Newly appointed Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina has assured of the continuity of the various reforms and improvements initiated by her predecessor Senzo Mchunu, who is now Police Minister.

Majodina was appointed Water and Sanitation Minister on June 30 following the formation of South Africa’s seventh administration under the Government of National Unity.

Tabling the Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS’s) Budget Vote on Friday, she said that many of the reforms that would be continued were mandated by the National Development Plan and the Presidency’s Operation Vulindlela.

In addition to this, the DWS is focusing on three key priorities over the next few years to ensure that the availability of water does not become a constraint to investment and economic growth, and that there is sufficient water to meet the needs of South Africa’s population.

These include timeous investment in additional water resource infrastructure to capture the remaining 25% of South Africa’s exploitable surface water resources; diversifying the country’s water mix and increasingly making use of other sources of water, such as groundwater, water reuse and desalination; and implementing more effective water conservation and demand management programmes to bring the water consumption per capita levels in line with, or below, the international average.

Further, the many water resource infrastructure projects which are in various stages, from the fund-raising and design phases to construction, will continue, following Mchunu’s efforts to unblock projects that had stalled and accelerating those whose implementation had slowed.

Among these projects are the new R26-billion Upper uMkhomazi dam and associated works, which will provide urgently needed additional water to eThekwini and surrounding districts in KwaZulu-Natal, and the new R1.8-billion Cwabeni off-channel storage dam, which will provide additional water to Port Shepstone and surrounding areas in KwaZulu-Natal, besides many others.

“We are also implementing the R24-billion Olifants river water resource development project in Limpopo and the R10-billion Vaal Gamagara Phase 2 project in the Northern Cape,” she commented.

“These two projects are being implemented in partnership with the mining sector, with joint funding by government and the mines. Both projects will increase water supply and ensure water security to enable investment in mining. Communities adjacent to the bulk pipelines will also benefit from these projects.”

Meanwhile, Majodina tabled a DWS budget of R134.9-billion over the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF), comprising allocations of R42.6-billion, R46.3-billion and R45.9-billion in the 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years respectively.

On the main account, the department has been allocated R72.9-billion over the MTEF, comprising allocations of R24-billion, R25.1-billion and R23.7-billion in the 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years respectively.

“Included in the main account budget are conditional infrastructure grants for municipal water services totalling R36.3-billion over the MTEF. This includes R20.1-billion for the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant and R16.1-billion for the Water Services Infrastructure Grant.”

The Water Trading Entity, which is mostly funded through revenue collection from the sale of water and receives some transfers from the fiscus for infrastructure projects, has been allocated R61.9-billion over the MTEF – R18.5-billion, R21.2-billion and R22.1-billion in 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27 years respectively.

“We will make every effort to ensure that the department deploys these resources as efficiently as possible to ensure that service delivery reaches our communities. This includes our commitment to prevent improper expenditure.

“We will also continue to clear all the department’s historic incidents of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in collaboration with National Treasury and the law enforcement agencies,” Majodina continued, noting that the department was committed to zero tolerance to corruption and ensuring the promotion of good governance.

She pointed out that, in recent years, the department successfully reduced its under-expenditure against its budget.

In 2021/22 there was R2.5-billion under-expenditure, which equals 14.3% of the budget, in 2022/23 there was R860-million under-expenditure, or 5% of the budget, and in 2023/24 there was R44-million under-expenditure, equating to 0.2% of the budget.

“It is our intention to eradicate under-expenditure altogether and achieve 100% expenditure of our budget in the current financial year. This will be done by making our infrastructure procurement processes more efficient and effective and by improving our management of allocations to projects during the financial year,” she concluded.