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Joburg Water’s turnaround strategy: Can it secure the R3bn needed to address the crisis?

Joburg Water’s turnaround strategy: Can it secure the R3bn needed to address the crisis?
Residents of Dube and Meadowlands fetch water in on 15 March 2024 in Soweto, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi)
Julia Evans
By Julia Evans
12 Mar 2025
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Joburg Water’s turnaround strategy to address a crumbling water system and ongoing water crisis makes sense, but the City of Johannesburg has yet to come to the party.

For months, residents across Johannesburg have turned on their taps only to be met with the disheartening reality of dry pipes.

“When we look at what is happening in Joburg, we need to remember that this is now giving us a snapshot of what’s going on in the rest of the country,” said Dr Ferrial Adam, executive manager of WaterCAN,  a community action network under the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).

“The reality is, many of us sitting in Johannesburg tend to think that this water situation is isolated, but across the country, towns, villages, and cities have been experiencing a water crisis for a number of years now.”

Water leaks Treated drinking water flows down Dorset Road, outside Jan Celliers Primary School and opposite Zoo Lake, following an underground pipe burst on 27 January 2025. (Photo: Julia Evans)



In a bid to address these critical water infrastructure and management challenges, the Johannesburg City Council has approved a comprehensive turnaround strategy for Johannesburg Water. This initiative is in line with the National Treasury’s Trading Services Reforms, which offer financial incentives to metropolitan municipalities that implement structural changes.

Read more: With a R27bn infrastructure upgrades backlog, Joburg Water takes financial reins back from City

The turnaround strategy includes several key components: ring-fencing revenue, single-point accountability, improved revenue collection, public-private partnerships, increased capital investment, and free basic services funding.

Ring-fencing revenue and financial accountability


One of the most significant aspects of the strategy is ring-fencing revenue. Joburg Water intends to reinvest revenue, profits, and cash generated from water and sanitation services back into the water business, specifically targeting infrastructure. This marks a departure from the historical practice of pooling funds into the City’s general budget. By retaining control over its finances, Joburg Water also aims to attract loans and expand investments.

“The National Treasury has issued a directive which says that the water business needs to be treated differently in the metros, in such a way that the resources that are generated from the water business in metros need to be invested back in the water infrastructure,” said Ntshavheni Mukwevho, the managing director of Joburg Water, late last year.

Read more: ‘Humanitarian crisis’ — Residents protest at water cuts as Joburg Water says it’s ‘stepped up our game’

The strategy also seeks to consolidate revenue billing and management under Joburg Water, taking full responsibility for these functions. Originally, the intention was to manage more than 30% of customers by December 2024, representing 50% of its revenue, including industrial and commercial clients. 

However, Joburg Water now envisions managing the full spectrum of customers in relation to billing and customer relationship management by the end of the 2024/25 financial year. Furthermore, the entity aims to increase cash collection rates from 80% in 2023/24 to 95% by 2028/29.

water scarcity johannesburg Residents of Dube and Meadowlands fetch water on 15 March 2024 in Soweto, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi)



Mukwevho said that in the next two years, they needed to move from their historical capital expenditure budget (to upgrade infrastructure) of R1-billion, to R3-billion (by 2025/2026), which was required to ensure Joburg Water’s infrastructure was performing, and performing correctly.

Traditionally, Joburg Water’s finances were controlled by the City of Johannesburg council, and the R1.1-billion budget for capital expenditure was given by the City, which includes grant funding from the national government.

The R3bn question — Is the city committed?


Julia Fish, the regional manager of Joburg Community Action Network (JoburgCAN), an initiative of  Outa, acknowledged in a webinar last week on Joburg Water’s ring-fencing strategy that the turnaround strategy was impressive.

“It’s one of the most honest assessments of what’s happening in the water system that I’ve seen,” said Fish. But she noted that “in order to make that plan operational, they need to fund it. At the moment, there's no funding for it. It’s always good to see the amazing legislation and the amazing plans we have in the City and in the country as a whole.

“But we’re just not putting our money where our mouths are when it comes to those plans.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk

When Daily Maverick asked Joburg Water if it had secured the R3-billion capital expenditure budget it said it needed annually over the next decade to upgrade infrastructure, it merely told Daily Maverick that obtaining this level of capital expenditure depended on the City of Johannesburg approving the necessary budget adjustments.

“It seems that in principle, the City of Johannesburg has approved ring-fencing, but has not done anything more,” reflected Adam.

This lack of concrete action prompted WaterCAN to launch a petition in December 2024, signed by nearly 4,000 Johannesburg residents and members of civil society organisations, calling on the City to prioritise its water crisis by increasing Johannesburg Water’s capital budget from R1.2-billion to R3-billion.

Read more: Outa urges City of Joburg to triple water budget amid escalating crisis

‘There is money — it’s just going to the wrong places’


Following the petition, the City of Johannesburg tabled an adjustment budget on 27 February 2025, proposing slightly more infrastructure spending. However, the council meeting collapsed due to political infighting, leaving the budget unapproved and the City missing the legal end-of-month deadline.

The City’s tabled adjustment budget includes a small increase of R318-million for the overall capital budget for 2024/25. To fund this, the City plans to take on R200-million in new debt, bringing the total capital budget to R7.7-billion.

Within this, the Joburg Water capital budget is set to increase by just R70- million, reaching R1.29-billion.

“They’ve claimed to put in another R70-million towards water, but really it’s being taken away from water treatment plants and reservoirs towards other projects which are in motion, like the Brixton Reservoir and tower rehabilitation,” Fish pointed out.

“So, those still fall within the financial year to get that capital expenditure funding from the National Treasury,” she added, criticising the lack of long-term investment, and saying that instead it was just laying down 14 kilometres of pipe replacements in Johannesburg.

WaterCAN and JoburgCAN have raised concerns about the City diverting funds from critical sanitation projects, such as the Bushkoppies and Goudkoppies wastewater treatment works renewal projects, highlighting that “pollution from both these wastewater treatment works is so severe that in July 2023 WaterCAN laid criminal charges against the City in connection with both of these”.

Fish noted that while Joburg Water’s turnaround strategy was excellent, “as we’ve seen in the budget so far, the City is not playing its part to actually fund those strategies, to do what Joburg Water needs in order to actually maintain its system”.

She emphasised that R3-billion was a bare minimum of what Joburg Water needed to just keep the system at an operational point, adding, “and now we’re looking at trying to restore years of underfunding”.

She added that while Joburg Water urgently needed to address non-revenue water, particularly leaks: “They can’t do that unless the City of Johannesburg takes its hand out of the pie and starts giving it a little bit more to other infrastructure and services that actually need it, not just staffing and perks.”

Fish noted that the City of Johannesburg faced a growing cash flow problem due to falling revenue, rising tariffs, and issues like illegal connections.

“The main problem is cities are doing things which are outside of their core mandate,” said Fish, noting the municipality should prioritise essential services like roads, electricity and water, rather than projects like stadiums. 

She also criticised excessive spending, like the R500-million Speaker’s office budget, saying: “There is money. It’s just going to the wrong places.” DM

To report a leak contact your ward councillor or report the leak to Joburg Water:

Online: jwfaultlogging.jwater.co.za
Call Centre: 011 688 1699 / 086 0562874
SMS: 45201
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]





 

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