them to hand their property over to black people.” He said the FF+ would do everything in its power to oppose the plan.

“The ANC government has failed miserably with its restitution programme and after 29 years, there are still no natural and successful processes in place to facilitate large-scale black participation in agriculture,” he said.

ALSO READ: DWS owed R14.6bn in water bill by SA municipalities

– marizkac@citizen.co.za