Dear Editor
South Africa’s water crisis is not only about pipes and pumps, it’s about probity and transparency. While households and businesses endure rolling outages, reports of inflated board compensation and potential conflicts of interest at water boards are eroding public trust. That must end now. The DA cares about every rand spent and how this impacts households getting clean water.
The principle is simple: when taps are running dry, every rand must serve the public, not insiders. Reports of uMngeni-uThukela Water directors allegedly awarding themselves R2.6 million in “excess hours” fees while communities queue at tankers raises serious concerns that must be interrogated. Board positions are a public trust, not a revenue stream for directors or their firms. Any arrangement that blurs that line, fees that far exceed norms, “extra hours” signed off after the fact, or directors’ firms benefiting from entities they oversee, undermines the fight to stabilise supply.
Today the DA is taking concrete steps to protect the public:
- We are formally requesting hearings of the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation to interrogate board remuneration and decision-making since 2023/24, with all water boards required to table their policies, payments and justifications.
- We are submitting targeted written parliamentary questions compelling the Minister to provide a board by board schedule of compensation (fixed fees, meeting fees, travel and any “excess hours”), plus the independent benchmarking, if any, used to set those amounts.
- We are writing to the Auditor General to consider a special audit on water board governance and value for money in board expenditures.
- We are asking the Chairpersons of all water boards to immediately institute a procurement blackout for directors and their related parties for the duration of their terms, with a defined cooling off period thereafter.
The Department of Water and Sanitation must institute an arm’s length, independent review of total board compensation across every water board, benchmarking against workload and outcomes and publishing the full methodology. Extraordinary payments must be capped and require prior written approval with reasons, no more retrospective sign offs. Conflict of interest rules must be tightened and enforced, with quarterly public disclosure of interests, mandatory recusals recorded in minutes, and transparent publication of all external legal and consulting briefs.
We need to guard against South Africans paying twice: once for water that too often doesn’t arrive, and again for governance that too often doesn’t meet the moment. The DA will use Parliament, the law and every oversight tool available to stop abuse, recover value and restore integrity. Clean governance is not a “nice to have” in a crisis. It is the cheapest, fastest way to get water flowing reliably to homes and businesses.
Regards
Stephen Moore MP
DA Spokesperson on Water & Sanitation