Water wasted in Free State totals R3.7 billion in last seven years

Free State municipalities are haemorrhaging water and money due to broken infrastructure.

The MEC of Corporate Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) recently detailed the percentage of water lost by 18 municipalities, as well as the corresponding rand values.

From the 2016/17 financial year to the 2022/23 financial year, the municipalities listed squandered R3.756 billion in potential revenue due to water lost through leaks and illegal connections.

Mangaung excluded

However, the figures excluded the province’s largest metro, as well as several financial years’ data in the written response on 15 January.  

The request for information was submitted by the Freedom Front Plus’ (FF+) Armand Cloete in the provincial legislature.

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The municipalities receive water from the province’s bulk water supplier Vaal Central Water Board (VCWB) and must bill consumers accordingly.

The FF+ reported back in September 2024 that VCWB was owed R10 billion by municipalities.

“Municipalities could have used the squandered funds to construct at least one brand-new water purification plant each and pay off their astronomical debt to the VCWB,” said Cloete.

Biggest billing losses

Masilonyana, covering Soutpan, Winnie Mandela and Winburg, had a calculated wastage of R2.2 million for one year reported but failed to disclose any of the other six years requested.

Maluthi-A-Phofung, which straddles the Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal borders, had a combined wastage of at least R48.8 million over three years but failed to disclose the four other years requested.

The biggest offender was the Matjhabeng municipality, which accounted for almost a third of the province’s debt, racking up R2.3 billion in lost billable water.  

“Several Free State towns did not have water during the festive season because infrastructure has not been maintained or upgraded during the last 30 years,” stated Cloete.

Losses as a percentage

Matjhabeng lost over 50% of its water to leaks and illegal connections in six of the seven years reported, climbing up to over 75% of its billable water in two of those years.

In the worst percentage of lost water for a single year, Mafube municipality lost 96% during the 2020/21 financial year.

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Mafube breached the 90% mark three times in six years, and in one separate year exceeded 80%, while the most recent year was not provided as the audit was still outstanding.

Five other municipalities — Tokologo, Letsemeng, Matjhabeng, Phumelela and Moqhaka — reported at least one year when lost water exceeded 70%.

“It is a crime to waste water on this scale in a water-scarce province while residents are plagued by frequent water outages,” stressed Cloete.

Quarterly monitoring underway

Cogta MEC Teboho Mokoena responded by stating that municipalities were being engaged on a quarterly basis to evaluate their performance.

The MEC’s office said that any municipality failing to keep their losses under 50% would be considered to be failing at their responsibilities.

Over half were improving, with 10 of the 18 municipalities reporting improvements between the final two years provided — the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years.

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However, only five of the 18 municipalities registered water losses under 30% in the last financial year reported.

Moqhaka and Ngwathe showed the best improvement in recent years, moving from 71% and 48% lost to 21% and 7% lost, respectively.

The MEC said awareness campaigns had been undertaken to educate communities, but added that national departments would step in to make repairs.

“Where scope of service requires capital budget, the Department of Water and Sanitation funds through the Water Services Infrastructure Grant to address any deficiencies with water services systems,” the MEC’s office concluded.

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