As the water fiasco continues in Johannesburg amid mismanagement and poor leadership, finance minister Enoch Godongwana says he will soon visit Gauteng’s leaders.
“Johannesburg is a problem, no doubt about that. At some point national government will go there. As to what form, it’s a matter of detail. I can’t give details now but they themselves are talking with our team,” Godongwana said during a pre-budget media briefing before his budget speech on Wednesday.
“The problem is, you need a legal instrument, you can’t go there as a friend,” said Godongwana.
The Sunday Times reported this week that Johannesburg and Tshwane have experienced rampant water losses to the value of R5bn, a crisis that is heading for a major financial disaster.
In the reports that informed the article, it was revealed that water losses for the past eight months stand at R2.4bn in Johannesburg, while Tshwane’s water losses are averaging R1.9bn a year.
In his state of the nation address last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged the gravity of the problem, saying he would personally take charge of a national water crisis committee.
A lack of sanitation has led to protests across the province by angry residents.
Gauteng government spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said last week that members had been meeting daily. The war room let them “pool resources and have one central point of understanding” of the province-wide crisis.
“We get reports from the five corridors of the province. We identify hot spots. We deploy teams to attend to those hot spots,” Mhlanga said.
Those deployed to the effort were senior officials who could act with urgency, and they had restored the water supply in several areas, including Midrand and Soshanguve, he added.
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